600 Free Google Map Markers

Map Icons Collection

I rarely make a Google Map without using map markers from the Map Icons Collection. The collection has more than 600 free icons which you can use as map markers with the Google Maps API, which means you can nearly always find a marker that fits the purpose and design of your map.

The collection has previously been hosted on Google Projects but now has its very own website. With the new website comes two cool new features, styles and custom colors.

The custom colors feature allows you to change the color of any map marker to fit the style of your map and website. The style feature lets you choose from seven different style of marker, including iPhone, gradient and classic.

If you are a Google Maps API developer then bookmark this collection now!

Via: Le Technology du LAC

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Global Warming on Google Maps

Climate Hot Map

The Union of Concerned Scientists has created this Google Map to show the probable effects of global warming around the world. The map is accompanied by a Climate Hot Map Scavenger Hunt, which if you complete successfully gives you a chance to win a trip for two to the Rio Cachoeira Natural Reserve in Brazil.

The map explores the effect of climate change on people, the environment, the oceans, ecosystems and the temperature. You can select to explore any of these categories on the map using the menu at the bottom of the map.

The scavenger hunt questions can be found here. Entries must be in by the end of July.

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Some Solstice Sun with Google Maps

The Photographer's Ephemeris

The Photographer's Ephemeris is a free sun and moon planning tool for outdoor photography. The application is available as a free download for the desktop (Adobe AIR required) or as an iPad app.

The application uses Google Maps to show sunrise and sunset times and indicates the current direction of the sun based on your location. The application includes some really advanced features, including automatic time zone and elevation detection, correction for atmospheric refraction and height above the horizon.

Photographers can use this invaluable tool to plan the best times that they should visit a location to get the best light for the shot required.

SunCalc

SunCalc is a great Google Maps based tool for finding the position of the sun and the sunrise and sunset times for any location on the Earth. The application auto-detects your current location but you also can drag the marker or use the search function to move to a different location.

A really great feature on this app is the time of day slider. The slider lets you view the position of the sun for any time during the day. You can even change the date to see the sun's position at different times of the year.

I can see this map being very useful for photographers, who may want to know the sun's position at different locations and at different times of the day. I also think this is a great tool for house buyers, who can check out when gardens and different rooms in a house will get direct sunlight.

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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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How to Create Indoor Shopping Mall Maps

Google I/O App for Android
For the Google I/O conference this year Google created a pretty cool Android App that included a number of features, including a schedule, details about the sessions, buzz about I/O via a real-time search stream and a conference map.

Google has now open-sourced the code for the app. If you want to create a similar app for a conference you can download the code and adapt it to suit your needs.


One of my favourite presentations from Google I/O this year was Map Your Business Inside Out by Brendan Kenny and Chris Broadfoot of Google. Essentially in the presentation Brendan and Chris demonstrated how the Google Maps API can be used to create indoor maps for large conference centers or shopping malls.

You can view the presentation in full in this video:



In the presentation Brendan and Chris explain how you can attach floor-plan overlays to a Google Map, how you can label the floor-plan and how you can develop custom Street Views for your map.

If you are interested in creating your own indoor map then you might find these resources useful:

• Maps API V3 Documentation: Adding Overlays
• Introducing the Google Maps Label Library
• Google Maps Label Library reference documents and the source code
• Maps API V3 Documentation: Custom Street View

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Jewish Chicago on Google Maps

Stories of Jewish Chicago

The Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies is holding an eight-part exhibit that explores the Chicago Jewish experience. As part of the exhibit the Institute is creating the Greater Chicago Jewish Memory Map.

Visitors are being asked to contribute their own personal stories of Chicago Jewish life to a Google Map of the Chicago area. You can read the submitted stories on the Stories of Jewish Chicago page. Each of the stories is accompanied by a Google Map showing the location talked about by the visitor.

Eventually all the stories will also be added to the Greater Chicago Jewish Memory Map (currently blank).

Also See

• The Jew Map - this map shows the locations of important landmarks in Jewish history from the Red Sea to Katz' Delicatessen in New York
• Jewish Women on the Map - a guide to physical landmarks in Jewish women’s history

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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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