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Maps on Path to Mass Innovation

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the maps-rock dept.

Ryan MacCarthy writes "When Google and Yahoo! released their map APIs last week they unleashed a horde of hungry developers eager to integrate their data with the user-friendly maps. Brilliant hacks like Chicago Crime and Craigslist Real Estate are in the midst of switching over to the new API, while sites like MetroFreeFi use the new API to make it easier to find free wi-fi locations in US cities (San Francisco, for example). Imaginative developers, like Alan Taylor (Transparency concept), are digging deep into experimentation to dream up new uses for the maps. It's great to see the innovation when hacks turn to apps." I want to see Los Angeles maps of the action in James Ellroy's novels, and a national map of the worst, funniest tourist traps across the U.S.

13 of 153 comments (clear)

  1. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  2. Never mind maps... by TheSHAD0W · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Forget 2D maps. It's dead easy to play around with Google Earth - and you don't even need an API.

    Go 'head and try it. Save a location, or folder of locations, as a .kmz file. Then rename it to .zip and unzip it. You'll find a "doc.kml" file, xml-formatted, easy as pie to reverse-engineer and work with.

  3. With all this innovation... by ivan256 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ...why can't they figure out how to make it so you can get directions to a business by typing in the business name and having the mapping tool cross reference the yellow pages? Why should the user need to know the address?

    1. Re:With all this innovation... by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I can get this with Yahoo Yellow Pages. I enter my ZIP for a location, and business name for destination. It brings up a list of businesses, and I can follow a link for maps, follow yet another link for directions.

  4. Google Earth by jagorev · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Google Earth is even cooler than Google Maps. Why can't they release APIs for Google Earth? Imagine integrating Google Earth into a flight simulator. That's what I'd like to see.

  5. Bike/Run maps! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I want to see a map which lets me specify and measure out a route, for planning runs, bike rides, and other such sports. The goal isn't always to get from A to B!

    Ideally, the interface should allow me to highlight a route over existing roads, with fudging for off-road stretches. Locations of water fountains, food stores or restaurants, and bathrooms would be a major plus too. Does such a thing exist yet?

    1. Re:Bike/Run maps! by Oxen · · Score: 2, Interesting

      This already exists. http://www.sueandpaul.com/gmapPedometer/

      --
      First you animate. Then you SUSPEND!!!
  6. Campsites in Cornwall by amembleton · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This last weekend I was trying to use the Cornwall tourist board website to look for a campsite. The problem with it (apart from the search not working in Firefox), was that you couldn't see exactly where in Cornwall each campsite is.

    So, I have extracted the data of each site from the Cornwall tourist board website and have used it along with the Google maps API to create: Campsites in Cornwall

    By the way, Cornwall is in the south-west of England.

  7. Re:Land ownership / plot mapping by chill · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Volusia County, Florida has a basic version of this and has for some time.

    http://webserver.vcgov.org/Address.html

    Starting from the address page, enter a valid address like "544 s floyd cir deltona". This will give you everything on the property, including a rough sketch of the floor plan. Scroll all the way down to "PALMS Mapping" and you can work thru an interactive map of the city getting data on various parcels.

    -Charles

    --
    Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
  8. satellite-map mismatch of 0.1 to 2 kilometres by dankelley · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I've started using this, and there is a problem for close-up work. The satellite view is distorted by a kilometre or two in the rural region in which I am interested. It seems to be good to about 0.1 km in the city in which I live. I have not done enough testing to know what causes the problem, but it is not difficult to imagine that it's simply a lack of control points in rural areas.

    The upshot of this is that if you want to put location balloons on a satellite image, you may need to do some ad hoc adjustments to the latitude and longitude ... which I would guess you'll have to keep changing as google gradually improves the satellite presentation.

    I've started a thread on the topic on the google map api discussion group, and at least one other person has noticed the same problem.

  9. So when are we going to be able to see ... by constantnormal · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ... Google maps of fictional places? I can see all kinds of tie-ins to (e)book publishing -- imagine if the Marauder's Map in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets could be accessed by the reader at any point in the story, of the potential of interactive maps of Narnia or (Alice in) Wonderland in drawing the reader into the story a bit more, blurring the boundaries between reading and gaming.

    Seems like all it would take is for Google to accept the publisher's business, and post the maps.

  10. Google Maps is cool by multiplexo · · Score: 3, Interesting
    It's weird though what they will and won't let you view. You can't see the roof of the White House but you can look at the NSA activity out at Yakima Firing Center in Washington.

    I'd like to see the next dimension that Google Maps add be time. It would be cool if it were possible to have all of the satellite imagery from the last 40 years or so going right up to today with a fleet of googlesats providing near real-time imagery and then scroll through it all. Man, this makes me wish I were smart enough to work at Google.

    --
    cheap labor conservatives - they want to keep you hungry enough to be thankful for minimum wage.
  11. Re:Funny you should mention that... by randomiam · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I was thinking of something like that, only the airspace over Niagara Falls itself is highly restricted, yet the photos are clear as can be. Also, there are high res images of other places which for sure have overflight restrictions, like airports. This composite of BOS was for sure not taken from an airplane (you can zoom in on the airplanes on final).

    Maybe someone will know for sure out there, but aren't the keyhole satelites capable of resolving down to 1 meter? I thought the high resolution images were from satelites.