Gapminder is a flash-based tool for creating animated charts based on various parameters and indicators, including geographic areas. Here’s a TED talk showing examples of uses by its developer, Hans Rosling:
Up until recently, you could look at Gapminder charts for specific datasets at the website, but not create your own. Google, which bought the Gapminder technology in 2007, recently released a Google Gadget that lets you create your own Gapminder charts that can be embedded in a web page. You’ll need a Google Docs account, and also need to add the “Motion Chart” gadget from this web page. Once added, it can be accessed from the charts/gadgets button in a Google docs spreadsheet.
Gazetteers are listings of the names, types, and coordinates of both natural and man-made objects. For the US, the US Geological Survey’s Geographical Names Information Service (GNIS) contains name, feature type and position information for over two million geographic features in the US. Feature classes include both man-made (populated place, bridge, canal, etc.) as well as natural features (arch, spring, arroyo, woods). There are a number of similar databases for the rest of the world, like the NGA’s GNS Server, and the GeoNames site.
Another gazetteer website worth a look is SatelliteViews.Net. For geographical subdivisions, they have the US broken down by state, and the rest of the world by country. Select a state or country, then select the type of geographical feature you’re looking for, and get an alphabetical listing of them for that particular region. Select a specific feature, and you’ll get both the coordinates and a Google Maps display with the feature location plotted.
They claim to have 5.9 million worldwide geographic features indexed and linked.
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:
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.
The World Weather Map lets you click on a location, and get a plot by month of temperature (max/average/min), rainfall, and average number of hours of sunshine. A fourth tab supposedly gives you “Experiences”, a link list of things to do at that location, but the list sometimes includes activities a long distance (> 100 miles) from that location. You can also add an overlay showing what areas are “Hot”, “Warm” or “Wet” for a particular month.
The main website’s map is also flawed in that there’s no zoom feature, so for areas where the climate can change dramatically over a short distance (like the American Southwest), getting the climate for the exact location you want can be difficult to impossible. (1/24/2008: Fixed by the good folks at WorldReviewer; see the comment below) Oddly enough, there’s a widget version of this map that does include a zoom feature, and which can be embedded in any website, as below. Click and drag to move the map; click on +/- to zoom in and out; click on any point to get the climate data for that location:
For more specific climate data, downloadable for any location on the Earth, try some of the applications described in this post.Via GoogleMapsMania.
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:
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.
The USNaviguide website has an assortment of Google-Maps-based services for mapping the boundaries of various geographic parameters:
Zip Code: Enter a 5-digit zip code, or the first three digits of a zip code, and get a map of the area covered by that zip code. Or click on the map, and get a map of the all the zip codes in that area, with a placemark at the location you clicked on with the zip code for that area in the info bubble:
City/town boundaries: Enter a zip code, or click on the map, and get the boundary of the city/town jurisdiction for that area where appropriate:
County/FIPSCSA: Enter a zipcode, or click on a spot, and get a map similar to the one above for either a county or a FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard) Core-Based Statistical Area, with a placemark near the center of the polygon with the relevant information, including code numbers.
There is also a US geocoders (get a latitude/longitude for an address), and a reverse geocoder (enter the lat/long or click on an address, and get back the closest addresses to a point).
The related Maps.Huge.Info site has links to most of the above services, but also a few more as well:
US telephone area code maps
Plotting zip codes by line boundary instead of overlay map (as at the top)
Australian post codes
A zip+4-based reverse geocoder
Finally, there’s a page of the free PERL code they use for converting a polygon of points into a Google Maps polygon.
A search for maps on the Google Gadgets website brings up around 80 different gadgets you can embed in your website. Included are the usual suspects (Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, Mapquest, Virtual Earth), and some not-so-usual applications:
Popfly, Microsoft’s web mashup maker, has moved out of invitation-only alpha phase to beta, open to everyone. When it was still in alpha, CNet compared Popfly to its two main competitors, Yahoo! Pipes and Google’s Mashup Editor, and found it the easiest to use. Requires Silverlight, so it only runs in Windows now (but will run in Firefox).
Contents of the Free Geography Tools Blog copyright 2007, 2008; all rights reserved.
Determining the accuracy, reliability, validity, or appropriateness of any of the software or data written about in this blog for any uses is the sole responsibility of the reader, not the authors of the blog posts. The blog authors have no liability for any uses of the software or data described here.
