California Schools Ranked on Google Maps

API Scores

API Scores is a Google Map of California schools color coded by their state rank and Academic Performance Index score. Using the map parents and home buyers can explore the performance of their local schools.

The map can be filtered by type of school and rank and includes a location search bar to quickly find different areas of interest. Markers on the map show each school in that neighborhood and are color coded by school performance.

When you click on a school's map marker an information window opens displaying the performance results for that school. The two numbers represent the school's performance in statewide standardized testing.

The data for the map comes from the 2009 Base API Reports from the California Department of Education API page.

________________

Google Maps Testing New UI

Google have been testing a new user interface for Google Maps for a couple of months now. The new design has been tested with a number of users, including Justin from 41Latitude, who has managed to create this video of the new design.

The biggest change is in the appearance of the map buttons. The buttons have been changed to larger thumbnail images. In the new design when you roll over the satellite thumbnail the layer options appear in a drop-down list.



The list of your recent map searches is also displayed in the layer panel. Another change is that the small map panel, which in the old design is shown in a small window in the bottom corner, now appears in the new thumbail button.

Hat-tip: Street View Funny & Google Operating System

________________

Snow Depths on Google Maps

#UKSnowDepth Map

Geography teacher Tom Barrett thought he would use the opportunity of the recent snow falls in the UK to create some learning resources related to the conditions. Using Google My Maps Tom is trying to crowdsource snow depths across the UK.

If you live in the UK you can add your snow depth to the map by finding a flat surface, measuring the depth of snow in centimetres and adding a marker to the map. If you are a geography teacher Tom also has a number of ways that you can use the map and information with your students.

Also See

#uksnow

________________

Sounds on Google Maps

Soundcities

Soundcities is an open source database of city sounds and soundmaps from around the world, using found sounds and field recordings.

It is possible to browse the submitted sounds by location on a Google Map. It is also possible to browse by mood. The Google Map includes a number of sound recordings made in lots of cities around the world and all the sounds can be listened to directly from the map.

Soundcities also includes a Sensor Map of Liverpool in the UK. This map shows the location of a number of sensors in the city displaying real-time information about light, temperature, noise and humidity.

Other Sound Maps

• UK SoundMap - survey of UK sounds from the British Library
• Open Sound New Orleans - New Orleans sound map
• Tactical Sound Garden - Tactical Sound Garden has created 'sound gardens' in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, San Diego, CA and Zurich, Switzerland.
• Radio Aporee - Sounds recorded around the world and presented on a Google Map.
• Montreal Sound Map - Sounds from Montreal
• Sound Tourism - a map of locations around the world where you can hear great sounds

________________

Google Maps Readabilty

Google Maps & Label Readability

I'm a big fan of Justin O'Beirne's 41Latitude blog about maps, technology and usability. Justin's two posts on the Google Maps Styled Maps feature, Styled Maps Using Google Maps API Version 3 and Additional Examples of Styled Maps Using Google Maps API V3 are essential reading for anyone who wants to add a little style to their Google Maps creations.

Justin has posted a new article today on the readability of the major online map providers. The article provides some excellent analysis of the variety of techniques and visual tricks used by Google Maps to make its city labels much more readable than those of its competitors. The article is illustrated throughout with some excellent comparisons between Google Maps and its competitors, such as Bing Maps and Yahoo Maps.

_____________

Friday Fun with Google Maps

Create Your Own Planetarium

The problem with living in a major city is that light pollution ruins your appreciation of the stars. That's why urban stag-gazing has been invented.

Mapping a Day in Twitter
Chris McDowall has used Matplotlib with the Basemap extension to animate 25 hours of Tweets on a world map.



Streeview Names

Now that Street View blurs faces Google has decided to start adding name tags to people so that you can know who they are. Unfortunately, for those who want to be named, you have to have the name of a nearby store.

________________

Find a Snowboard with Google Maps

Burton Snowboards - Dealer Locator

Burton Snowboards has used the Google Maps for Flash API to provide an impressive store locator.

Using the store locator you can find a Burton store near you by entering your address in the search box. The stores closest to your address are then listed in the map sidebar. If you click on one of the listed stores the map pans and rotates to show the chosen store.

The information window for each store includes the name and address of the store and a link to get directions to the store.

________________