Tracking with Street View

Google Maps APRS is a Google Map displaying real-time information collected from the Automatic Position Reporting System Internet network (APRS-IS). APRS is used by amateur (ham) radio operators to transmit real-time position information, weather data, telemetry and messages over the radio.



A vehicle equipped with a GPS receiver, a VHF transmitter or HF transceiver and a tracker can transmit its location, speed and course. Using this Google Map it is possible to search for any vehicle using its APRS call sign.



Google Maps APRS was first featured on Google Maps Mania back in 2009, since when it has added a cool Street View option. If a road vehicle is transmitting its location with APRS you can now use the 'track in Street View' option to get a virtual first-hand view as seen from the vehicle.



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A Real-Time Map of the World's Joggers

Sports Tracker is a free sports tracking app for Android, iPhone and Nokia Symbian devices.



The app maps your runs or bike rides and collects data on your speed, distance, step-count, elevation and times. As well as using Google Maps in the app the Sports Tracker website also features a smart real-time map of sports enthusiasts who have most recently used the app.



It is even possible to click on the individual users and view the track they recorded on a separate map alongside all the data they collected on their run or bike ride.



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Create a Real-Time Flickr Google Map

.net magazine has published a great tutorial on how to create a real-time animated Flickr map. The tutorial was written by James Christian and Ben Gannaway the creators of the excellent Net-a-Porter Live Google Map.

The tutorial explains how to create a Google Map that animates in near real-time through images posted on Flickr. The tutorial includes how to work with the Flickr API and how to customise the look of your map.

Alongside the tutorial is a demo map and a link to download the full source code.

Integrate Google Maps and Flickr into a Real-Time App

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Boston's Buses Live on Google Maps

With TransitSpy you can follow Boston's MBTA buses live on Google Maps.

Using the sidebar you can select any combination of MBTA bus routes and view in real-time the position of the buses on those routes. As well as the live buses all the stops on a route are displayed on the map. If you click on a bus-stop's map marker you can see how long you will have to wait until the next bus arrives.

TransitSpy MBTA

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Live Shipping Containers on Google Maps

This Google Map allows you to track in real-time the huge shipping containers of Maersk as they travel around the world.

The position of the ships are displayed live on this Google Map. You can click on any of the ship map markers to view a photograph of the ship and read further details, such as the ship's destination and current speed.

This map presumably uses the Automatic Identification System (AIS), an automated tracking system used on ships to plot real-time positions.

Maersk Fleet - Live Map

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Livebookings Live on Google Maps

Online clothes retailer Zappos started a trend when they created their live Zappos Map. This real-time map was created to show the latest orders placed on Zappos live on a Google Map.

The Zappos Map was quickly followed by Net-a-Porter Live, ThisNext and The Book Depository Live. Now Livebookings, Europe’s largest online booking service for restaurants, has released a live map of restaurant tables booked by its customers.

Livebookings Live takes the reservations coming in, removes the customers' names, and plots them on a map showing where, for how many, and with what frequency the Livebookings system is used.

Livebookings Live Map

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Munich's S-Bahn Live on Google Maps

I'm a great fan of live real-time maps of city transit systems. There is something about watching trains moving in real-time on a map that really appeals to my inner geek.

This real-time Google Map of Munich's S-Bahn shows the transit system's trains live as they move around the city. Each train is represented on the map with a numbered map marker indicating which line it is travelling on.

You can click on any of the train markers and view its next stop and its destination station. It is also possible to click on any station on the network and view the times and destination of the next trains scheduled to arrive.

S-Bahn Munich: Real-Time Map

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Live Tour de France Map

It has taken a while but I have finally found a live real-time map of this year's Tour de France.

The map shows the real-time position of 13 of the riders. The map sidebar shows the current speed of each rider and their current heartbeat. Beneath the map is an interactive elevation chart of the current stage.

SRMLive

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Live VoIP Calls on Google Maps

OnSIP, a provider of Voice over IP calls has released a real-time Google Map of calls made using its service.

The map makes nice use of the drop marker animation in the Google Maps v3 API. Each time an OnSIP customer makes or receives a call, a map marker is dropped on the live map, openly displaying call volume peak and trend information. A marker is dropped on the map every time an OnSIP customer makes or receives a call.

Live Call Map - OnSIP

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Australian Ash Cloud on Google Maps

Planefinder.net

The ash cloud created by the eruption of the Puyehue volcano in Chile continues to cause huge disruption to plane flights in Australia. Real-time flight tracking website planefinder.net is using Google Maps to show the location of the ash cloud as it drifts around the southern hemisphere.

The ash cloud is predicted to linger over south-east Australia for some time, causing widespread disruption to flights in and out of Sydney and Melbourne. At the time of writing the planefinder.net map shows a few flights in and out of south-east Australian airports but nowhere near the flight activity that can be seen in and around Perth.

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The Mapping Event of the Month

Hurtigruten: Minute by Minute

This is incredible and pretty mesmerising!

Norwegian Public Service broadcaster NRK are live broadcasting the voyage of the cruise liner Hurtigruten around the Norway coastline for 134 hours. As well as amazing live footage you can follow the position of the cruise liner on a real-time Google Map.

No money seems to have been spared for this live broadcast from the Hurtigruten. There seems to be a large number of cameras being used with some excellent editing between the various live views. There is also a pretty cool soundtrack, with the occasional addition of live commentary.

The event is obviously a big thing in Norway. Whilst I've been watching the voyage this morning nearly every house that has been passed has had the owners out front waving flags at the passing ship.

What makes this event unmissable however is the incredible Norwegian scenery which should be viewable for nearly the whole 134 hours, due to the broadcast being timed to coincide with the summer solstice and the Midnight Sun.

The map itself is also incredible. You can add layers of photos and videos of the cruise from a drop down menu. You can also click on the small circles on the ship's track to change from the live broadcast to watch a replay of the footage from the selected location.

There may well be no more posts on Google Maps Mania today ... as I don't think I'll be able to tear myself away from watching this.

Hat-tip: Ogle Earth

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Real-Time Shopping on Google Maps

Net-a-Porter Live

Online fashion shop Net-a-Porter has created a real-time Google Map showing the location of every purchase that is being made on the website live.

Every time someone on Net-a-Porter adds an item to their shopping bag or shares it with a friend the item is shown on a Google Map at the location of the customer. The item is also displayed in the map sidebar with a brief description and its price. If you like the look of the purchased item you can of course select the 'shop and share' button to buy it yourself.

Zappos Map

Zappos, the online shoes retailer, created the first real-time shopping map, where orders placed on a website are mapped to the location the order is being shipped to, in real-time.

Zappos uses photographs of the product being brought as the map marker. If you click on the photograph then you are taken to the web page for that product (and Zappos presumably hope you will be tempted to buy the product yourself).

ThisNext Google Map

ThisNext is another online retailer showing geo-tagged real-time purchases live on a Google Map.

The map animates between the latest purchases made through the ThisNext site. Each information window displayed shows the location of the shopper and a picture of the product purchased. The window, of course, also displays a link to that product's web page, so if you see anything you like you can buy the product yourself.

The Book Depository Live

If you are interested in what books people are buying at this very moment then this map is for you. The Book Depository Live map shows the latest purchases made from the online book store.

The map shows the latest orders placed with the store in real-time. The location of the purchaser is shown with a map marker that also displays a thumbnail of the purchased book. If you like the look of any of the displayed books click on the thumbnail or link and purchase it from The Book Depository.

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Greek Flights in Real-Time on Google Maps

Greek Aircraft Tracking

As one of Europe's favourite holiday destinations Greece sees a lot of aircraft traffic. This Google Map lets you view all the civil aviation flights over Greece in real-time.

The map shows the location of all of Greece's major airports and of all the planes currently in flight in the country's air space. If you click on one of the plane shaped map markers you can view flight details for that plane in the map sidebar.

The details include the plane's manufacturer, current heading, altitude, model and call sign.

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Grimsvötn Ash Cloud Google Maps

Grimsvötn Ash Cloud Evolution

Today the ash cloud from the Grimsvötn volcano continues to drift across Europe, causing the closure of a number of airports in northern Germany.

This Google Map shows the current position of the ash cloud. The map creator is updating the position of the cloud every six hours. The map also shows the position of Grimsvötn in Iceland.

Also See

Flightradar24 - this Google Map shows the position of the ash cloud and the real-time position of planes in European airspace.

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The Volcanic Ash Cloud on Google Maps

Flightradar24

The eruption of the Grimsvotn volcano in Iceland has caused a huge ash cloud that is now affecting flights in Iceland and Scotland. Flightradar24, the live flight tracking Google Map, has now added an overlay to show the current position of the cloud.

The map shows the movements of flights in real-time. At the time of writing the map shows that most European flights seem to be unaffected by the cloud but there seem to be very few flights in and out of Scotland.

The BBC are reporting that flights to and from the airports of Londonderry, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Prestwick, Durham Tees Valley, Newcastle and Carlisle are likely to be affected by the ash cloud.

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What the Space Station Astronauts See

Current Position of the ISS

The opportunity for space tourism is probably still a little way off for most of us. Whilst we all wait for Richard Branson to make space travel a lot more affordable we will have to make do with this Google Map showing the current location of the International Space Station on Google Maps.

The map shows the current view from the ISS looking down at the Earth. So you can fire up this map and pretend that you are a space station astronaut watching the Earth spin beautifully beneath you.



If your imagination needs a little more help then you should also check out NASA Astronaut Ron Garan's photo stream on Twitpic. Garan is currently posting photos from the space shuttle Endeavour and the International Space Station.


Hat-tip: @MPegg and @Renalid

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The Copenhagen Marathon Live Map

Endomondo: Live Copenhagen Marathon Map

The Copenhagen Marathon is running at this very moment. A number of the runners are carrying GPS units and you can follow them live on this Google Map from Endomondo.

The map includes a plan of the route of the marathon. Profile pictures of the runners display their current location on the course. If you mouse-over any of the profile pictures you can view the distance covered by the runner and their current time for the race.

Hat-tip: microformats.dk

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Real-Time Parking on Google Maps

SFpark

The San Francisco Municipal Authority has released a Google Map to help improve car parking in the city. The new map displays real-time information about where parking is available so drivers can quickly find open spaces.

As part of the new initiative San Francisco now periodically adjusts meter pricing to match demand. To help keep car drivers informed about the variable meter prices SFpark displays in real-time current prices.

Roads on the map are color-coded to reflect real-time meter pricing. The darker the shade of green of a road the higher its current pricing. It is also possible to view in real-time the current availability of parking spaces.

City owned parking garages are also displayed on the map. Rates at these garages will now also vary to match real-time demand.

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The Real-Time Toronto Transit Map

TOTransit

TOTransit displays the real-time position of Toronto's streetcars on a Google Map.

You can select which routes you want to view on the map in real-time. The marker for each streetcar displays its current direction and if you mouse-over a marker you can view the streetcar's number.

The streetcars' positions are updated every ten seconds.

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Real-Time Train Tracking on Google Maps

NahverkehrsKarte

This Google Map shows the near real-time movements of trains and subway trains in Stuttgart and the position of buses in Reutling.

The map was inspired by the Swiss trains live tracking map swisstrains.ch. Like swisstrains.ch this Google Map shows the position of the public transit system based on timetables rather than track the vehicles in real-time.

It is possible to click on any of the moving map markers to view the vehicle's next stop. You can also click on any of the mapped stations or stops to view the times of the next arriving trains and buses.

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