Google Maps of Places Open Late

Noctur.nl

Noctur.nl is a Google Maps based database of cafes, restaurants and bars that are open late (past 9pm). Currently there are over 36,000 places in the database and the site is growing all the time.

Users can submit their own favourite late-night haunts to the map. The site uses Twitter for authentication and for reviews. On each individual establishment page there is a Twitter textarea where users can tweet from the location and let people know what they thought about it using a short description and a simple rating system.

Major cities in the USA each have their own Google Map. Map markers in the shape of Owls with their eyes open indicate places that are currently open, owls with eyes closed and Z's above their head indicate places that are closed.

Nocturn.nl also has mobile support and support for iPhone geolocation. The site is currently US only but there are plans to expand coverage throughout the world.

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Friday Fun with Google Maps

Two Maps One Scale

Two Maps One Scale is a Google Maps mashup that you probably never realised you needed until you see it. In essence the application lets you compare two different locations at the same zoom level on two different maps.

Imagine you are about to visit Staten Island but you've never been there before. Is it practical to explore the area by bike, or is it too big? One way to get a good idea is to compare it on a map to a location that you know well. For example if you know San Francisco you can compare Staten Island and San Francisco side by side at the same zoom level.

Full Moon on Street View
I guess it was only a matter of time ...



Via: Google Sightseeing

Google Bing
It seems that Google decided to help Bing launch its 'street view' map beta this week with a little subliminal advertising with this captcha. (BTW Microsoft - you need to sort out the Bing memory leaks in FireFox!)



UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Street View



Google is working with UNESCO to collect Street View imagery of UNESCO World Heritage sites.

You can already view Stonehenge, the Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout in the Netherlands, the old town of Cáceres in Spain, the historic Center of Prague in Czech Republic, the Roman town of Pompei and the Palace of Versailles in Street View.

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2010 World Cup on Google Maps

World Cup 2010 Stadium Maps

This website has put together a collection of satellite views of the 2010 World Cup stadiums in South Africa. All the stadiums have now been built but Google has caught some of the stadiums in mid-construction and, in the case of the Mbombela Stadium, even before construction started.

Google have plans to launch Street View in South Africa before the start of next year's World Cup and I wouldn't be surprised if the satellite imagery is updated sometime in the next six months.

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Tweet Your Music

tweeturmusic

This mashup of play.me and Twitter allows you to play music tracks and then tweet to your friends what you are listening to. The site features a Google Map on its home page that animates through the latest people to listen to tracks on the site.

The Google Map is really incidental to the main purpose of the site, which is to share your musical preferences with your Twitter friends. The tag cloud is probably more useful and provides a good guide to what is currently being listened to and a quick navigational aide to the more popular tracks.

One major problem with the site is that you are restricted to only 30 seconds of each track. Those living outside the USA are restricted to only 30 seconds of playing time for each track.

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Real-Time Bus Map for Darwin

Mapize Darwin Bus Map

The Darwin Bus Map is another of the many Google Maps mashups submitted to the recent Mashup Australia Contest. The map displays bus routes and timetables for Darwin, Australia.

With this map inhabitants of the Darwin area can view all the bus stops of the city, either in real time or by using a time-line. It is also possible to view the latest real-time traffic information for the city on the map.

Every bus-stop marked on the map includes a Street View, so it is even possible to virtually scout how near the stop is to your final destination before setting out on your journey.

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Time Person of the Year Google Map

Time 2009 - Person of the Year

So who should be Time's Person of the Year? Mibazaar has produced this Google Map that lets you vote for your favourite candidate.

The map actually sorts the markers by the number of votes cast by each candidate and lists them in order in the map sidebar. The map itself also animates through the candidates in order of the number of votes cast.

If you click on the map marker of a candidate there is a link to more information about them on the Time magazine website.

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Show Your Vote for COP15

Show Your Vote

Justin Baird of Google Australia has been using his 20% time to develop an application to help visualise public support for next week's COP 15, the Climate Change Conference taking place in Copenhagen.

The application uses Google Maps to determine your location and to show the locations of all those who have voted to be included on the map. Show Your Vote has three tabs: Vote, Explore, and Learn. The Vote tab allows individuals and organisations to show their vote. The Explore tab displays individual votes aggregated by post code, and organizations by their own custom icons. The voting map is powered by the Google Maps API.

The application includes the option to display Show Your Vote on your own website or blog.

Via: Official Google Blog

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