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Archive for the 'Google Maps' Category Page 2 of 11

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“Putting Video On The Map” With Seero

Published at April 2, 2008 in Google Earth and Google Maps. 0 Comments

Got an email from David Rothschild, the founder of Seero.com, inviting me to take a look at his new web service for combining media content (text, pictures and video) with geographic location. This really isn’t my thing, but what I saw on their website was interesting enough for me to post briefly on it. Basically, you can create a dynamic network KML link on their site, and have it either open in Google Earth or in Google Maps. Each time you add a placemark to the dynamic link, you can embed text, photos, and links to video hosted at Seero; the video can supposedly open in the Google Earth pop-up, but on my system, it opens up in the Firefox browser. Examples include this KML link to a walking tour along the Sierra Nevada / Cascades in the Western US, and a Google Maps interface on the One Man Walking blog, where the placemarks on the map link to blog posts for that location.

There’s more, including apparently the ability to do a live webcast with streaming video, while your current location by GPS is plotted on a Google Maps interface. Like I said, not my thing, so I haven’t delved too deeply into it, but if you’re interested in creating geographic travelogues, it may be worth a look.



Embed Synchronized Google/Microsoft Virtual Earth Maps On Your Website/Blog

Published at March 15, 2008 in Google Maps. 2 Comments

Now this is pretty slick! Go to this link at the MapChannels website, choose a location with the Google Maps interface, fill out a simple form, select some basic options, and get embeddable code that lets you display the same location in both Google Maps and Microsoft Virtual Earth Maps, side by side. Scroll/zoom one side, and the other follows automatically; you can also change the view (Map/Satellite/Terrain for Google, Road/Aerial/Hybrid/Bird’s Eye for Microsoft) independently for each side. Try it out here:

Map Channels - Free mapping tools for your website or blog



Google Geo Developer Series

Published at February 17, 2008 in Google Earth, Google Maps and KML. 1 Comment

Google is starting a series of online workshops and lectures for geo-developers. First two events:

Feb. 20 @6pm: Quick & Dirty KML Creation

Feb. 27 @6pm: Creating Custom Maps

Register online at the above link if you’d like to attend in person; space is limited. Lectures/workshops will be posted on YouTube afterwards.

Via GoogleMapsMania.



Simple Online Form For Creating An Embeddable Google Map

Published at January 22, 2008 in Google Maps and Web apps. 2 Comments

GEarthHacks has a new online tool called YourMap that simplifies the job of creating embeddable Google Maps. Enter the name, address (or lat/long), zoom level, desired map dimensions, and other information into an online form, and YourMap automatically generates the code to embed it in your website; you don’t even need your own Google Maps API key. Here’s an example for a great hole-in-the-wall Thai restaurant in Flagstaff, AZ:

View in Google Earth — Download Google Earth
Powered by YourMap from Google Earth Hacks.

Via All Points Blog.

Addendum: Just noticed that the location plotted above for the restaurant about 500 yards south of the actual location. Double-checked the address used for geocoding, and it was entered correctly, so you may want to check the results of YourMap’s geocoder to make sure it’s right.



Quick Zip Code Information

Published at January 15, 2008 in Google Maps and Web apps. 1 Comment

From the comments to my post on Mapping Zip And Area Code Boundaries comes a link to another, simpler site: ZipCodesMapped.Com. Type in a zip code, and get back the approximate location, area code, FIPS code, and timezone, along with a Google Maps window for the approximate area covered:

zipcode

The Google Maps window isn’t always 100% accurate - the example above is for my old neighborhood, and the displayed map doesn’t cover the entire area (though it is close). While it has less information than the USNaviguide website described in the original post, for quick lookups ZipCodesMapped.Com may be more convenient to use.



“Friendly” URLs To Address Maps

Published at December 27, 2007 in Google Maps. 0 Comments

jumptomap.com is a new site that lets you create a single, relatively short and non-cryptic URL link to an address, viewable in 10 different online mapping services:

  • Google
  • Yahoo
  • Ask
  • Multimap
  • Mapquest
  • MSN
  • Maporama
  • Maps.Com
  • Rand McNally
  • Maps On Us
  • Map24

Enter the address on a single line (or enter it in separate sections (street, city, state, etc.) by clicking on the “Enter Pieces” button). Click on “Make Links From Addresses” and you’ll get two links:

Click on “Show Many Links”, and you’ll get links similar to the ones above for other mapping services.



Modifying EXIF Headers (Including Geocoding) With TagMyJPGs

Published at December 10, 2007 in Google Maps and geotagging. 0 Comments

Yet another photo geotagging application, TagMyJPGs (aka EXIF Geotagging), this one with some helpful EXIF editing capabilities, and a nice Google Maps interface for geotagging. If you’re running Internet Explorer, the website has a link that lets you install the software automatically; otherwise, download and unzip the program into its own directory, then run the EXIFGeotagging.exe application:

Pictures

TagMyJPGs lets you view much of the EXIF data embedded in the photo, and you can add/edit EXIF tags like the name, description, photographer, keywords, etc.(but not basic photo info like exposure, aperture, etc.). Tags in white or yellow are usually editable, those in gray not. Click on the Geo-Tags tab, and you can manually enter the coordinates where the photo was taken:

geotags

Click on the Geo-Tag with Google Maps button, and a Google Maps interface will open up with a marker indicating the camera position:

TagMyJPGS

Click and drag the marker on Google Maps until it corresponds to the position of the camera when the photo was taken. You can also click on the object being photographed, and TagMyJPGs will mark the distance between camera and object with a yellow line, and enter the distance and bearing into the boxes at the top. The website claims that it will also draw the camera’s field of view, but I haven’t seen that in the several cases I tried. If the photo was already geotagged, it will be displayed at its geocoded position. Click “Copy Geo-Tag in EXIF Data”, and you’ll return back to the main program with the camera and object locations entered into the appropriate boxes.

If you’re satisfied, press the “save image and store EXIF data” button to write the coordinates and other entered data into the photo’s EXIF header. If the “preceed (sic) image name with datestamp” box is checked, the program will create a new image file with the date as a prefix to the original filename. If it’s not checked, it will overwrite the original with the new version.

The biggest drawback is the inability to geotag photos with a GPS track, but the author indicates on the website that he’s planning to add that feature in the future.



Altitudes And Terrain Profiles In Google Maps

Published at November 21, 2007 in Google Maps. 1 Comment

As a demonstration of their altitude information service, the Topocoding API website has a Google Maps demo. Click on a location on Google Maps, and get a placemark with altitude information for that point:

altitude

Click multiple points to get a path, and you can then generate a terrain profile for that path:

profile

It uses a combination of SRTM-90 data (roughly 90-meter resolution), and GTOPO30 (1-kilometer resolution) where other data is missing. All continents except Antarctica are included.

They’ve also created an XML Google MyMaps tool that you can add to your collection of MyMaps mapping functions; click on this link, and then click on the appropriate button to add it to your MyMaps collection.



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