US State Etymology on Google Maps

USA States Map

Here's a little Google Map I created today to show the meaning of the names given to each of the states in the USA. The origins of the names of U.S. states have been taken from this Wikipedia entry.

As fun as it is to read the meaning behind the names for the U.S. states the map is really a demo to show how you can use the new Styled Map option in the Google Maps API to remove the name labels from Google Maps.

Removing the labels with Styled Maps is easy enough. It is just a matter of turning off the visibility of options in the administrative layer. However once I'd removed the names from Google Maps I then had to figure out how to add my own labels. Luckily Marc Ridey has written an excellent Label class for Google Maps V3.

If you have a look at the example I've created you can see my design isn't very pretty. The next stage is to play with the font weight and font size to create something a little easier on the eye.

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100,000 Markers & No Clustering

MillionMarkerMap

Jonathan Wagner of Scribble Maps fame has created a demo Google Map displaying 100,000 markers on one map. As you can see from the screenshot above that is enough markers to completely obscure the map tiles beneath.

Amateur map developers should of course not try this at home without wearing safety goggles and without the supervision of a qualified Google Maps Developer.

Usually if you want to place a very large number of markers on a map you will want to use a marker clustering solution such as Mapeed. However, if you are feeling brave, Jonathan has been kind enough to provide the source code for his MillionMarkerMap.

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Heat Map Creator for Google Maps

GMap HeatMap

GMap HeatMap is a web service from Differential Enterprises for making dynamic heat maps and color contour overlays for Google Maps.

No programming is required to create a heat map using GMap HeatMap. All you require is three columns of data, the latitude, the longitude, and a value. If you paste your data in this form into the HeatMap creator your heat map will be automatically created.

Programmers can also drive HeatMap from PHP, with a POST operation, so you can include Gmap HeatMap maps in your own website.

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Create Your Own Google Maps of RSS Feeds

rssmapper - Beta

rssmapper lets anyone create their own embeddable Google Maps from RSS feeds. All you have to do is get together a collection of RSS feeds and rssmapper will search the feeds for place names and display the locatable items on the map.

Being able to create a map from an RSS feed or a collection of feeds is a great idea and rssmapper's demo maps gives you some idea how the site could be used. For example, the Natural Disasters Map, tracks a number of RSS feeds, from UGSC, MODIS and GDACS to show the latest earthquakes, fires, floods and tropical cyclones around the world.

The Sports News Map tracks RSS feed from the BBC, the NFL, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Fox News etc to show you the latest sports news.

The Headlines Map tracks feeds from BBC News, CNN, The Washington Post, The New York Times and Newsweek to being you the latest news on a Google Map.

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Scribble Maps Goes Pro

Scribble Maps Pro

Scribble Maps, the Google Maps mashup that lets you draw directly on a Google Map, has now released a 'pro' version that has elevated the application into one of the best Google Maps creation tools.

In the past Scribble Maps allowed you to draw directly onto Google Maps and add coloured polygons. You could then save your scribblings and polygons and even export a kml or jpg or gpx file. The new pro version of scribble maps still allows you to do this but also has a host of new features.

One of the exciting new features in Pro is the ability to upload data in the form of spreadsheets. This allows you to plot points on Scribble Maps. You can even plot points within a specified range in your spreadsheet.

Other new features include the ability to add SHP files, the option to use OpenStreetMap and CloudMadePlus maps and the option to add measuring tools. As with the original Scribble Maps you can publish a finished map to your own website or blog in the form of a widget.

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A Javascript Library for Google Maps

Cartographer.js
Cartographer.js, is a simple javascript library for Google Maps that allows map makers to easily create thematic heat maps, area-scaled circles, and pie charts. Using the library developers are freed from worrying about how to tweak the Google Maps API to build the thematic elements they need, and can focus on more important problems like data collection and normalization.

Cartographer.js is a simple one-line include. The library comes with a number of demonstration maps showcasing what Cartographer.js can do:

Where is Twitter?

Where is Twitter? is a Google Maps mashup of 250,000 Twitter users that uses area-scaled circles to show the number of Twitter users in different locations around the world. Clicking on any of the displayed circles reveals the number of Twitter users at that location.

State Populations

This Google Maps mashup displays data from the US Census: 2008 state population estimates, rendered on a choropleth (heat map) map.

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Make Your Own Google Weather Map

Global Temperature and Five Day Forecasts
Popular map creation site UMapper have unveiled two great new features that allow you to add weather temperatures and five day forecasts for anywhere in the world to your created maps.

It is extremely easy to create a weather map with UMapper in just two simple steps. This video tutorial explains how it is done:



In addition to the new weather features you can add custom icons, audio overlays, images and much more to your UMapper created Google Map.

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Google Web Elements

Google Map Element

Google have just released a new service called Web Elements which allow users to cut-and-paste Google applications into their websites or blogs. The elements include real-time news, calendars, presentations, spreadsheets, YouTube videos and a simple Google Map.



To use the Google Map element you just need to define a location, choose a size and map type and add a marker title. The map element is very simple to use and is a great way to create a very simple interactive map.

If you want to create a slightly more complicated map Google also have a Get Maps web page. This page shows you how to grab the embed code from the main Google Maps site, how to create a My Map and how to add driving directions to your business website.

Via: Official Google Blog: New tools for Google Services for Websites

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Two Million Markers on One Google Map

Million Marker Map

The Million Marker Map uses 'Spatial DataBox' (SDB) to show over two million map markers on one Google Map.

The Spatial DataBox is able to perform 10,000 queries per second, and can return millions of markers per second. The 'Full Screen Map' button, situated at the top-left edge of the map, expands the map to occupy the full view of your computer's screen.

FindByClick.com is another example of a Google Maps mashup built on top of the Spatial DataBox. FindByClick is a community mapping site that lets users tag and share their favourite places.

Both the maps use the Google Maps API for Flash.

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Convert My Maps to the Google Maps API

Map Channels Feed Converter

Map Channels, the popular map creation website, has released a new utility to convert map data feeds from one format to another. The utility can convert tab-delimited text to KML or KML to tab-delimited text. The application is very useful if you want, for example, to extract data from a Google My Map that you have created.

The feed converter let's you convert the data from a My Map KML to tab-delimited text which you can then edit in a spreadsheet. To grab the KML from a My Map right click on the 'View in Google Earth' button in Google Maps and copy the URL. Next paste the URL address into your browser and change the part in the address that says 'output=nl' to 'output=kml'. Then save the KML to your computer.



Now you can just paste the KML code into the Map Channels Map Feed Converter and convert it into tab-delimited text and save the data to a spreadsheet. This means you can take the data from a My Map you have created and use the same data in a Google Maps mashup using the Google Maps API. Very cool!

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