Google Maps Platform

5 Great Maps... That are just great!

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Styled MapsFusion TablesPlaces APIInstaEarth

InstagramPlaces APIAutocompleteTeleGeography - Submarine Cable Map

Styled MapsFusion TablesDART St. Louis

Berliner Morgenpost - Berlin Elections Map

5 Great Maps from GermanyFusion TablesDodge Journey Search

Styled MapsPlaces APIAutocompletePosted by Carlos Cuesta, Geo APIs Product Marketing Manager

5 Großartige Karten aus Deutschland

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

The Google Maps API is truly an international product with coverage from Hanoi, Vietnam to Lahore, Pakistan and everywhere in between. Like the extensive coverage of Google Maps (thanks in part to user generated edits via Google Map Maker), our developer community is internationally extensive as well! Google developers exist in just about every country and our Google Technology User Groups (GTUGs) have over 253 chapters around the world! To celebrate the global nature of Google Geo APIs and its developers, this month we’ve decided to highlight five great Geo API implementations from developers aus Deutschland! (that’s ‘from Germany’ for non-German speakers :)

Street View Live from Lufthansa

Street View API. For example, by clicking on the Paris icon, users will be taken to Street View imagery of the Eiffel Tower to entice them to travel to the City of Lights.

Bikemap.net

Bikemap.net, built by Toursprung from Austria and Germany, allows cyclist to view and share bicycling routes from all over the world. Users can rate routes, mark their favorites, send the GPS coordinates to a mobile device, suggest changes to routes, and even share the routes on social media sites. Each route includes details about the distance, surfaces, and difficulty. To help cyclists better understand the terrain the site has an interactive elevation bar. A similar effect can be achieved using the Google Elevation API.

McDonalds Store Locator

The German online destination for McDonald’s features a very nice store locator built on the Google Maps API. Very similar to another store locator built by German company, Hugo Boss, this store locator uses the map as both its background and focal point. The store locator also features custom icons, category filtering (24hr, wifi, drive through, etc), and custom controls.

Mare Verlag - Interactive World Map

Maps become very powerful when they are used to add geo context to information. German magazine, Mare, is using the Google Maps API to geotagged their stories and display them on a map. You can use the map to focus in on a particular part of the world and the application will populate the map with the stories that occurred in that region.

Munich S-Bahn Live Tracking on Google Maps

What’s great about this map is that it shows Munich S-Bahn transit system in real time as the trains travel through the city. There are clickable custom icons for each train, representing their line and when clicked on display stop information in an infowindow. The Google Maps API is a great solution for real-time asset tracking for both transit and business applications. To find out more about using asset tracking for business applications, visit the Google Geo Enterprise website.

Posted by Carlos Cuesta, Geo APIs Product Marketing Manager

5 Great Maps for Travelers

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Rome 2 Rio

The Guardian - FCO Travel Advice Map

Plnnr

Pitchup.com

Sit or Squat

Posted by Carlos Cuesta, Geo APIs Product Marketing Manager

5 Great University Campus Maps

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

NCAA basketball tournament
Northeastern University

Google SketchUp
University of Washington

custom imagery overlay
University of Ottawa

City of Ottawa’s visitors site
University of California - San Diego

University of Notre Dame

Mobile Campus Maps
Geo Developers BlogPosted by Carlos Cuesta, Geo APIs Product Marketing Manager

5 Great User Created Maps Chronicling Egypt

Thursday, February 24, 2011

[Cross posted from Google Lat/Long Blog] NY Times - Mapping the Protest in Cairo Day by Day

Al Jazeera - Mapping the Day of Wrath

Google EarthHypercities Egypt

MiBazaarGeoEye Tahrir Square Imagery

historical imageryEgypt Protests in Google My Maps by Storyful.com

http://maps.google.com/getmapsHow you can help:Google Map Makerselect countries and territoriesPosted by Carlos Cuesta, Geo APIs Product Marketing Manager

5 Great Ad Campaigns + Maps

Monday, January 24, 2011

The Google Maps API has always been a great way to visualize data, but recently more and more advertising agencies are realizing the potential that the Maps API has for creative and engaging product campaigns.

Whether it’s automobiles, zombie trains, a blockbuster action movie, a board game, or even a bathroom cleaning product, there’s a map application for that product and it is changing the face of interactive advertising.

Domestos Flush Tracker

Domestos is a brand of bleach sold in the UK, South Africa, and Poland. As an advertising campaign for this bathroom product, Domestos created a “Flush Tracker” that lets you track where your flush goes after it leaves your house and enters the local sewer system. The animated line on the map simulates the speed at which refuse moves the through sewer system.

A-Team - Drive the A-Team Van

Nothing is more iconic of the A-Team than Mr. T’s van. Using the Earth API, users can drive Mr. T’s van through 3D models of 15 international cities. This implementation was seamlessly embedded into a YouTube landing page for the movie, where users can watch special movie clips that are unlocked by completing certain driving stunts.

Virgin Trains - Don’t Go Zombie...

From Virgin Trains, “The streets have been taken over by frustrated car-driving zombies who need to be saved. They have to get to the comfort of a Virgin Train and only you can help them with your special ticket machine. Follow the Map to get to your destination, saving zombies on the way.”

Alfa Romeo - Virtual Ownership

Using the Street View API, users can plug in their address and virtually place an Alfa Romeo Giulietta in their driveway. The size, color, and positioning of the vehicle can also be manipulated, creating the perfect postcard to share on Facebook, Twitter, or email to a friend.

Monopoly City Streets

Although no longer live, this highly addictive, global Google Maps version of Monopoly will always be remembered as a great advertising campaign. Users could buy any street in the world and build hotels, houses, stadiums, castles and skyscrapers (to name a few). Fortunately, this truly unique idea was well documented and you can view demos of the game on YouTube: http://goo.gl/p0aEh and http://goo.gl/uXx4k

Posted by Carlos Cuesta, Maps API Product Marketing Manager

5 Great Chrome Web Store Apps + Maps

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Last week we opened the Chrome Web Store, an online marketplace where users can discover thousands of web apps, extensions, and themes for Google Chrome. With millions of people already using Chrome, the Web Store is a great platform for developers to generate both exposure and revenue for their applications.

Many of these Chrome Apps are utilizing our Geo APIs. Here we’ve highlighted 5 great Chrome apps using Google Maps API.

TripTrace

TripTrace organizes all the important places that you’ve been to or think you might want to visit; perfect for local exploration or vacation planning. Photos, events, and news are merged with your personal address book, check-ins, bookmarked web pages and more.

Wikihood

Wikihood World Browser gives users with a unique way to browse and discover knowledge. By organizing Wikipedia articles geographically, users can quickly find information about a given location on the map. Wikihood makes browsing even easier by providing a short synopsis of an article on the left side when the article’s geolocation is selected on the map.

Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs is a great GPS management tool. Users can visualize, organize, edit, and share GPS data collected from any GPS enabled device (including Android devices!). Breadcrumbs is also integrated with the Google Earth API for 3D visualizations.

Delta Embark

Whether you’re planning your next vacation, trying to find a restaurant on your next business trip, or just looking for some travel inspiration this Chrome optimized travel guide is a delight to use. Travel planning made fun and easy, brought to you by Delta Airlines!

Weatherbug

Don’t be late to Grandma’s this holiday season! Weatherbug let’s you view your weather and get the latest local current conditions, forecast, traffic information, and more for thousands of locations around the world.

To learn more about adding your apps to the Chrome Web Store, check out our developer documentation about apps and the store.

Posted by Carlos Cuesta, Maps API Product Marketing Manager

Five Great Fusion Tables + Maps Examples

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Early last October we blogged about Five Great Styled Maps Examples, which received a very positive response. Building upon this, we’ve decided to make “Five Great Maps Examples” a monthly feature of the Geo Developers Blog. Each month we’ll pick five great maps using a certain technology, theme, or just a mix of five great maps that caught our attention. This month we will be focusing on Fusion Tables + Maps API implementations.WikiEDdata - Mapping Poverty in Washington School Districts