Nautical Info from Google Maps
I just ran across a great Google Maps mashup for any sort of marine enthusiast. Someone has thrown together a site where you can view tide data, sunrise/sunsets, weather, and satellite imagery all on the same page for any location you ask for. You pass it a city, zip code, or latitude and longitude (DMS or decimal degrees) and it spits out a map with all the relevant tide data from local NOAA or USCG stations. Really neat for that fisherman inside all of us.
Buildings!
Google has updated the regular “Maps” view of Google Maps with 2.5D imagery of buildings and features in some cities. Yet another reason why Google Maps is the way to go. I can now view buildings I recognize without having to toggle to the Satellite or Hybrid views (the quality of which is sometimes too poor to make out features). Here’s a sample:
Google Launches My Maps
Yesterday Google announced what I think is the best feature of Google Maps to date. It’s called My Maps, and it allows you to place your own placemarks, draw your own lines and polygons, place videos, and embed text, all georeferenced and placed interactively on the map. It also generates a public URL for every map for easy sharing. You can even change the colors and annotate your drawings.
The first noticeable difference is the inclusion of a My Maps tab on your sidebar. And like most Google products, you can choose to share your creation or keep it private/unlisted.
Creating your own points, lines, and polygons is all done through a simple drag and drop interface. After you’ve added features, any of them can include a description in plain text, rich text (with a neat little GUI editor), or HTML. This of course will allow users to easily add Flickr photos, Youtube videos, Wikipedia entries… the possibilities are endless. You can also get directions to and from any placemark you put on the map. I’ve been waiting for that feature for a long time now.
A simple table of contents will also give you a breakdown of all your features, which is nice considering you could create a humongous mashup with these new features.
One of the nicest features to highlight, however, is the ability to export anything you draw into KML format. This of course allows you to add your data to Google Earth, or one of the many emerging or existing products that are providing KML support.
My Maps adds to the growing list of interesting features that Google has recently added to Google Maps. Other features like traffic, GeoRSS support, and the click to call feature for phone numbers have all added a good deal of functionality to an already great product. If they keep on their current trajectory, Google’s on pace to dominate the geospatial technology market, at least for the general consumer/prosumer.
Kill-a-watt Energy Monitor
Stephen from Toolmonger just posted a deal on the Kill-a-Watt energy monitor device: $20 from Meritline. We used to have one of these when I was working at the University of Florida and it worked like a champ. It allows you to see what wattage a device is pulling, which is good for determining the real power consumption of that third or fourth PC you have hooked up. As Stephen mentions in the post, this tool allows for an easy “energy audit” of your home. And for geeks like me who’ve got tons of random devices and gadgets all over, you might even save yourself some money.
via Toolmonger
Marine Charts for Google Earth
A company called EarthNC is now providing a CD with 600 NOAA ENC charts and 70 Army Corps of Engineers Inland charts. NOAA’s nautical chart data is provided for free electronically and EarthNC has translated it into an intelligent KML format to be used as a Google Earth overlay. The screenshots look pretty interesting:
Depth Soundings
Vector Data and Intelligent Zooming
Google Earth has really become a powerful tool, even for marine use. With a small laptop or portable computer and a cheap GPS (and an EVDO card if you’re feeling saucy), fisherman, sailors, and recreational boaters can create an advanced data storage and tracking system for themselves. One could store anything from good fishing spots to sailing routes to nice island campsites. And with something like EarthNC’s product, your nautical charts could be obsolete (and we all hate handling unwieldy and sometimes non-waterproof charts on a trip, especially in the rain). I hope that Google, DigitalGlobe, TerraXplorer and other imagery vendors get more into the marine imaging arena. There’s some crude bathymetry data on Google Earth, but for inland imaging, they could do better. This is a very compelling product. It’s nice to see folks really adopting the KML format and doing amazing things with it.
Extreme Close-Ups in Live Maps
Within the last week or so, Microsoft has uploaded about 3.8 terabytes of new hi-res aerial imagery to their Live Maps service. This seems like it’ll really put the screws to Google to get more advanced with their Google Maps service. However, I still believe Google’s got all their competitors beat in terms of the look and feel of their application. It just feels a lot smoother and faster than Live Maps, Mapquest, and Yahoo! Maps. They’re also coming along on their Mobile Maps and direction finding features. This ultrasharp aerial stuff from Microsoft is very impressive, though, and because it’s oblique it’s much easier to pick out landmarks in the cities. Here’s a side-by-side comparison at the closest zoom of the Westin Peachtree in Atlanta:
Google Maps
Microsoft Live Maps
via Download Squad
New Google Earth Imagery
Last week Google released a slew of new imagery, much of it hi-res. They’ve also updated and corrected some imagery problems. Here are the details:
New hi resolution:
- Canada: Downtown Vancouver, BC
- England: Northamptonshire, Nottingshire, Berkeshire, Peakdistrict, Birmingham, Greater Manchester, Avon, Gloucestershire, Linconshire
- France: Rennes, Poitiers
- US: Omaha, NE; Missoula, MT; Amherst, MA; Keowee, SC; Catawba Wateree, NC/SC; Rolla, MO; Nashville (”Burbia”), TN; Gaston County, NC; Anne Arundel County, Metro Water District of Southern California; State of Arkansas
Updated imagery:
- Spain: Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, El Hierro, La Gomera, Tenerife, and Las Palmas (Canary Islands) Spain
- US: Austin, TX; San Bernardino, CA; State of Connecticut, Greater Los Angeles Area, CA
- Australia: Sydney harbor area
Fixes:
- Danish plane replicants removed (read more)
- Andes, Machu Picchu terrain repaired