Google Maps Mania

Google Maps and Rumsey Historical Maps

2008-05-12T14:32:00.004-05:00

David Rumsey's amazing collection of historical maps has been available as a layer on Google Earth since 2006. Now they are available on Google Maps!

The David Rumsey Google Map Collection contains an amazing 120 historical maps overlaid on Google Maps. For, example, the screen shot above shows an 1832 map of London overlaid on the current Google Map of London (it also reveals that my house in east London was been built on top of a marsh). Each map's transparency can be adjusted with a slider button, so it is possible to find a location on the present Google Map before overlaying the historical map.

Highlights of the new maps include the first accurate survey of Yosemite Valley, California, from 1883, maps of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Washington DC, Denver, Chicago, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Calcutta, Lima, Paris, Madrid, Rome, Beijing, Tokyo, Kyoto, and more – all from times ranging from the 18^th to the 20^th centuries.

Via: Google LatLong: New Rumsey Historical Maps and new ways to view them

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Video Sharing on Google Maps

2008-05-12T02:47:00.010-05:00

myTAGeo

myTAGeo takes videos and web cams from multiple video sharing sites and adds them to a Google Map. Users can create their own map of their own videos or add videos from any of the major video sharing sites. The address of the map can then be shared with friends and family or the map can be embedded into a web page or blog.

When videos are tagged they also appear in the World Map, a map of all the submitted videos.

As well as tagging videos to a Google Map it is possible to create a map of web cams. This Wave Map, for example, is a map of surf cams in California.

Other Video Maps

Seero - live video tracking on a Google Map (see example below)
Virtual Tourism - my own video mapping site
TURNHERE - a travel and video site
Virtual Video Map - a Google Map of videos from around the world
Venividiwiki - a travel site that includes a number of videos

Seero are broadcasting live this week from Where 2.0 in California. For the occasion they have created this embeddable player.

Via: Ogle Earth

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Twitter on Google Maps

2008-05-10T10:46:00.003-05:00

Twitter Spy

Twitter Spy is a new rival to TwitterVision. Twitter Spy, like Twitter Vision, is a Google Map showing in real-time the latest messages on Twitter.

However, whereas as TwitterVision displays real-time messages on a full-screen Google Map, Twitter Spy uses a smaller map and utilises the remaining screen space to display the latest tweets outside of the map (check the screenshot above).

The avatar of each member's message is tagged on the map and the map recentres on the location of each member when a new message is posted. Twitter Spy also catches any URL's posted by users and the latest ones are posted in a sidebar.

Other Twitter Maps

TwitterVision
- the original real-time map of tweets
Create Your Own Twitter Map - a great article on how to create your own Twitter Map by Tony Hirst
Twitters - a Twitter map which shows the plotted Twitter members in a sidebar beside the map

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Google Maps Mashup Roundup for the Netherlands

2008-05-09T02:20:00.008-05:00

Amsterdam Helicopter Game

I love this helicopter game!

In the game you get to fly a helicopter around Amsterdam visiting various bars and restaurants - and who wouldn't want to do that?

The address of the bar you have to find is displayed on the screen and its location is shown by a little red dot on the map. When you find the bar another bar or restaurant address appears. If you can't find a bar or restaurant you can use one of your three wild-cards and move onto the next bar. What's more you can add any of the bars and restaurants to your list of favourites.

Absolutely awesome! But remember kids don't try this for real.

Nomadic Milk Shopping

If flying a helicopter is not your kind of thing perhaps you would enjoy a more leisurely journey by milk cart.

Nomadic Milk Shopping is a 'GPS docu-fiction' by Esther Polak. The central theme of this 'docu-fiction' is the Opzeeland Dairy Route by night. Essentially Esther seems to have followed a mail cart on its night route and filmed the experience.

The route of the milk cart has been synchronised to the video so as you watch Esther's docu-fiction you can follow the current location of the film on a Google Map.

Kunst op de Kaart

Kunst op de Kaart is a Google Map showing over 2000 Museums and Art Galleries in the Netherlands. The museums are tagged on a Google Map and details of each museum is given in a handy sidebar. When you click on a museum in the sidebar its location is highlighted on the map. If you click on a tag an information window opens containing a link to the website of that museum.

HEBUUV

Heebuv is a concept for including location specific chat on Google Maps. Currently the site is only a demonstration of how the concept might work. Active discussions are tagged on a Google Map. Clicking on a tag opens the chat feature, where you can read the discussion so far and add your own comments.

At the moment the site doesn't include the ability to start your own chat, but the idea is that users will be able to click anywhere on the map to start their own discussion.

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New - 'Explore this Area' Feature in Google Maps

2008-05-08T02:37:00.004-05:00

Explore this Area

Google Maps has added a great new option in Google Maps to explore an area through photographs and YouTube videos. Now when you do a location search in Google Maps you are given the option to 'Explore this Area'. When you choose this option photos from Panoramio and videos from YouTube can be loaded onto the map.

As has become Google's custom this new feature is introduced with a video -

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Google Maps Mashup Roundup for 7 Countries!

2008-05-07T19:49:00.003-05:00

Time to get caught up on some newly introduced Google Maps mashups from the following countries: UAE, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Brazil, Korea, Turkey, China. If you know of any other new maps mashups from these countries, please post a comment below! :)

Brazil: Philips maps digital tv signal reception quality:

Brazil: imobilien real estate mashup
Brazil: Mapia is a city guide for 16 Brazilian cities
Turkey: Emlak Haritam is a Turkish real estate mashup
Singapore: PropertyGuru maps for sale and rent properties
China: Chinese real estate mashup
UAE: Places.ae uses Google Maps
UAE: Dubai City info Google Maps mashup
India: SadakMap lets public/private groups blog on a Google map
Malaysia: Mapdoo lets you create your own map
Worldwide: Falamosportuges maps Poruguese language businesses
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GeoGraffiti

2008-05-06T15:03:00.004-05:00

GeoGraffiti

GeoGraffiti describes itself as a "free verbal message board for exchanging location-specific community information." In essence it is a location based social community built on Google Maps - but with a big difference - users geographically tag a Google Map with voice messages from their cell phones.

The video below has a good example of one possible use of GeoGraffiti. Suppose you are on your way to work and you hit traffic, how do you warn other drivers? Well with GeoGraffiti you can use your cell phone to leave a voice message on a Google Map informing other users of the problem.

The big advantage of GeoGraffiti over other social community Google Maps mash-ups is exactly this kind of situation. When a user does not have access to a computer keyboard they can still geographical tag a Google Map with a voice message. This video gives other examples of how GeoGraffiti could prove invaluable to its users:

GeoGraffiti certainly has the features to make it a useful social sharing site. Users can define the geographical area they are interested in, they can become fans of users whose messages they like, they can refine their search of voice messages by 'most popular' or 'most recent'.

As with all social community sites GeoGraffiti is dependent on users. If the site garners a number of enthusiastic early users this site could really take off.

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Google Maps in Webby Award Winners

2008-05-06T10:19:00.011-05:00

The Webby Awards for 2008 were announced today. Four of the winners use Google Maps:

Chow- the People's Voice Winner in the Food and Beverage section
Yelp - the Webby Award Winner in the Guides / Ratings / Reviews section
Trulia - the People's Voice Winner in the Real Estate section
Kayak - the People's Voice Winner in the Travel section

Chow

Chow is a great website for anyone who loves food. The site is full of recipes, food discussion boards, videos and restaurant and bar guides.

The restaurant and bar guides are of course driven by Google Maps. Each geographical area covered gets its own Google Map. The location of bars and restaurants are tagged on the map like many other review sites. However what sets Chow apart is that you can narrow the tagged search results by nearly a hundred different categories of food, from Afghan to Vietnamese. I know when I'm searching for a restaurant I tend to be concerned first with the location and then with the type of food I would like. It is therefore invaluable to be able to quickly see, for example, all the sushi restaurants in the Bay Area.

Yelp

By coincidence Yelp also tags restaurants on Google Maps. Similarly the restaurants on Yelp can be searched by location and the search results narrowed by a huge number of different categories. Yelp's big selling point is the huge number of user submitted reviews that are available for most of the listed restaurants.

Yelp was first reviewed on Google Maps Mania way back in November 2005.

Trulia

Trulia is a real estate website that uses Google Maps to show the location of available properties. The search results can be narrowed by location and by price.

Trulia also recently added a street view option (where available). Which means you can now virtually explore an area you are interested in before visiting for real.

Trulia was originally reviewed in October 2005.

Kayak

Kayak is a travel search engine that searches hundreds of travel sites from all over the world for flights, hotels and rental cars. The hotel section of the site utilises Google Maps to show the results of hotel searches.

Clicking on a tagged hotel on the map opens an information window revealing the cost per night and the hotel's star rating.

Kayak is also used in a website we reviewed on Monday called MapifiedKayak .

Congratulations to all four winners!

Hubble Birthday

2008-05-06T03:34:00.004-05:00

Interacting Galaxies Map

April 24th was the 18th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Telescope. To mark the occasion NASA and ESA released a series of images of interacting galaxies. Some day these new images will be added to Google Sky. However if like me you can't wait for Google to update its Sky imagery you can view some of the new images on this Google Map of interacting galaxies.

I have to add the disclaimer that this map is one that I put together myself. I produced the map by overlaying the Hubble images on Google Sky. The images are loaded onto the map via a KML of the interacting images. This means that you can also view the images in Google Earth.

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A Spain Google Maps Mashup Roundup (May/08)

2008-05-06T01:00:00.000-05:00

Spain continues to be a source for great Google Maps mashups! It has produced some of the greats of the Google Maps mashup world: Panoramio, Tagzania and Wikiloc (to name just a few). The great mashups continue with more from great Spanish geo developers.. Keep it up Spain! :)

Live Spain Traffic Mashup:

David Fernandez has created a real-time mashup that monitors all traffic incidents across Spain. It even mashes up photos from Spain's own Panoramio! (Languages: Espanol, Valencia, Catala, English)

Anunciatupiso: Spain Housing Mashup - Anunciatupiso is a housing mashup that will let you search many Spanish web housing sources for pretty much any type of housing. This includes all types of residential and commercial housing). Search results are mapped or you can start out by exploring listings on the map instead. (Language: Espanol)

Balearic Islands Mashup: Ibiza - Mallorca - Menorca - Formentera

The Balearic Islands, between Spain and the North Africa coast are a travel mecca. Elena Vera has created a series of mashups for the 4 islands that make up the archipelago. The maps include an overlay of the municipal boundaries and placemarks for points of interest around the island. These points of interest include details of where towns and beaches are located along with lighthouses and ports, natural areas, places of cultural interest and events. All of this information is also available in KML format for a deeper dive using Google Earth. (Languages: English, Espanol, German)

Mallorca Island: Santa Ponsa Map - Here is another Google Maps mashup that will help you locate bars, restaurants, hotels etc.. for Santa Ponsa on the island of Mallorca. (Language: English)

Updates to Wikiloc - Jordi Ramot from Spain dropped me a line to let me know that Wikiloc now has over 10,000 GPS trails from across Spain and Europe. A revamped KML feed also makes it easy to discover tracks using Google Earth! I encourage people from all over the world to populate this fantastic service and share your trails! :) (Languages: English, Espanol, Catala, Galego, Euskaraz, Francais, Italiano, Svenska, Dutch )

Meneame Mapped stories and links - This Spanish equivalent of Digg maps it's popular stories and links by geo! (Language: Espanol)
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Get Gmapified with these great Google Maps mashups!

2008-05-05T07:00:00.001-05:00

I enjoy finding people who have a true passion for the Google Maps API. As always Google Maps Mania is as much about the people as it is the mashups so I'd like to introduce you to "Olbibigo" of Paris, France. Olbibigo (as he has asked to be called) is a software engineer-team leader and is one of those people with a passion for the Maps API and geo as a whole. I stumbled across a mashup created by him and blogged it on a links roundup post back in January. He had done a nice Google Maps + Kayak mashup called Mapified Kayak which is a wrapper for multiple destination/date searching on Kayak.com. Shortly after the post Olbibigo dropped me a line to inform me of 6 of his other Google Maps projects, which has since grown to 13.. I was amazed when I checked out his great, full featured and very useful mashups and decided they collectively demanded their own post.

Here are Olbibigo's Google Maps mashup creations.. Trust me here, looking through these and checking out the great UI and overall application for each of them is time well spent:

Mapified Kayak - As mentioned above, this is a wrapper for multiple destination/date searching on Kayak.com
ParisParis - A self-described "social mashup" that helps people in Paris find just about anything by adding/removing layers! Check out the awesome info-window/bubbles atop the very unique map markers.. There is even an API that is provided for this as a web service!
Where are Trains - French rail mashup that lets you trace in real-time every TGV (french high speed trains) departing from and arriving to Paris. Olbibigo has built a tutorial to let you "add your own flavour to it". Be sure to check between 7.00am-23.30pm Paris time.
My Korea - This mashup instantly fills the Korean Google Maps mashup void. My Korea will help you to map and learn about Korean cities, transportation, parks, World Heritage Sites. Olbibigo even lets you explore Korea's past by overlaying a map from 1745 and its present by showing the places he has visited!
Overflown Countries - Add a start and end point for a long haul trip and learn all the countries your flight will pass over.. What an awesome tool!
RoadTrip in the USA and elsewhere - Similar to Overflown Countries this tool will work the same for road trips. Click a start and end point within the US, Canada or France and this tool calculates Google Maps directions, elevation and specific state, province and counties. Click "Animate" to watch a car trace the route right on the map. Nice work!
"Template" - Olbibigo's template that you can use as a starting point to build your own Google Maps mashup. From the page: "..To get all needed files, you can use the "Save as complete page" function of your current browser. You should get 6 files (with ".htm", ".js", ".css" and ".png" extension)."
I Need a Bike - A bicycle rental mashup for companies and several cities throughout France: Vélib' in Paris, Vélo'v in Lyon and Le Vélo in Marseille (Fr). There is an insane amount of information that is on offer here in a beautifully designed UI
Mapified RSS - This is a cool geo tool that lets you paste in an RSS feed URL to instantly map the locations of the posts/news articles.
Mapified Stock Indices - Map daily changes to the asian stock indice.
My Local News - This mashup takes your IP address (if available) and matches it with local news for that geo.
GMapsPolyTool - A tool to let you easily draw and encode polylines and polygons.
GoogleMaps vs YahooMaps - Compare the two maps services.

Keep a close eye on the page I've pulled these links from as Olbibigo creates more Google Maps tools and mashups.. You'll enjoy a special section at the bottom of the page: "The 5 most impressive and/or useful Google Maps mashups I've ever seen ... until now".

Well done! Keep the the great mashups coming Olbibigo! :)
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Indian Google Maps Mashup Roundup!

2008-05-05T02:26:00.005-05:00

Mapofi

Mapofi is a real estate website for India and Dubai. The mapped properties are searchable by location and by type of property, and search results are tagged on a Google Map. Clicking on a property tag opens a window with images and information about the chosen property.

It is also possible to search the area around properties for hospitals, government offices, landmarks, markets, banks, and churches and temples.

NewHomeGuide
NewHomeGuide is also a real estate website for the major Indian cities, but specialises in newly built homes. Cities are selected from a drop down menu. The map then shows the selected city and the newly built homes. Each property comes with a link to the website of the property developer.

The India Real Estate
The India Real Estate is a real estate listings website for the whole of India. The site's database of properties is searchable via a full screen Google Map. The initial map view shows individual properties tagged in red and clusters of properties tagged in blue. Clicking on a blue tag gives you the option to zoom in on the chosen area. Clicking on a red tag gives you the option to view the property details.

Find My Ghar

Find My Ghar is a real estate site for Bangalore. Users can post a property for sale and the property then appears on a Google Map of available properties. Clicking on a tag opens a window with the property details. There is also the option for users to add a comment to each property.

This site also has a very useful option to receive e-mail alerts for chosen areas. To receive an alert of new properties you can select areas on a Google Map and the areas you have chosen are then shaded on the map.

Homeineasy
HomeinEasy is a classified real estate website for the city of Pune in India. A Google Map of Pune is provided with different districts of Pune represented by a small house-shaped tag on the map. Clicking on a tag will take you to a listing of available properties in the chosen district.

Map My Temple
Map My Temple is a user submitted Google Map of temples in India. Users can submit photographs and details of temples and plot their location on a Google map.

The home page of the site shows a Google Map of all the submitted temples. Clicking on a tab of an individual temple opens an information window with a short description of the temple and a photograph. Clicking on the photograph takes you to an individual page on the chosen temple. The page contains a fuller description and a zoomed in Google Map of the temple's location.

Need Grub
Need Grub is a restaurant review site for India. Google Maps of individual Indian cities and districts within cities are provided with all the restaurants tagged. Clicking on a tag provides you with the address of the chosen restaurant and a link to a page of user reviews.

Each restaurant is given its own page with a small Google Map showing the restaurant's location. The page contains ratings of cost, service, hygiene, ambience and overall value as well as user submitted reviews.

Eatables
Eatables is a directory of hotels and restaurants in Chennai and Kolkata. A map of each city is provided with individual locations tagged on the map. The tags are colour coded by category, showing restaurants, hotels, cafes and pubs.

Each tag contains a brief description of the restaurant and a link to a forum discussion of that venue. Users can submit restaurants themselves by clicking on a location on a Google Map and completing a simple form.

Indian Premier Cricket League
Indian Premier Cricket League is another Google Maps Mash up from the prolific Virender Ajmani. Virender's Google Map shows the home grounds of each of the Indian Premier Cricket teams. Clicking on one of the tagged grounds zooms the map into a satellite image of the clicked ground. An information window gives details of the chosen team, the latest news via RSS and even includes an embedded video about the team.

Previous Indian Google Map Mashups

The first Indian Google Maps Roundup
Three More Indian Google Maps Mashups

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Google Maps as an Election Predictor

2008-05-02T11:30:00.006-05:00

London Mayoral Election Map

The BBC have created a map for the London Mayoral election which allows users to predict who they think will win. Users set their location on the map, say who they are going to vote for and leave a comment.

The tag for each user is colour-coded depending on their chosen preference. It is therefore possible to get a fair idea of how the election might pan out just by looking at the map.

At the moment the map seems to be suggesting a lead for Boris Johnson (in blue) over Ken Livingstone (in red), which seems to be in line with what the pollsters are predicting.

The London Mayor election results are expected in about two hours from now, so we should soon be able to tell how accurate a prediction method a user-contributed Google election map can be.

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Community Mapping the World

2008-05-02T03:33:00.005-05:00

Two new websites have decided to enter the already crowded community mapping arena. Just two days ago we reviewed ZoomAndGo, a social network of reviews, photos and videos of global locations tagged on a Google Map, and now today we have learned of two more community maps.

iGuide

iGuide takes a different approach to community mapping than ZoomAndGo. Rather than trying to create their own community of users the iGuide takes advantage of the many existing community generated websites that already exist, like Wikipedia and YouTube.

iGuide boasts that its Google Map includes reviews of over 16,000 destinations around the world. Each destination is tagged on the map with a little red dot. When you click on the red dot you are then inundated with information about the location. You can choose between reading a Wikipedia article, viewing YouTube videos or just browsing through photographs of the location.

Each location also carries links to flight and hotel booking websites. So the iGuide could prove invaluable in helping you plan and book your summer vacation.

MAPme

MAPme is a community mapping site that can help you create your own Google Map and share your creation with the world. Users can create Google Maps of their favourite places, their travels or create a community map with their friends.

Users can add photos and video to their maps, apply categories and tag hotspots on their map. Each user created map includes other social networking features, such as the ability to enable comments or allow others to embed the map in a blog or website or export the map data to Google Earth or a Sat Nav device. The site also promises that in the near future members will be able to add their maps to Facebook.

Via: Mapperz

Real Time Ship Tracking on Google Maps

2008-05-01T02:54:00.005-05:00

Hi-Def San Francisco

Hi-Def San Francisco have created an amazing Google Map that tracks in real time all the ships in San Francisco Bay. Every commercial vessel, and some large pleasure craft, in the bay transmit their position using AIS, which allows Hi-Def to up-date the position of ships on the map every 15 seconds.

Hi-Def also takes a photograph of every vessel as it crosses an imaginary line between the camera and the Trans America building. This means that when you click on a tagged ship on the map you can actually see a recent photograph of that very ship. As well as a recent picture, each vessel is tagged with its type, e.g tug, tanker etc, its current speed and its current heading.

If that isn't enough for you Hi-Def have also created an amazing Quick-Time video of a day's traffic tracked on a Google Map and this image of 30 day's cumulative traffic:

This image is cropped from the much larger original at Hi-Def San Francisco.

I could sit and watch this all day.

Other Ship Tracking

Hurtigruten - Scandinavian ship tracking

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GTA IV Liberty City Google Map

2008-04-30T04:53:00.003-05:00

Grand Theft Auto Google Map

I wondered how long it would be until a Google Map of GTA IV would appear. The answer was not very long, with IGN entertainment being the first off the mark with this user contributed map.

IGN have created image tiles from the static GTA IV Liberty City map to create an interactive map using the Google Maps API. The map includes a large number of selectable layers organised into different categories; Points Of Interest, Restaurants, Shopping, Services, Entertainment and Nightlife, Emergency Services, Missions, Items, Vehicles, Secrets, Multiplayer and NPCs.

Registered users of the site are able to add markers to the map by right clicking on the map and logging in. This should mean that map will become more and more detailed over time.

So if you are searching for something in this huge new game IGN probably has it mapped.

Zoom and Go on Google Maps

2008-04-30T03:21:00.004-05:00

ZoomAndGo

ZoomAndGo is an impressive social network for tourists and travellers that says it has "the largest collection of user generated travel pictures and videos in the travel industry."

Google Maps plays a central role in accessing ZoomandGo's huge collection of user submitted video and images. The front page of the site features an attractively designed Google Map which showcases the 'most recent', the 'most popular' and the 'editor's picks' of all the submitted content. It is also possible to filter the results by video or picture.

Thumbnails of the tagged videos and pictures are presented in a scrollable bar below the map so it is possible to navigate by the tags on the map or via the thumbnails. When you click on a tag the photo or video opens in an information window.

As well as its impressive use of Google Maps to showcase user submitted content ZoomAndGo also provides Google Maps for individual locations around the world. Each location is given a Google Map with a large number of categorised layers, such as 'building and landmarks', hotels, arts and museums, 'events' etc. Each layer can be turned on or off, so it is possible to view a layer on its own or in combination with any of the other layers.

With ZoomAndGo it is therefore possible to find hotels and places to see on a Google Map and then search the huge collection of photos and videos to view the destination before booking or visiting.

As the site says, 'Live it. Rate it. Shoot it. Share it.'

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Driving Directions with Street View on Google Maps

2008-04-29T10:53:00.002-05:00

Google Maps have added a street view option to driving directions on Google Maps. Where street view is available a small camera now appears next to each step in the driving directions given by Google.

When you click on the camera a street view window appears with a blue line marking your route and a big white arrow points you in the right direction. When you arrive at a junction a message appears telling you which direction to turn.

This video from Google explains it much better:

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Italian Maps Round-Up

2008-04-29T05:19:00.006-05:00

360 Tuscany

Tuscany has to be one of the most beautiful areas in the world. If you've never had the opportunity to visit this region of Italy, or if have and you wish to be reminded of its beauty then visit Tuscany 360.

360 Tuscany provides a large number of interactive 360 degree panoramic images of the Tuscany region in Italy. It includes panoramas for Assisi, Cortona, Elba, Florence, Lucca, Montepulciano, Perugia, Pisa, San Gimignano and Siena. Each town has its own Google Map on which the available panoramas are tagged. When you click on a tag the selected panorama opens. Bellisimo!

Vinix
Vinix is an Italian social network site designed exclusively for social eaters and drinkers. Users share reviews of restaurants and cafes. The site uses Google Maps to show the locations of both the restaurants reviewed and the locations of its users.

Piste Ciclabilli

With the Italians love for cycling no round-up of Italian map mash-ups would be complete without a bike route map. Piste Ciclabilli provides a Google Map of the whole of Italy. When you click on a region you are then taken to a map of that region with all the routes indicated by a yellow bike tag. Clicking on a tag take you to a map of your chosen bike route.

The site also includes photos, a cycling Wiki and a forum.

Kannunci
Kannunci is an Italian classified ads service. The site is free for users to post classified ads of anything they want to sell and the location of the seller is tagged on a Google Map.

OltrepEAT
OltrepEAT is a tourist site promoting the Oltrepò region in Italy. The site contains interactive Google Maps showing bike routes, green hotels, restaurants and vacation destinations in the region. The site also contains an event calendar for the Oltrepò region.

MrHouse
Mr House is an Italian real estate site that uses Google Maps to show the locations of properties for sale. Each house is given its own Google Map so you can quickly plan which houses you wish to view.

Termovalorizzatori
'Termovalorizzatori' in Italian means 'incinerators that are able to produce energy from waste combustion'. This Italian site hopes to support the management of municipal waste by providing a Google Map of available termovalorizzatori.

As well as an Italian map there is a map of Europe's waste management sites. When you click on a tagged waste management site on the map you are given details of the air emissions from that site.

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Google Maps Reviews

2008-04-28T03:38:00.002-05:00

When you use the 'Find businesses' option in Google Maps the search results normally come with reviews. Google retrieves the reviews from lots of different web sites. Of course those web sites in turn often embed Google Maps in their reviews.

If you are thinking of eating out or booking a hotel then these sites are a great resource to help you make the best choice.

Here is a quick breakdown of a number of sites that appear in Google Local Search reviews who also use Google Maps in their sites:

Qype

Qype claims to be the largest user-generated local review site in Europe but actually reviews restaurants, bars and businesses throughout the world. Like many of the sites that are featured in Google Maps' reviews Qype is built on user-generated reviews and recommendations.

It is possible to search Qype by area. If you choose this option Qype displays a Google Map with tags of local businesses. Clicking on a tag will take you to the reviews of that business and a zoomed in map of its location.

Dine.com - Dine.com allows users to search restaurants by type and location. You can search by type of restaurant and location, e.g pizzerias in New York. Dine.com features user submitted reviews.

InsiderPages - InsiderPages returns user reviews of local businesses. Like Dine.com it is possible to search on a Google Map by type of business and location.

ViewLondon - ViewLondon provides user reviews of restaurants, bars and clubs in London. Search results are tagged on a Google Map and it is possible to search for similar venues near by.

GrayBoxx - GrayBoxx also utilises user reviews but also uses its own 'PreferenceScoring' system for local businesses. Individual search results are tagged on a Google Map.

11870 - 11870 similarly contains user reviews of places and services. Users can also submit photos and videos. Results of searches can be viewed on Google Maps.

TravelPost - TravelPost provides user reviews of hotels around the world. Individual hotels are tagged on a Google Map.

Mobil Travel Guide - Mobil Travel Guide provides hotel reviews from Mobil’s own hotel inspectors. Hotels are then tagged on a Google Map.

Previously featured on Google Maps Mania
Yelp - User generated reviews of local businesses.
Judy’s Book - An on-line community of user recommendations.
Trip Advisor - User generated reviews of hotels and vacations around the world.

Google Maps Tracking War Criminals

2008-04-27T04:00:00.003-05:00

Wanted for War Crimes

We have gone a bit overboard this week looking at Crime Maps on Google Maps Mania but this War Criminals Map from the Aegis Trust is tracking criminals of a different order.

Sunday 27 April is the first anniversary of two indictments issued by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity committed in Darfur. The two suspects – Sudan’s Humanitarian Affairs Minister, Ahmed Harun, and Janjaweed leader Ali Kushayb are still at large. The Aegis Trust have therefore produced this Google My Map to track the last known movements of the two men.

“The men on the watch list are suspected of hundreds of thousands of murders,” said Dr James Smith, Chief Executive of the Aegis Trust. “Someone, somewhere, knows where they are. They shouldn’t be allowed to live out their last days in luxury. Their future lies in a courtroom. That’s what their victims deserve.”