Create a Twitter Journey Map

TweetJourney

This Google Maps mashup uses the new geo-tagging feature in Twitter to create a journey map from messages you have posted to Twitter. In fact you can create a journey map for any geo-tagged enabled Twitter account by just entering any Twitter member's user name.

To create a map you need to enable geotagging under 'Settings' in your Twitter account. TweetJourney scans the last 100 tweets in any selected account and maps all of the geotagged tweets. From the generated list you can remove any tweet that you don't want to show up on your map.

When you enter your Twitter user name all you have to do is press "Let's go - show journey" and a map is created for you. Twitter journey creates a unique URL for each map so you can easily share the map with your friends on Twitter, Facebook or even by e-mail.

If you don't have enough geo-tagged tweets you can test the map by using TwitterJourney's own Twitter account '@fdqps'.

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Atlanta Restaurant Reviews on Google Maps

30 Restaurants in 30 Days

John Kessler, food critic at accessAtlanta.com, decided to visit 30 restaurants in Atlanta in November. To illustrate the resulting reviews of each establishment accessAtlanta.com has produced a Google Map showing the location of each of the restaurants.

Each restaurant tagged on the map contains a brief introduction and an address and phone number. The information window for each restaurant also contains a link to John's review of the restaurant on the website.

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Netherlands Snow Map

Mobypicture Sneeuw Map

Hot on the heels of yesterday's relaunch of the #UKSnow map comes this Dutch snow map. Just like the #UKSnow map Mobypicture's map plots the latest tweets to mention snow. To add yourself to the map you just need to use the hashtag #sneeuw in your tweets or mobys.

Mobypicture allows users to share their photographs on a Google Map. This means that the Mobypicture's Sneeuw Map contains lots of lovely pictures of all the snow that has fallen in the Netherlands over the last couple of days.

Via: Mapperz

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Social Networking on Google Maps

Blomap

Blomap is a social network and location sharing website built on top of Google Maps. Registered Blomap members have their own Blomap Space where they can add favourite locations to a personal map. Visitors to Blomap can browse a global map of all the user added locations and the individual blogs.

Members can also post and share reviews, events, photos and audio about their favourite locations and decide to whom they want to share their information. Blomap allows users to filter all the content they post, allowing access to everyone or just friends.

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Landmarks in India Directions

Sometimes map developers using the Google Maps API come up with a feature so clever that Google themselves end up implementing something very similar on Google Maps itself. That curse has now fallen on RouteGuru.

In India many streets don't have names, which of course can make giving driving directions pretty confusing. To overcome this problem RouteGuru devised a solution which they called 'landmark based' directions. A typical route in RouteGuru will say something like "take the left after restaurant X, pass by theatre Y on the right..etc.".



Guess what today Google have launched a 'landmark' system for driving directions on Google Maps in India. Google are using a new algorithm to determine which landmarks are most useful for navigation, based on importance and closeness to the turns that you need to make. They then include these landmarks in driving directions.

This new development will greatly improve driving directions for Indian users of Google Maps. It probably won't have such a positive impact on RouteGuru's traffic.

However, in Google's defence, the use of landmarks when giving directions in India is very common.

Via: Google India Blog

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Maps Data API Updated

Google have made some cool updates to the Maps Data API. One of the new features is geospatial and attribute search. The search allows you to select features on a map according to different criteria. Currently, the Maps Data API supports spatial search (search over an area of the map) as well as attribute search (search over the attributes of features of the map).



Google have provided an example College Finder map that uses the new geospatial and attribute search. The map pulls in data from a Google My Map consisting of approximately 3000 U.S. 4-year colleges. Using the geospatial and attribute search you can search the map by location and / or by attribute (in this case either 'public' or 'private' colleges).

Via: Google Geo Developers Blog

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Lost Cats & Dogs on Google Maps

Animal Finders

Animal Finders in Oxford, UK provides a service for people to report lost and found animals in the Oxford area. These reports can be seen on a Google Map and are also distributed via email and SMS to key organisations plus members of the Local Pet Watch scheme in the Oxford area.

Owners of missing animals can use Animal Finders as a one-stop-shop for spreading the word in a fast and efficient way. The Animal Finders system also automatically creates a poster for each and every missing animal reported which you can then display around your neighbourhood.

The map uses a simple marker system, 'L' markers represent lost animals, 'F' markers indicate found pets and 'S' shows animals that have been stolen.

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