Indian Local Places on Google Maps

PlayCez is a great Google Maps based local recommendation engine for India.



PlayCez users can find the best places to eat, shop and hang out in the largest Indian cities. The user interface is very simple to use. Users just need to choose a city and whether they want to eat, shop or hangout. The results are then displayed on a Google Map and displayed alongside the map.



If users select an individual venue they can then read comments about the venue by other users, invite their friends to meet at the venue (via Connect with Facebook) and get directions to the venue.



Currently PlayCez is available for the major cities in India, but has plans to expand to further geographies soon.



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Local Foods & Dishes on Google Maps

One of the great joys of travelling is discovering (and tasting) the local and regional foods and dishes of the places you visit.



If you ever get the chance to travel around England then I recommend you consult The Food Map of England and the UK Food Tourism website.



The Food Map of England is a Google Map that shows the local and regional specialities of food throughout England. For example, if you visit Cheshire, The Food Map of England shows you that Cheshire Onion Pie, Cheshire Lamb Crumble, Cheshire Cheese and Cheshire Pork Pie are all local delicacies that you might want to try.



After finding the local dishes on offer with The Food Map of England you can then consult the UK Food Tourism website to discover local restaurants, and local food markets and festivals. The UK Food Tourism website contains a number of regional Google Maps that allow you to discover locally recommended food centres throughout the UK.



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Foodspotting Hits a Million Downloads

The food sharing app Foodspotting has passed one million downloads. The Foodspotting apps lets you take photos of your favourite dishes and share them with the world. Foodspotting is a great way not just to find a good restaurant nearby but to find the best rated dish in a restaurant.



Don't worry if you haven't downloaded the app to your smart phone as you can also browse all the dish photographs and reviews on the Foodspotting website. If you enter a location you can view all the dishes shared near that location on a Google Map.



Click on one of the dish photographs displayed on the map and you can view where the picture was taken and how many people have rated this dish.



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London Coffee on Google Maps

London Coffee Map

I've started playing with the Places Library in the Google Maps API.

One feature of the library is that it lets you load venues that match a particular name. I've used this feature to show the locations of cafes belonging to the bigger coffee chains in London.

The London Coffee Map lets you find cafes run by the Monmouth Coffee Company, Starbucks, Costa Coffee and Caffe Nero. If you click on a marker you can view the cafe's Google Places rating and its telephone number.

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Locally Produced Food on Google Maps

LoveFre.sh

LoveFre.sh is a location based service to help you connect with locally produced food, wherever you are. Users of the LoveFre.sh iPhone app can find fresh local food and share their local food experiences with comments, a picture or an audiobite.

The LoveFre.sh website features a Google Map feturing the latest check-ins made with the app and provides a great way to find local food markets and outlets selling locally produced food.

The mapped check-ins include user photos, audio comments and tags. If you click through on a listed food outlet you can read more comments on a dedicated page.

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Google Maps Mackerel Mission

Fish Fight MackMap

In the UK broadcaster Channel 4 are backing a campaign to persuade Britain's fish & chip shops to put mackerel on the menu alongside the traditional cod & chips.

The UK's traditional love of cod means that cod is being over-fished whilst mackerel is fished in a controlled and sustainable way. Hence the campaign to get the British to try a little mackerel & chips.

The broadcaster is using Google Maps to show the fish & chip shops in the UK that have agreed to serve mackerel and those who are still not serving the sustainable fish. Channel 4 is crowd-sourcing its campaign so, if your local fish & chip shop is not included, you can add it to the map.

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How to Find Mambo Juice in LA

Food Truck Maps

Google Maps showing the location of food trucks is definitely a growing trend in the USA, especially in LA. The latest application is Food Truck Maps which is tracking 104 food trucks in Los Angeles.

As well as the Google Map showing the location of the food trucks Food Truck Maps also shows the latest tweets from the trucks. You can search the tweets by category and location.

Also See

• Tweat It - Google Map of food vendors in New York
• truXmap - real-time location map of food trucks in Los Angeles
• Bistro Chaser - tracking food trucks in LA

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Budget Eats Google Map

Britain's Best Budget Restaurants

The Guardian newspaper has created a Google Map of the best budget restaurants in the UK. The map shows the locations of the restaurants featured in the paper's 'Britain's Best Budget Eats' column in the last two years.

It is possible to select a city view from a drop down menu. If you choose a city the map zooms to the correct location and also loads the restaurants in the map sidebar. If you click on a restaurant's marker you can read The Guardian's review and get the restaurant's address.

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The Secret to Eating Well in Chile

Soy Gourmet

Soy Gourmet is Chile's second most downloaded iPhone app. If you don't have an iPhone, don't worry, Soy Gourmet can also be accessed from your desktop.

Soy Gourmet is a great way to search and find restaurants in Chile. You can search for restaurants by type of cuisine, price and location and view the results on a Google Map.

Registered users of Soy Gourmet can rate individual restaurants and leave comments. Registered users also receive regular promotional offers.

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Finding the Best Donuts with Google Maps

dishtip

There are lots of websites that can help you find top rated restaurants. dishtip, on the other hand, can help you find the best places to go for specific dishes.

dishtip allows you to search for anything related to what you want to eat. You can search for general categories, such as 'Chinese' or 'steak' or 'chocolate', to a specific food item such as 'Red Velvet Cupcakes'. dishtip then recommends the best places to eat based on your search and ranks them based on internet-based reviews.

The results page for each page also features a Google Map highlighting the locations of the best locations to visit. If you click through to any establishment you can also view a Google Map showing its location.

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Find a McRib with Google Maps

McRib Locator

It isn't often that a Google Maps application makes it to the top of Google Trends but that is what has happened to Alan Klein's three year old McRib Locator.

The map allows users to submit sightings of the McRib and to find where the sandwiches are currently being served. It seems that the reason the map is suddenly trending is because the McRib will be available at all McDonald's outlets from November 2nd until mid-December.

If you can't wait until November the last McRib sighting was in Reno and there have been 207 sightings in the last week.

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Google Maps Mania Map of the Week

CommonSpace
If you live in Philadelphia you should definitely let CommonSpace try to find you a great night out for you and your friends. CommonSpace lets you add multiple starting points to a Google Map and then finds things to do in areas that are convenient to you and your friends.

To start planning your night out just enter your name, a Philadelphia address, the length of time you are prepared to travel for and your mode of transport. CommonSpace will then show you the area within which you can travel in that time.



A slide control at the bottom of the map allows you to adjust your travelling time and expands or contracts the shaded area on the map accordingly. If you are planning to meet up with friends you can now add their names and addresses to the map. As you add your friends to the map their travel areas are also shaded on the map. Most importantly the area that can be reached by you and your friends is highlighted to show where you can all meet.



Now that you have determined where you are all going to meet you need to find a venue. In the map sidebar you can choose to search for events and venues from Yelp!, SBN, Philly Live Arts, Uwishunu and the Phillyfun Guide. You can choose from a large number of different categories including bars, restaurants, arts and theatres etc. You can also choose the date and time of events.

When you have selected a date, time and the kind of events / venues that you are interested in the results for your selected area of search are displayed on the map.



You can now browse the selections chosen for you by CommonSpace. When you find an event or venue you wish to visit you can add it to your 'Plan'. You can add as many events as you like to you Plan and when you have finished you can get directions and a link to share your itinerary with all your friends.

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Hunch - A Local Recommendation Engine

Hunch - Local Search

Hunch is a personal recommendations website. Answer 10 questions and Hunch believes it can offer you great recommendations on thousands of topics. Hunch's recommendations are based on the collective answers of the entire Hunch community. The site claims that every time Hunch is used the hunches get better.

Hunch has now launched Hunch - Local, a Google Maps based suggestion tool to help you find restaurants, stores, museums, hotels and nightlife. After you share your location with Hunch Local you will be shown local recommendations in your vicinity. You can choose which category of recommendations you want to view from a drop down menu.

It is also possible to refine the places shown on the map with a 'popular' slider control. This allows you to view the most popular venues or the most unique (the least popular?). Each suggestion comes with a link to read more about the venue on Yelp, foursquare or on Hunch itself.

Via: Mashable

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What's Happening in Manhattan?

Nitefly

Nitefly promises to find you the best drink deals, parties and events happening right now in Manhattan. To find a happening night spot with Nitefly all you have to do is type in a location and Nitefly will show you a Google Map of the best venues near by.

If you click on one of the returned venue map markers Nitefly will show you the best tips from Foursquare, gauge the buzz at the venue with real time Twitter updates and even show you who is attending events here with Facebook.

For each venue Nitefly also returns its Yelp user rating score and gives you the venue's full address and telephone number.

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Finding Great Food with Google Maps

Food GPS

Joshua Lurie's mission in life appears to be to travel a lot and to eat as much good food as possible. Consequently Joshua eats as many as a dozen restaurant meals a week. When he comes across a meal that’s really good he shares it with the world through Food GPS.

On the right hand side of Food GPS is a drop down menu that displays locations. If you choose any of the locations from the menu a Google Map will be displayed showing the food posts on Food GPS for your selected location.

If you are travelling around the USA and you want to find a good restaurant then you should definitely consult Food GPS. Joshua Lurie definitely knows his food and if he recommends a restaurant you can be sure the food will be great.

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Ordering Food with Google Maps

Go Mobo

Go Mobo allows users to place online and text message orders at their favorite restaurants.

To place an order diners first have to find which Mobo restaurants are nearby. To do this you just need to enter an address or zip-code. Go Mobo then displays a Google Map of restaurants in your location. The restaurants are also listed in the map sidebar, with the address, distance from your location and opening hours.

If you select a restaurant from the map you can then click through to the restaurant's menu and select what you wish to order. Once you have placed your order all you have to do is turn up, collect your food and eat.

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This Google Map is Not for Tourists

Not For Tourists

Not For Tourists is a growing series of guides to major cities around the world featuring Google Maps of local points of interest. The site includes maps for everything from restaurants, night spots, and shopping to parks, public transit, sports stadiums, museums and art galleries.

If you select a city from the drop down menu at the top of the page you are presented with the city guide and a Google Map of the selected location. Many of the larger cities are broken down into separate guides so the initial Google Map presents a number of selectable districts within your chosen city.

The Google Maps for the selected districts present local points of interest. The locations are displayed with categorised map markers so you can tell at a glance which are restaurants, bars, shops etc. If you mouse-over a map marker the name of the point of interest is also displayed.

If you click on a map marker you will be taken to the locations' dedicated page on Not for Tourists. The dedicated page includes details and reviews of the chosen location.

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Find a Food Truck with Google Maps

Bistro Chaser

Bistro Chaser provides a real time tracking Google Map for food trucks in Los Angeles, Orange County and New York. The map uses Twitter messages from the food trucks themselves to provide updates of their current location.

If you select the Schedule section of Bistro Chaser you can select a city and a specific food truck. You can then view the schedule for the selected food truck. The different locations that the truck is planning to visit are shown on the map and listed in the map side panel.

Also See

• Tweat It - Google Map of food vendors in New York
• truXmap - real-time location map of food trucks in Los Angeles

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Welcome to Plymouth with Google Maps

Plymouth 3D

Google Maps is such a great tool for promoting towns and cities I'm surprised there aren't more sites like 3D Plymouth. 3D Plymouth is a Google Maps based guide to the picturesque town of Plymouth, Michigan.

Plymouth 3D uses the Google Earth browser plug-in to allow you to explore the town in glorious 3D. If you don't like the 3D option you can select Google Maps to view all the information with a normal map view.

And what a lot of information there is.

Plymouth 3D can show you the location of any store in the town. If you need a hair cut, select 'Barber' and you can view the location of all the town's barbers, or maybe you fancy an icecream, if so just select 'Candies & Ice Cream'. There is in fact over 40 categories of store to choose from.

If you have finished your shopping then Plymouth 3D can even help you find some entertainment. The 'Locate Events' section can show you the location of upcoming entertainment and sporting events in the town.

There are also options to view the weather, local traffic, road closures, schools, Street View and local property for sale. There are so many options with this map that I'm sure I've even missed a few.

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Find the Best Chinese Food with Google Map

Chinese Food Map

Here is a map for all lovers of Chinese food. The map shows Chinese restaurants for the whole of the United States.

You can search the map by dragging and zooming the map or by entering an address in the search bar. Alternatively, if you are searching for a specific restaurant, you can search for restaurants by name.

If your favourite Chinese restaurant is missing from the map you can add it and your rating and review will be added to the map.

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