8 Beautifully Designed Maps
With so many websites using Google Maps to create mashups, a lot of online maps are starting to look the same. But there are a few who are addressing both form and function to create maps that are both eye-catching and useful.
Get London Reading has mapped more than 400 books about or set in the city, using book covers as markers. The surrounding image, a pair of hands holding a book, heightens the creative design of the map.
Also illustrating the beauty of London is this map of the London Tube system. It is remarkable in that is so much more visually interesting than the flat map Londoners are used to seeing. The 3D rendering includes landmarks like the London Eye, Big Ben and London Bridge.
It's no secret that Capitol of Punk is more than your average map. The Museum of Modern Art recently included it in its Design and the Elastic Mind exhibition along with 13 other map mashups.
The zip codes of the United States never looked better than they do at zipdecode. The interactive map lets users type any zip code and as each one of the five digit numbers number is entered, the star-like dots fade away to reveal the intended area.
Wilshire Boulevard, like Sunset Boulevard and many other streets in Los Angeles, is a long stretch of road whose character changes many times within a short drive. Curating the City captures the essence of the avenue in its illustrated and interactive map.
MappedUp has been referenced here before as an innovative way of visualizing the news, but its bold color scheme and clever animations make its design worth reemphasizing.
Stamen Design, whose Trulia Hindsight and Oakland Crimespotting maps have been featured this week, is clearly on to some something with their unique design approach to maps.
And to close out this week of maps, the following video is one of my favorite maps since I was young and my gift to all the 10,000 Words readers around the world:
This post is the fifth in a five-part series on maps. Previously: Maps! With Action!, Online tools for getting more out of maps, Exploring the Earth, Tracking down criminals with crime maps
Get London Reading has mapped more than 400 books about or set in the city, using book covers as markers. The surrounding image, a pair of hands holding a book, heightens the creative design of the map.
Also illustrating the beauty of London is this map of the London Tube system. It is remarkable in that is so much more visually interesting than the flat map Londoners are used to seeing. The 3D rendering includes landmarks like the London Eye, Big Ben and London Bridge.
It's no secret that Capitol of Punk is more than your average map. The Museum of Modern Art recently included it in its Design and the Elastic Mind exhibition along with 13 other map mashups.
The zip codes of the United States never looked better than they do at zipdecode. The interactive map lets users type any zip code and as each one of the five digit numbers number is entered, the star-like dots fade away to reveal the intended area.
Wilshire Boulevard, like Sunset Boulevard and many other streets in Los Angeles, is a long stretch of road whose character changes many times within a short drive. Curating the City captures the essence of the avenue in its illustrated and interactive map.
MappedUp has been referenced here before as an innovative way of visualizing the news, but its bold color scheme and clever animations make its design worth reemphasizing.
Stamen Design, whose Trulia Hindsight and Oakland Crimespotting maps have been featured this week, is clearly on to some something with their unique design approach to maps.
And to close out this week of maps, the following video is one of my favorite maps since I was young and my gift to all the 10,000 Words readers around the world:
This post is the fifth in a five-part series on maps. Previously: Maps! With Action!, Online tools for getting more out of maps, Exploring the Earth, Tracking down criminals with crime maps
Labels: maps
Friday, June 06, 2008
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Maps! With Action!
Google Maps helps you drive, but have you ever driven on a map? There are a number of driving simulators that use online map technology to provide a 2D driving experience. Map Channels' Street View Driver lets users get a first person perspective of driving down any of the cities mapped by Google Street View. It's not the exact sensation of driving, but users can accelerate and decelerate and turn left or right down any mapped street.
Geoquake kicks the concept into high gear (pun intended) by adding a virtual steering wheel and letting drivers pick their own car for a fast-paced drive through a number of cities, including Tokyo, Las Vegas and Manhattan. GoogleDrive is comparatively underwhelming, but it's still fun to zip the little car through any street mapped by Google.
For those who are better spectators than they are drivers, this mashup of a YouTube video of the recent Big Wheel Race in San Francisco with a Google Maps widget shows viewers the actual race while plotting its course on the adjacent map. The result is, dare I say, genius and the technology has practical applications in journalism.
The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race may be traveling the globe, but its impressive map remains in one place. The paths of competing yachts are tracked in real time on a Google Map with stats available for each vessel. As of this writing, the yachts are headed from New York to Nova Scotia and Team New York is narrowly ahead of Team Uniquely Singapore followed by Team Glasgow: Scotland with Style. It's exciting, kind of like watching a carnival's water pistol horse race.
The more literary inclined will enjoy We Tell Stories: The 21 Steps, a continuous story that unfolds over one map. The "digital fiction" work is inspired by The 39 Steps by John Buchan, but Buchan didn't have a Google Map. The story itself is a good read and definitely breathes new life into a well-worn medium.
If it's between 5:30 and 8:30 a.m. Central Time, you can find AirFox Live hovering over the virtual skies of Google Maps. Most TV stations have a news helicopter, but Fox News Chicago is making the most of theirs by streaming live video shot from the copter as it cruises the Illinois skies. When the cameras aren't rolling, the site has a live skyline cam and a slideshow of some of the best aerial views of the city.
This post is the fourth in a five-part series on maps. Previously: Online tools for getting more out of maps, Exploring the Earth, Tracking down criminals with crime maps
Geoquake kicks the concept into high gear (pun intended) by adding a virtual steering wheel and letting drivers pick their own car for a fast-paced drive through a number of cities, including Tokyo, Las Vegas and Manhattan. GoogleDrive is comparatively underwhelming, but it's still fun to zip the little car through any street mapped by Google.
For those who are better spectators than they are drivers, this mashup of a YouTube video of the recent Big Wheel Race in San Francisco with a Google Maps widget shows viewers the actual race while plotting its course on the adjacent map. The result is, dare I say, genius and the technology has practical applications in journalism.
The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race may be traveling the globe, but its impressive map remains in one place. The paths of competing yachts are tracked in real time on a Google Map with stats available for each vessel. As of this writing, the yachts are headed from New York to Nova Scotia and Team New York is narrowly ahead of Team Uniquely Singapore followed by Team Glasgow: Scotland with Style. It's exciting, kind of like watching a carnival's water pistol horse race.
The more literary inclined will enjoy We Tell Stories: The 21 Steps, a continuous story that unfolds over one map. The "digital fiction" work is inspired by The 39 Steps by John Buchan, but Buchan didn't have a Google Map. The story itself is a good read and definitely breathes new life into a well-worn medium.
If it's between 5:30 and 8:30 a.m. Central Time, you can find AirFox Live hovering over the virtual skies of Google Maps. Most TV stations have a news helicopter, but Fox News Chicago is making the most of theirs by streaming live video shot from the copter as it cruises the Illinois skies. When the cameras aren't rolling, the site has a live skyline cam and a slideshow of some of the best aerial views of the city.
This post is the fourth in a five-part series on maps. Previously: Online tools for getting more out of maps, Exploring the Earth, Tracking down criminals with crime maps
Thursday, June 05, 2008
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Online tools for getting more out of maps
Maps, video and geotagging are all coming together at Seero, a new video mapping site that aggregates citizen journalist-created video on a Google Map. Users can submit their geotagged video for archiving or broadcast it live. Casual visitors can browse video from all over the world, including footage of the Wailuku River in Hawaii and the Taj Mahal in India. The site is a little sparse right now, but shows great promise.
GPSed is also making use of geotagging by facilitating a place where users can upload photos onto a Google Map that corresponds to the exact location it was taken. A series of photos creates a mapped chronological line of the course of travel that others can later follow. Use of the site requires a GPS-equipped mobile device such as a Blackberry or Windows Mobile smartphone.
If you haven't had enough of geotagging, MetaCarta takes stories from news sources like Reuters and the Associated Press and plots them on an interactive Google Map. Clicking a link in the map markers directs users to a full version of the story with a small inset map of locations mentioned in the story. MetaCarta also suggests stories within the same region or of similar interest. Stories can be searched for by moving the map around or entering a specific location or keyword.
Geotagging stories is a growing trend in journalism, though honestly I have yet to completely wrap my head around the process. Click here for a primer on geotagging and be sure to read this thought-provoking editorial by Martin Stabe that questions the ethics of the process.
Away from the visuals and onto the audio. MyVox's API makes it less complicated for developers to integrate user-generated audio onto a map. Its Voice Map application lets users create a map and then provides a call-in number to add voice recordings to each marker(click here for a demonstration).
Lastly, the Static Map Wizard allows for creation of a Google Map without the need for messy JavaScript. Customizing the map only takes a few steps and the result is a map that can be embedded into any web site with just an URL and an <img> tag. A Google Map API key is required to embed the map and be obtained here.
This post is the third in a five-part series on maps. Previously: Exploring the Earth, Tracking down criminals with crime maps
GPSed is also making use of geotagging by facilitating a place where users can upload photos onto a Google Map that corresponds to the exact location it was taken. A series of photos creates a mapped chronological line of the course of travel that others can later follow. Use of the site requires a GPS-equipped mobile device such as a Blackberry or Windows Mobile smartphone.
If you haven't had enough of geotagging, MetaCarta takes stories from news sources like Reuters and the Associated Press and plots them on an interactive Google Map. Clicking a link in the map markers directs users to a full version of the story with a small inset map of locations mentioned in the story. MetaCarta also suggests stories within the same region or of similar interest. Stories can be searched for by moving the map around or entering a specific location or keyword.
Geotagging stories is a growing trend in journalism, though honestly I have yet to completely wrap my head around the process. Click here for a primer on geotagging and be sure to read this thought-provoking editorial by Martin Stabe that questions the ethics of the process.
Away from the visuals and onto the audio. MyVox's API makes it less complicated for developers to integrate user-generated audio onto a map. Its Voice Map application lets users create a map and then provides a call-in number to add voice recordings to each marker(click here for a demonstration).
Lastly, the Static Map Wizard allows for creation of a Google Map without the need for messy JavaScript. Customizing the map only takes a few steps and the result is a map that can be embedded into any web site with just an URL and an <img> tag. A Google Map API key is required to embed the map and be obtained here.
This post is the third in a five-part series on maps. Previously: Exploring the Earth, Tracking down criminals with crime maps
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
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Tracking down criminals with crime maps
There has been an explosion in crime maps since the creation of the venerated Chicago Crime some years ago, now a part of hyperlocal news site EveryBlock. Average Joes are also getting in the game with the creation of PostaCrime.com which solicits user-generated reports of crime around the country.
So far SpotCrime has done an even better of job aggregating crimes from around the nation in one convenient site, but there are a number of newspapers, TV stations, police agencies and community organizations that maintain far more detailed accounts of crime in their area. Here is a list of cities around the world whose criminal activity is currently tracked on a map.
If I missed one, please let me know and I will add it to the list.
The technology used to create the aforementioned crime maps varies from Google Maps mashups, some with databases attached, Flash animation, or proprietary software. Starting out with a simple, static map of crimes in your area is a less work intensive way to start crime mapping, if you haven't already. Searchable databases are the next step and requires some technical prowess. Whichever avenue is chose to document crime, it is destined to be better than the black and white police blotter hidden in the recesses of most newspapers.
This post is the second in a five-part series on maps. Previously: Exploring the Earth
So far SpotCrime has done an even better of job aggregating crimes from around the nation in one convenient site, but there are a number of newspapers, TV stations, police agencies and community organizations that maintain far more detailed accounts of crime in their area. Here is a list of cities around the world whose criminal activity is currently tracked on a map.
- Anchorage
- Anniston, Alabama
- Arizona
- Atlanta
- Bakersfield, Ca.
- Baltimore
- Berkeley
- Boston
- Copenhagen
- Córdoba, Argentina
- Dallas
- Delaware
- Evanston, Ill.
- Fresno
- Grand Rapids, Mich.
- Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
- Houston
- Kansas City
- London
- Los Angeles
- Memphis
- Napa Valley, Ca.
- Nashville
- The Netherlands
- New Orleans
- New York City
- Newark, NJ
- Oakland
- Orlando
- Paso Robles, Ca.
- Philadelphia (here and here)
- Richmond, Va.
- Sacramento
- San Joaquin County, Ca.
- Seattle
- Spokane
- Tampa
- Toronto
- Washington D.C. (here and here)
- Wichita, Kansas
- Ypsilanti, Michigan
- Zurich
If I missed one, please let me know and I will add it to the list.
The technology used to create the aforementioned crime maps varies from Google Maps mashups, some with databases attached, Flash animation, or proprietary software. Starting out with a simple, static map of crimes in your area is a less work intensive way to start crime mapping, if you haven't already. Searchable databases are the next step and requires some technical prowess. Whichever avenue is chose to document crime, it is destined to be better than the black and white police blotter hidden in the recesses of most newspapers.
This post is the second in a five-part series on maps. Previously: Exploring the Earth
Labels: maps
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
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Maps: Exploring the Earth
Today begins the first in a five-part series exploring the wide range of maps and mashups available online. As evidenced by the amount of coverage maps are given at 10,000 words, it has become increasingly clear that they are essential tool in the multimedia journalist's arsenal. Plus "cartographer" looks good on anyone's résumé.
One cannot talk about online maps that explore the Earth without first discussing Flash Earth, an online, virtual satellite that lets the user zoom in and out to any location in the world. Site visitors can also toggle between a number of different maps from sources like Google Maps, Yahoo! and Ask.com in a wonderfully fluid interface.
GeoGarage has mashed up NOAA nautical charts and a Google map to create a visual directory of the waters of most of North America. Most importantly, the map allows for toggling between the two layers for greater reference.
WeatherMole plans to put weathermen out of business with its map that plots any given location on a map and then gives the area's five-day weather forecast in a few seconds. An even more detailed two-day forecast is available in a click.
If you're waiting for some daylight surfing in Biarritz or plan on capturing the sunset in Cameroon, DaylightMap will help by illustrating where the sun is shining around the world. Google Maps Nighttime! is perhaps the site's opposite and shows the world as it appears at night. The map is actually kind of magical, with the lights shining brightest in the U.S., Europe and Southeast Asia.
Many maps were created to illustrate where we, and the others around us, live and online maps are no different. Potential home buyers and renters have made great use out of HousingMaps which plots craigslist listings on a more user-friendly interface. USA Today recently mapped home foreclosures in Denver, illustrating a national problem. Real estate site Trulia has incorporated Google Street View to give home buyers a better sense of the neighborhood surrounding their potential home. It bears mentioning that more than 40 cities are now covered in Street View. Click over to Listropolis for a complete list of links to each city.
World maps are more than just for oohs and aahs. My noxon has mapped a large number of the world's radio stations into points that provide links so one can actually listen to each station's broadcast. Gas Buddy's National Gas Temperature Map illustrates the continuing crisis of rising gas prices here in the U.S. If you're living on the East or West coast where gas prices are highest, you might want to consider a move to Wyoming. At least with the aforementioned sites, you'll be able to find it on a map.
One cannot talk about online maps that explore the Earth without first discussing Flash Earth, an online, virtual satellite that lets the user zoom in and out to any location in the world. Site visitors can also toggle between a number of different maps from sources like Google Maps, Yahoo! and Ask.com in a wonderfully fluid interface.
GeoGarage has mashed up NOAA nautical charts and a Google map to create a visual directory of the waters of most of North America. Most importantly, the map allows for toggling between the two layers for greater reference.
WeatherMole plans to put weathermen out of business with its map that plots any given location on a map and then gives the area's five-day weather forecast in a few seconds. An even more detailed two-day forecast is available in a click.
If you're waiting for some daylight surfing in Biarritz or plan on capturing the sunset in Cameroon, DaylightMap will help by illustrating where the sun is shining around the world. Google Maps Nighttime! is perhaps the site's opposite and shows the world as it appears at night. The map is actually kind of magical, with the lights shining brightest in the U.S., Europe and Southeast Asia.
Many maps were created to illustrate where we, and the others around us, live and online maps are no different. Potential home buyers and renters have made great use out of HousingMaps which plots craigslist listings on a more user-friendly interface. USA Today recently mapped home foreclosures in Denver, illustrating a national problem. Real estate site Trulia has incorporated Google Street View to give home buyers a better sense of the neighborhood surrounding their potential home. It bears mentioning that more than 40 cities are now covered in Street View. Click over to Listropolis for a complete list of links to each city.
World maps are more than just for oohs and aahs. My noxon has mapped a large number of the world's radio stations into points that provide links so one can actually listen to each station's broadcast. Gas Buddy's National Gas Temperature Map illustrates the continuing crisis of rising gas prices here in the U.S. If you're living on the East or West coast where gas prices are highest, you might want to consider a move to Wyoming. At least with the aforementioned sites, you'll be able to find it on a map.
Labels: maps
Monday, June 02, 2008
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Creating Google Maps: The Red Light Project
I was driving around Los Angeles Tuesday afternoon and had some time to kill, so I made a detour to the UCLA campus with the intention of driving home soon after. I quickly realized I was near the westernmost part of world-famous Sunset Boulevard. I decided to travel the entire length of the winding road and take a photograph every time I stopped at a red light. Always a multimedia journalist, I decided I would later create a Google Map of the resulting photos and locations.
So in an unintentional finale to College Week at 10,000 words, here is my road trip from UCLA to Olvera Street near Downtown L.A.:
And now creating the map...
I wrote previously about quick ways to create a Google Map but now I will break down the process for a quick tutorial and demonstrate how easy it really is.
I take the images out of the iPhone, crop them for focus and upload them to the web. Because I did not geotag any of the 26 photos, I have to retrace my steps and catalog unfamiliar intersections. Once I have a handwritten list of locations that correspond to my photos, I am ready to start building.
I choose Google My Maps because it is easy to use and simple to draw lines on a map.
I give the map a title and a description. I decide to make it public so everyone can check it out.
I begin drawing lines to represent my trip down Sunset Blvd. The street is very curvy in parts so it takes a little more effort than I expected.
I place my first marker on the map at Cesar Chavez & Lyon in East L.A. and add a photo. It was the last stop on my trip and because I ended up listing the points in reverse order, I will work backwards to create the map.
As I'm placing the points I realize some of the lines are not exactly on Sunset, so I fix them along the way using the handles that appear when I rollover them.
28 points later, I'm done!
I click "Link to this page" to embed the map. I change the default size settings and set the zoom.
I copy the resulting code and place it into a new Blogger post. Voila! New Google Map!
So in an unintentional finale to College Week at 10,000 words, here is my road trip from UCLA to Olvera Street near Downtown L.A.:
And now creating the map...
I wrote previously about quick ways to create a Google Map but now I will break down the process for a quick tutorial and demonstrate how easy it really is.
I take the images out of the iPhone, crop them for focus and upload them to the web. Because I did not geotag any of the 26 photos, I have to retrace my steps and catalog unfamiliar intersections. Once I have a handwritten list of locations that correspond to my photos, I am ready to start building.
I choose Google My Maps because it is easy to use and simple to draw lines on a map.
I give the map a title and a description. I decide to make it public so everyone can check it out.
I begin drawing lines to represent my trip down Sunset Blvd. The street is very curvy in parts so it takes a little more effort than I expected.
I place my first marker on the map at Cesar Chavez & Lyon in East L.A. and add a photo. It was the last stop on my trip and because I ended up listing the points in reverse order, I will work backwards to create the map.
As I'm placing the points I realize some of the lines are not exactly on Sunset, so I fix them along the way using the handles that appear when I rollover them.
28 points later, I'm done!
I click "Link to this page" to embed the map. I change the default size settings and set the zoom.
I copy the resulting code and place it into a new Blogger post. Voila! New Google Map!
Labels: maps
Friday, April 25, 2008
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Building Google Maps in mintues
Breaking news stories are greatly enriched when paired with Google Maps. Car accidents, natural disasters, rallies and speeches, celebrity sightings and more all benefit from a small map that indicates their location. The Google Maps API is a great tool if you'd had experience using it, but there are a number of third-party applications that streamline the map-building process and facilitate and quicker move to the web when time is a factor. Below are some of the best tools for creating worry-free Google Maps.
Map Builder | www.mapbuilder.net
Special Features: Address search, Upload multiple locations (CSV file), Editable HTML code, customized controls
Atlas | www.fmatlas.com
Special Features: Novice-friendly simplicity, Address, business and Wikipedia search, Bulk uploader (CSV),
CommunityWalk | www.communitywalk.com
Special Features: Create paths, Color-coded or custom markers, Bulk upload (Excel), Export points, audio capabilities, social networking
Google My Maps | maps.google.com
Special Features: Create custom markers, lines and polygons, Add HTML, photo and video to pop up balloons, collaborate and share with others, Overlay additional content
YourGMap | www.yourgmap.com
Special Features: Novice-friendly simplicity, Export markers to CSV file, Customized controls and markers, Embed final map
If none of the aforementioned services floats your boat, Mashable has a list of 50+ Tools and Resources for Online Maps.
Map Builder | www.mapbuilder.net
Special Features: Address search, Upload multiple locations (CSV file), Editable HTML code, customized controls
Atlas | www.fmatlas.com
Special Features: Novice-friendly simplicity, Address, business and Wikipedia search, Bulk uploader (CSV),
CommunityWalk | www.communitywalk.com
Special Features: Create paths, Color-coded or custom markers, Bulk upload (Excel), Export points, audio capabilities, social networking
Google My Maps | maps.google.com
Special Features: Create custom markers, lines and polygons, Add HTML, photo and video to pop up balloons, collaborate and share with others, Overlay additional content
YourGMap | www.yourgmap.com
Special Features: Novice-friendly simplicity, Export markers to CSV file, Customized controls and markers, Embed final map
If none of the aforementioned services floats your boat, Mashable has a list of 50+ Tools and Resources for Online Maps.
Labels: maps, social networking
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
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Sports fans out of the bleachers, in front of computers
Sports journalism has an intrinsic fan base, so it only makes sense to parlay that readership into online sports communities.
Takkle, an offshoot of Sports Illustrated, is hooking them while they're young. The site has an active network of high school athletes and fans who can submit photos and video of their favorite teams or participate in throwdowns on just about any topic.
Impressively, the site ranks the top 25 basketball players and top 100 football players from high schools across the country. Takkle users can rate each player as over or underrated, view stats and debate the player's cred in the comments section.
Elsewhere on the site, SI.com's College Football's Greatest Rivalries video series is well-packaged and is sure to get football fans talking. All the greats are there including University of Florida v Florida State, USC v UCLA and Army v Navy. The opportunity to debate the prowess of one's home team exists elsewhere on the site at FanNation, but it would have been nice to have a comment section or direct link to each rivalry's discussion board to make the debate more immediate.
Bleacher Report is perhaps the best citizen journalism sports site not tied to a mainstream media outlet. In the vein of Associated Content, users can register and write their own sports-related articles, which, when posted, can be reviewed and rated by other users. Writers are free to speak their minds and throw unbiasedness out the window (especially today's front page story "ESPN: The Ultimate Hypocrite". Totally valid argument, but wow what a headline.) Bleacher Report covers most of the major sports, including football, basketball and soccer and its thriving community is making it one of the best on the web.
And because no post is complete without a good map, soccermap.net takes soccer league tables and plots them on a user-friendly map. The site is Europe-centric, but is very comprehensive and is RSS-enabled for news on any specific league. The site's stats can even be embedded as a widget on any webpage.
Read more about tackling the online sports section in this previous post.
Takkle, an offshoot of Sports Illustrated, is hooking them while they're young. The site has an active network of high school athletes and fans who can submit photos and video of their favorite teams or participate in throwdowns on just about any topic.
Impressively, the site ranks the top 25 basketball players and top 100 football players from high schools across the country. Takkle users can rate each player as over or underrated, view stats and debate the player's cred in the comments section.
Elsewhere on the site, SI.com's College Football's Greatest Rivalries video series is well-packaged and is sure to get football fans talking. All the greats are there including University of Florida v Florida State, USC v UCLA and Army v Navy. The opportunity to debate the prowess of one's home team exists elsewhere on the site at FanNation, but it would have been nice to have a comment section or direct link to each rivalry's discussion board to make the debate more immediate.
Bleacher Report is perhaps the best citizen journalism sports site not tied to a mainstream media outlet. In the vein of Associated Content, users can register and write their own sports-related articles, which, when posted, can be reviewed and rated by other users. Writers are free to speak their minds and throw unbiasedness out the window (especially today's front page story "ESPN: The Ultimate Hypocrite". Totally valid argument, but wow what a headline.) Bleacher Report covers most of the major sports, including football, basketball and soccer and its thriving community is making it one of the best on the web.
And because no post is complete without a good map, soccermap.net takes soccer league tables and plots them on a user-friendly map. The site is Europe-centric, but is very comprehensive and is RSS-enabled for news on any specific league. The site's stats can even be embedded as a widget on any webpage.
Read more about tackling the online sports section in this previous post.
Labels: maps, rss, social networking, video
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
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Taking Twitter to the next level (Part 2 of 2)
If you haven't already read yesterday's post on how journalists are using Twitter, check it out here
So you're twittering. Now what? It's time to take a look at sites that are making the most out of Twitter's ability to instantly transmit the news.
Instead of waiting for traffic updates online or via radio, some internet users are turning to Commuter Feed. The site lets Twitter users send updates about local traffic around the country directly to the site, where the feeds are searchable by city or metropolitan area.
Politweets tracks the political discussion happening in the Twitterverse by aggregating tweets about political candidates. The most recent tweets about Democratic candidates are on the left and Republicans are on the right. In the middle is a list of candidates positioned by how much they are being discussed (Barack Obama is currently at the top of the pile).
Because the web is all about citizen journalism, truemors is made up of news submitted by the average Joes and Janes of Twitter. It's kind of like a micro social news networking site that aggregates the content that people care about from a variety of news sources. Twemes is also a great way of indexing what people are talking about online. The site is useful for searching tagged tweets on any subject, like, for example, John McCain.
Twitterers are already discussing major news events, including Super Tuesday and Sunday's Academy Awards; it's just a matter of major news organizations grabbing the opportunity and creating their own news hubs.
Did you know Twitter isn't just for sending text? TwitPic and Twixtr both allow users to send photos either online or via mobile phone through Twitter. So instead of simply including links to new stories, anyone can add photos to accompany their tweets (and we know photos are a great visual attraction).
Twittervision combines Twitter and Google Maps to create a real-time visual idea of where tweets are coming from. The only requirement to appear on the site is a location and an image defined in your Twitter post. The 3D version is also worth a look, if only for the coolness factor.
Twittermap creates a visual display of geotagged tweets and can also be used to find Twitterers by location. Those familiar with data mashup editor Yahoo! Pipes can use geo twitter to get a geotagged feed of your Twitter posts, which can be displayed on a Yahoo or Google map.
Twitter draws a lot of comparison to Facebook's status updates (example on the right), so it make sense that Twitter also has its own Facebook application to keep friends and followers updated via the social network.
There are a lot of interesting and useful sites based on Twitter and with the Twitter API up for grabs, there is no reason that journalists can't be a part of the next evolution in news.
So you're twittering. Now what? It's time to take a look at sites that are making the most out of Twitter's ability to instantly transmit the news.
Instead of waiting for traffic updates online or via radio, some internet users are turning to Commuter Feed. The site lets Twitter users send updates about local traffic around the country directly to the site, where the feeds are searchable by city or metropolitan area.
Politweets tracks the political discussion happening in the Twitterverse by aggregating tweets about political candidates. The most recent tweets about Democratic candidates are on the left and Republicans are on the right. In the middle is a list of candidates positioned by how much they are being discussed (Barack Obama is currently at the top of the pile).
Because the web is all about citizen journalism, truemors is made up of news submitted by the average Joes and Janes of Twitter. It's kind of like a micro social news networking site that aggregates the content that people care about from a variety of news sources. Twemes is also a great way of indexing what people are talking about online. The site is useful for searching tagged tweets on any subject, like, for example, John McCain.
Twitterers are already discussing major news events, including Super Tuesday and Sunday's Academy Awards; it's just a matter of major news organizations grabbing the opportunity and creating their own news hubs.
Did you know Twitter isn't just for sending text? TwitPic and Twixtr both allow users to send photos either online or via mobile phone through Twitter. So instead of simply including links to new stories, anyone can add photos to accompany their tweets (and we know photos are a great visual attraction).
Twittervision combines Twitter and Google Maps to create a real-time visual idea of where tweets are coming from. The only requirement to appear on the site is a location and an image defined in your Twitter post. The 3D version is also worth a look, if only for the coolness factor.
Twittermap creates a visual display of geotagged tweets and can also be used to find Twitterers by location. Those familiar with data mashup editor Yahoo! Pipes can use geo twitter to get a geotagged feed of your Twitter posts, which can be displayed on a Yahoo or Google map.
Twitter draws a lot of comparison to Facebook's status updates (example on the right), so it make sense that Twitter also has its own Facebook application to keep friends and followers updated via the social network.
There are a lot of interesting and useful sites based on Twitter and with the Twitter API up for grabs, there is no reason that journalists can't be a part of the next evolution in news.
Labels: maps, photos, social networking, widgets
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
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Google Street View adds more cities
Congratulations to Albany and Schenectady, New York; Boise, Idaho; Juneau, Alaska; Kansas City, Missouri; Manchester, New Hampshire; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, North Carolina; San Antonio, Texas; Salt Lake City, Utah. You are the latest additions to Google Street View! These locales join the more than 20 other cities to be invaded by the Google street team.
Google Street View provides 360° panoramic, street-level views with just a click, but it isn't the only service on the block. Gigapan users can upload panoramic images using pricey equipment or just an ordinary digital camera and a whole lot of patience. There is some exceptional photography on the site, including this photo of Burning Man and this one of the Sonoma County, Calif. coast.
Liebenthal, Kansas photographed by Gigapan user Ron Schott.
Immersive Media is proving panorama doesn't always mean long, flat images. The combination of video and 360° lets users experience a ski race from every possible angle, join a whale watching expedition, or experience the big game as the players see it.
For tips on creating panoramic images, check out this previous post.
Google Street View provides 360° panoramic, street-level views with just a click, but it isn't the only service on the block. Gigapan users can upload panoramic images using pricey equipment or just an ordinary digital camera and a whole lot of patience. There is some exceptional photography on the site, including this photo of Burning Man and this one of the Sonoma County, Calif. coast.
Liebenthal, Kansas photographed by Gigapan user Ron Schott.
Immersive Media is proving panorama doesn't always mean long, flat images. The combination of video and 360° lets users experience a ski race from every possible angle, join a whale watching expedition, or experience the big game as the players see it.
For tips on creating panoramic images, check out this previous post.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
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Super Tuesday Live!
Craving Super Tuesday results? Keep up with the latest totals below, courtesy of MSNBC.
More election goodness:
More election goodness:
- Super Tuesday Coverage Around the Web (Cybernet)
- Google Trends Predict Super Tuesday Outcome (Advertising Lab)
- Keeping Tabs on Super Tuesday (ReadWriteWeb)
- Google teams up with Twitter to make Super Tuesday geomap (Webware)
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
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Weather 2.0: Social and interactive
Poor weather. The size of the weather page is shrinking on newspapers across the country and the meteorological report is almost always at the end of the television newscast. Many radio stations still read the weather at the top of the hour, but that's been happening since Marconi pushed the on button. But there are a group of online sites that are bringing a new twist to an old phenomenon.
I didn't believe it when someone said at last year's Online News Association conference that old standby The Weather Channel/weather.com was also a social network, but indeed it is. Users can post photos and video of good and bad weather happening around them and discuss local climates on the site's message boards. In addition to its hour by hour, weekend, 10-day and monthly forecasts, Weather.com boasts interactive maps, a bookmark-worthy blog written by weather experts and meteorologists and other weather-related tidbits that are too numerous to mention.
By now you're familiar with the broadcast TV weather map that has the temperature of an area overlaid on a map of that area (i.e. 75° in Miami, 32° in Seattle). Weather Bonk has scaled that map down and made it available with just a click. Regional temperatures across the globe are plotted on an interactive Google Map, along with storm warnings and embedded webcams.
WunderCam and EarthCam also take advantage of webcams stationed around the country to display local weather condition. While the sites' individual coverage doesn't exactly blanket the United States, there are many webcams to choose from.
Do you love a good sunset? Wish the natural splendor of the sun setting on the horizon would last forever? Well, Eternal Sunset took this idea and ran with it. The site is collection of 266 webcams around the world, all facing west to capture the sun set in 48 different countries. Eternal Sunset also has two maps that assist in determining where the sun is setting at any given moment.
Sunset at 9 am PST, 6 pm Central European Time. From left, Carro, France, Santa Ponsa, Spain, Riederalp, Switzerland
Eternal Sunset Realtime Global Map
Several sites, including WeatherBug, RSS Weather and the aforementioned Weather Channel, are taking advantage of RSS technology to make up-to-the-minute weather alerts available through RSS feeds. Distributing something as useful as weather predictions through RSS is a great way to encourage users to subscribe to your content and is also a great branding tool.
I didn't believe it when someone said at last year's Online News Association conference that old standby The Weather Channel/weather.com was also a social network, but indeed it is. Users can post photos and video of good and bad weather happening around them and discuss local climates on the site's message boards. In addition to its hour by hour, weekend, 10-day and monthly forecasts, Weather.com boasts interactive maps, a bookmark-worthy blog written by weather experts and meteorologists and other weather-related tidbits that are too numerous to mention.
By now you're familiar with the broadcast TV weather map that has the temperature of an area overlaid on a map of that area (i.e. 75° in Miami, 32° in Seattle). Weather Bonk has scaled that map down and made it available with just a click. Regional temperatures across the globe are plotted on an interactive Google Map, along with storm warnings and embedded webcams.
WunderCam and EarthCam also take advantage of webcams stationed around the country to display local weather condition. While the sites' individual coverage doesn't exactly blanket the United States, there are many webcams to choose from.
Do you love a good sunset? Wish the natural splendor of the sun setting on the horizon would last forever? Well, Eternal Sunset took this idea and ran with it. The site is collection of 266 webcams around the world, all facing west to capture the sun set in 48 different countries. Eternal Sunset also has two maps that assist in determining where the sun is setting at any given moment.
Sunset at 9 am PST, 6 pm Central European Time. From left, Carro, France, Santa Ponsa, Spain, Riederalp, Switzerland
Eternal Sunset Realtime Global Map
Several sites, including WeatherBug, RSS Weather and the aforementioned Weather Channel, are taking advantage of RSS technology to make up-to-the-minute weather alerts available through RSS feeds. Distributing something as useful as weather predictions through RSS is a great way to encourage users to subscribe to your content and is also a great branding tool.
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
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2
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Politics as (un)usual
There are a number of sites popping up that will help you determine who you should vote for, based on your stance on a number of political issues, including The Candidate Match Game from USA Today, Connect2Elect and glassbooth. I've taken a couple of these quizzes and though I won't tell you who I'm voting for (this isn't a political blog), I will say that each online quiz I've taken has given me the exact same answer so I'm pretty confident going to the polls.
Wired ran a great story about how event sharing site Eventful helped bring John Edwards to Kentucky, a state oft neglected by presidential candidates. Sounds like the web is working, but Mashable points out that presidential candidates aren't actually personally invested in social media.
For those who want to take politics into their own hands, the good people at THUP have created an online game that lets users pick their candidates and the team behind them and campaign their way across the country, staking out political territory.
The Associated Press asked some of the presidential candidates their favorite and least foods (with amusing results). This naturally led Chow, a site for all things food previously mentioned here, to create an "Eat Sheet" that compared the candidates' tastes in one nifty chart. Mitt Romney loves hot dogs and Barack Obama loves chili. A match made in heaven?
Are you registered to vote? Are you sure? VotePoke will help anyone confirm if they are registered to vote for the upcoming election. I am newly registered after moving to a new home and the site did not have my information up, so I cannot verify if it actually works or not, but its worth a try.
Need more politics? Check out this previous post on tracking the presidential candidates online.
Wired ran a great story about how event sharing site Eventful helped bring John Edwards to Kentucky, a state oft neglected by presidential candidates. Sounds like the web is working, but Mashable points out that presidential candidates aren't actually personally invested in social media.
For those who want to take politics into their own hands, the good people at THUP have created an online game that lets users pick their candidates and the team behind them and campaign their way across the country, staking out political territory.
The Associated Press asked some of the presidential candidates their favorite and least foods (with amusing results). This naturally led Chow, a site for all things food previously mentioned here, to create an "Eat Sheet" that compared the candidates' tastes in one nifty chart. Mitt Romney loves hot dogs and Barack Obama loves chili. A match made in heaven?
Are you registered to vote? Are you sure? VotePoke will help anyone confirm if they are registered to vote for the upcoming election. I am newly registered after moving to a new home and the site did not have my information up, so I cannot verify if it actually works or not, but its worth a try.
Need more politics? Check out this previous post on tracking the presidential candidates online.
Labels: citizen journalism, maps
Monday, January 28, 2008
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6 (More) Notable Maps
The interactive map is the cornerstone of multimedia journalism. Here are some great online maps worth emulating:
Google is taking maps where no map has gone before with the addition of Google Moon, an interactive map that functions much like the company's other mapping technology. Amid the dark and cloudy surface of the moon are markers that show where previous space explorations have landed. Zoom out further and you'll see an ominous collection of craters.
Google Moon isn't the only map that rocks. Gruvr is a handy online tool for anyone searching for local music. The map plots out concerts happening near you and links to the bands' websites if they aren't exactly on your radar.
Rotten Neighbor lets users post comments about the people who live around them which are then plotted on a map. Some of the comments are alarming and a few are vindictive, but overall the site is a great place for a searchable database of not-so-neighborly rants.
Even more terrifying than a bad neighbor is the Global Incident Map which catalogs "terrorism and other suspicious events" on a surprisingly robust map. Surprisingly there are just about as many suspicious events happening in the US as there are in Europe and the Middle East, according to the site.
Ushahidi mashes up first hand accounts of violence in Kenya with a sobering Google map. Incidents including riots, deaths and looting and rape are plotted and accompanied by the tragic stories behind them.
Finally, the folks at World Wide Webfoot have painstakingly combined US Census Bureau data and interactive maps to great effect. The result is a visual idea of how the country is broken down by such as factors as population density, age and race.
Check out this previous post for nine more notable maps.
Google is taking maps where no map has gone before with the addition of Google Moon, an interactive map that functions much like the company's other mapping technology. Amid the dark and cloudy surface of the moon are markers that show where previous space explorations have landed. Zoom out further and you'll see an ominous collection of craters.
Google Moon isn't the only map that rocks. Gruvr is a handy online tool for anyone searching for local music. The map plots out concerts happening near you and links to the bands' websites if they aren't exactly on your radar.
Rotten Neighbor lets users post comments about the people who live around them which are then plotted on a map. Some of the comments are alarming and a few are vindictive, but overall the site is a great place for a searchable database of not-so-neighborly rants.
Even more terrifying than a bad neighbor is the Global Incident Map which catalogs "terrorism and other suspicious events" on a surprisingly robust map. Surprisingly there are just about as many suspicious events happening in the US as there are in Europe and the Middle East, according to the site.
Ushahidi mashes up first hand accounts of violence in Kenya with a sobering Google map. Incidents including riots, deaths and looting and rape are plotted and accompanied by the tragic stories behind them.
Finally, the folks at World Wide Webfoot have painstakingly combined US Census Bureau data and interactive maps to great effect. The result is a visual idea of how the country is broken down by such as factors as population density, age and race.
Check out this previous post for nine more notable maps.
Labels: maps
Friday, January 25, 2008
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Tackling the online sports section
Many of the web editors I've spoken to will cite the sports section as the hands down most popular section of their news site. Because of the power of the internet, sports can be a lot more than box scores and comments sections.
The Dallas Morning News' Cowboys Blog is a shining example of everything a blog should be. It's in depth coverage is complemented by stellar photographs, RSS feeds, and up to the minute scores. A handy calendar in the rail makes the blog searchable by date and visitors can receive Cowboys updates on their mobile device.
RUWT? (Are you watching this?) cuts through the 50 million sports channels and alerts you know when your game is getting good. Games are ranked Guarded, Elevated, High and Severe, which indicates a soon to be classic sports moment.
Totally Scored keeps track of the entire football/baseball/hockey/soccer/basketball game through RSS feeds. Users can select a feed dedicated to a sport or to a particular team. There a hundreds of teams to choose from which would satisfy any sports fan.
CollegeFanz puts sports into an interactive environment, which includes a virtual stadium and a customizable "dorm room." The site looks great and has some great features but those features aren't integrated into the site very well. Read a full review at Mashable.
I never was a big racing fan (okay lets face it, I couldn't stand it) until I lived and worked in NASCAR hotspot Daytona Beach, home of the International Speedway. As such, I get a real kick out of the Formula One Grand Prix Circuit map that shows satellite images of racetracks around the world. Include an aerial image of your local stadium and the fans will love you for it.
The Dallas Morning News' Cowboys Blog is a shining example of everything a blog should be. It's in depth coverage is complemented by stellar photographs, RSS feeds, and up to the minute scores. A handy calendar in the rail makes the blog searchable by date and visitors can receive Cowboys updates on their mobile device.
RUWT? (Are you watching this?) cuts through the 50 million sports channels and alerts you know when your game is getting good. Games are ranked Guarded, Elevated, High and Severe, which indicates a soon to be classic sports moment.
Totally Scored keeps track of the entire football/baseball/hockey/soccer/basketball game through RSS feeds. Users can select a feed dedicated to a sport or to a particular team. There a hundreds of teams to choose from which would satisfy any sports fan.
CollegeFanz puts sports into an interactive environment, which includes a virtual stadium and a customizable "dorm room." The site looks great and has some great features but those features aren't integrated into the site very well. Read a full review at Mashable.
I never was a big racing fan (okay lets face it, I couldn't stand it) until I lived and worked in NASCAR hotspot Daytona Beach, home of the International Speedway. As such, I get a real kick out of the Formula One Grand Prix Circuit map that shows satellite images of racetracks around the world. Include an aerial image of your local stadium and the fans will love you for it.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
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Elections 2.0: Tracking the Presidential candidates (Part 2)
I recently covered some elections-related sites that will aid in following the 2008 presidential candidates and as the Internet is ever changing here are a few more:
Many candidates are courting the young vote even more so than 2004's Vote or Die campaign. Mitt Romney has invited Jumpcut users to create his official campaign TV ad. So far the Romney camp has received more than 100 submissions, some of which are pretty good like this one and this one.
It seems like every candidate has a MySpace or Facebook page but kudos to Barack Obama for his presence on LinkedIn, the more professional social network. You can also find out who in your network supports Obama.
Yahoo! has partnered up with the Huffington Post and Slate to create a make-your-own debate that lets the user choose the candidates that they want to see go head to head on a particular issue. The site also incorporates Yahoo! Answers technology to let users post and answer election-related questions.
And because inspiration is knows no boundaries, check out Google's Australian election coverage which includes a Google map embedded with photos and other political content as well as the YouTube channels of various Australian political parties and RSS feeds.
Many candidates are courting the young vote even more so than 2004's Vote or Die campaign. Mitt Romney has invited Jumpcut users to create his official campaign TV ad. So far the Romney camp has received more than 100 submissions, some of which are pretty good like this one and this one.
It seems like every candidate has a MySpace or Facebook page but kudos to Barack Obama for his presence on LinkedIn, the more professional social network. You can also find out who in your network supports Obama.
Yahoo! has partnered up with the Huffington Post and Slate to create a make-your-own debate that lets the user choose the candidates that they want to see go head to head on a particular issue. The site also incorporates Yahoo! Answers technology to let users post and answer election-related questions.
And because inspiration is knows no boundaries, check out Google's Australian election coverage which includes a Google map embedded with photos and other political content as well as the YouTube channels of various Australian political parties and RSS feeds.
Labels: maps, rss, social networking, video
Monday, September 17, 2007
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Elections 2.0: Tracking the Presidential candidates
It's not to early to start pumping out 2008 election coverage. There are a number of sites cropping up all over the web that can be used as both inspiration and as a resource. The PrezVid blog picks up the slack where the YouTube debates left off by collecting videos of the candidates' speeches and public appearances. 2decide's interactive table makes finding a candidate's position on a variety of issues a little more simple, even if the candidates haven't quite figured it out themselves.
What would election coverage be without a few great maps? Map the Candidates tracks the location of presidential wannabes from both sides of the aisle. The site is comprehensive and frequently updated. This Google Map shows where Democratic candidate John Edwards' campaign spots are airing around the country and contains embedded YouTube videos.
TechPresident keeps tabs on election-related issues, but more importantly keeps a running tally on Democratic and Republican candidates' Facebook supporters, MySpace friends and YouTube views. In case you're curious, Senator Obama leads the pack in all three categories with Senator Clinton coming in a close second.
The Hitwise Election 2008 Data Center takes this methodology a step further by calculating the top Democratic and Republican websites (Obama and Ron Paul respectively). The site also gauges the top political websites and search terms.
According to a Read/Write Web post, Web 2.0 tools like Facebook and Digg favor Democratic candidates. Democrats outnumber Republicans 5-to-1 on Facebook and 3-to-1 on MySpace, according to the site. Speaking of which, be sure to catch the now delayed Republican YouTube debates November 28. Should be informative if not entertaining.
What would election coverage be without a few great maps? Map the Candidates tracks the location of presidential wannabes from both sides of the aisle. The site is comprehensive and frequently updated. This Google Map shows where Democratic candidate John Edwards' campaign spots are airing around the country and contains embedded YouTube videos.
TechPresident keeps tabs on election-related issues, but more importantly keeps a running tally on Democratic and Republican candidates' Facebook supporters, MySpace friends and YouTube views. In case you're curious, Senator Obama leads the pack in all three categories with Senator Clinton coming in a close second.
The Hitwise Election 2008 Data Center takes this methodology a step further by calculating the top Democratic and Republican websites (Obama and Ron Paul respectively). The site also gauges the top political websites and search terms.
According to a Read/Write Web post, Web 2.0 tools like Facebook and Digg favor Democratic candidates. Democrats outnumber Republicans 5-to-1 on Facebook and 3-to-1 on MySpace, according to the site. Speaking of which, be sure to catch the now delayed Republican YouTube debates November 28. Should be informative if not entertaining.
Labels: citizen journalism, maps, social networking, video
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
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Food 2.0: Restaurant reviews and recipes
Every mainstream newspaper and food magazine has a treasure trove of restaurant reviews and/or recipes that are, at the most, archived or stashed in a shoe box by some homely octogenarian. Its time to dust off those clips and put them to good use.
Instead of forcing readers to recall a restaurant they read some time ago, create an online database of your restaurant reviews. Maps would come in handy here especially if they are searchable by location and categorized by food type, atmosphere, price, etc. Yelp and Citysearch do this quite well (better than most media outlets anyway) for restaurants across the country. Both include both editorial and user reviews as well as photos and maps.
While we're on the subject of food (and because I'm getting hungry) I can imagine the tons and tons of recipes that have been written over the years that are sitting in the news library somewhere. Its time to put those babies online, and because this a multimedia world, why not show your readers how to make those recipes? My favorite part of the L.A. Times building was the test kitchen where all the recipes were cooked before they were printed. If you have such a space, or even a presentable kitchen, get a camera in there and show em how its done. Chow.com uses video to show its visitors how to butterfly a chicken, poach an egg and pimp a burger (?)
A great YouTube cooking lesson from Cooking with Kids after the jump.
Foodieview tackles both restaurant reviews and recipes in an elegant, well-organized way. The site also features a blog and makes use of widgets and Google Maps.
Instead of forcing readers to recall a restaurant they read some time ago, create an online database of your restaurant reviews. Maps would come in handy here especially if they are searchable by location and categorized by food type, atmosphere, price, etc. Yelp and Citysearch do this quite well (better than most media outlets anyway) for restaurants across the country. Both include both editorial and user reviews as well as photos and maps.
While we're on the subject of food (and because I'm getting hungry) I can imagine the tons and tons of recipes that have been written over the years that are sitting in the news library somewhere. Its time to put those babies online, and because this a multimedia world, why not show your readers how to make those recipes? My favorite part of the L.A. Times building was the test kitchen where all the recipes were cooked before they were printed. If you have such a space, or even a presentable kitchen, get a camera in there and show em how its done. Chow.com uses video to show its visitors how to butterfly a chicken, poach an egg and pimp a burger (?)
A great YouTube cooking lesson from Cooking with Kids after the jump.
Foodieview tackles both restaurant reviews and recipes in an elegant, well-organized way. The site also features a blog and makes use of widgets and Google Maps.
Monday, August 27, 2007
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Embed Google Maps with HTML, No API required
You've seen some great maps, now its time to create your own. Google recently announced the ability to embed Google Maps in your own site by simply cutting and pasting HTML. The embed code uses an iframe tag to streamline the process. To grab the code, click "Link to this page" in the top right corner and select "Paste HTML to embed in website."
So extracting this code from the Google Maps site
will give you an embedded map like this:
View Larger Map
The new feature ends the need to use a third-party application to embed Google Maps, though such applications make the creation of custom maps much easier. Also, as Ryan from CyberNet News points out if you extract the URL from the embed code, you can create a full-screen Google map (example here).
So extracting this code from the Google Maps site
<iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=colorado
+springs,+colorado&ie=UTF8&ll=38.956205,-104.754639&spn=0.469337,
0.933838&z=10&iwloc=addr&om=1&output=embed&s=AARTsJrvR8_nCDEAdyll
dYZydg5i0rq0Pw"></iframe>lt;br/>lt;a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=colorado+
springs,+colorado&ie=UTF8&ll=38.956205,-104.754639&spn=0.469337,
0.933838&z=10&iwloc=addr&om=1&source=embed" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left;font-size:small">View Larger Map</a>
will give you an embedded map like this:
View Larger Map
The new feature ends the need to use a third-party application to embed Google Maps, though such applications make the creation of custom maps much easier. Also, as Ryan from CyberNet News points out if you extract the URL from the embed code, you can create a full-screen Google map (example here).
Labels: maps
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
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9 Notable Maps
I've found that I blog a lot about maps, as evidenced by the tag cloud in the right rail, and I had to ask myself why. Because maps are a great way for journalists and designers to display information in a compact and visual way. The following Google maps are unique and well-presented and well...useful.
1. TaxiWiz estimates the cost of cab fare between two points and plots the route on a Google Map. The site covers nine cities including New York City, Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto, San Diego and Vancouver and can be accessed on mobile devices.
2. Walk Score determines the "walkability" of a neighborhood by factoring nearby grocery stores, restaurants, coffee shops, etc. Walking, as the site says, is good for your health.
3. Boston University Maps More clever and user-friendly than the maps of my alma mater, BU's maps uses the net to map buildings, parking spaces, computer labs and a lot more.
More after the jump
4. In the wake of the Minneapolis bridge collapse, journalists everywhere scrambled to locate structurally deficient bridges in their area. US Bridge Map effectively categorizes where these bridges are, including those that are "functionally obsolete."
5. Oakland Crimespotting is engaging not only because of its volumes of data, but also the way that data is presented. 13 categories of crime are mapped and are scalable by time frame.
6. Incident1 is a similar crime map, but includes police, fire and 911 emergency call for the entire country. Its like having thousands of police scanners in one room at one time.
7. Wikisky has brought the planetarium to the internet with its interactive map of stars and constellations. Personally, I can only identify Orion, but I believe WikiSky could reveal the astronomer within me.
8. Bible Map breaks down the Bible by book and chapter and then plots the cities, regions and geographical features mentioned in the text. Very helpful for locating Gethsemane (Mark 14:32).
9. Tour the Town is an interactive, graphic-based map of Colonial Williamsburg that offers compelling details of the city's many homes and businesses.
1. TaxiWiz estimates the cost of cab fare between two points and plots the route on a Google Map. The site covers nine cities including New York City, Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto, San Diego and Vancouver and can be accessed on mobile devices.
2. Walk Score determines the "walkability" of a neighborhood by factoring nearby grocery stores, restaurants, coffee shops, etc. Walking, as the site says, is good for your health.
3. Boston University Maps More clever and user-friendly than the maps of my alma mater, BU's maps uses the net to map buildings, parking spaces, computer labs and a lot more.
More after the jump
4. In the wake of the Minneapolis bridge collapse, journalists everywhere scrambled to locate structurally deficient bridges in their area. US Bridge Map effectively categorizes where these bridges are, including those that are "functionally obsolete."
5. Oakland Crimespotting is engaging not only because of its volumes of data, but also the way that data is presented. 13 categories of crime are mapped and are scalable by time frame.
6. Incident1 is a similar crime map, but includes police, fire and 911 emergency call for the entire country. Its like having thousands of police scanners in one room at one time.
7. Wikisky has brought the planetarium to the internet with its interactive map of stars and constellations. Personally, I can only identify Orion, but I believe WikiSky could reveal the astronomer within me.
8. Bible Map breaks down the Bible by book and chapter and then plots the cities, regions and geographical features mentioned in the text. Very helpful for locating Gethsemane (Mark 14:32).
9. Tour the Town is an interactive, graphic-based map of Colonial Williamsburg that offers compelling details of the city's many homes and businesses.
Labels: maps