The Street View Social Network

 
Wallit uses Google Maps Street View as the interface for a unique social network. Wallit allows users to create a virtual wall on Street View anywhere in the world, that they, and other users, can then post messages on.

Users of the Wallit iPhone app can find nearby virtual walls and leave a message on the wall. Users actually have to be physically near the location of a virtual wall in order to be able to add a message. This means to leave messages you need the Wallit iPhone application.

However, if you don't own an iPhone, you can still browse the virtual walls on the Wallit website using Google Maps Street View.

The Google Maps of the Week

 
My favorite Google Map this week was Open Road. Open Road from OpenFile is an awesome bike directions application that shows you all the reported bike accidents that have occurred along a suggested bike route. So not only are cyclists given directions but they are warned about the most dangerous locations along the route.

The application uses the Google Maps API bike directions function to suggest a bike route between two points. All bike accidents reported to the police are then shown along the route and the most accident prone location along the route is also highlighted on the map.


This week we have to give a special mention to Google Maps Cube, Google's long awaited Google Maps game. The game is a great way to promote some of the features of Google Maps whilst users are having fun.

In the game you have to navigate a ball on a 3d Google Maps cube, avoiding the 3d buildings and other obstructions, by rotating the cube. Whilst you are also informed about some of the things that you can do with Google Maps.

 
Resource Intensity of Cities is a Google Maps based visualisation tool to analyse data on material and energy use in 42 U.S. cities.

The application uses a Google Maps interface to allow users to select an area and visualise a heat map of population, material and energy. It is also possible to generate a downloadable PDF report for the selected area, with a detailed breakdown of population and housing density, material intensity, material comparison, energy intensity and energy comparison.

Hollande Wins France on Google Maps

Nicolas Sarkozy has already conceded defeat to François Hollande in the French presidential election, despite the fact that results from some regions are still coming in.

You can view the latest results from the presidential election on a Google Map at Google Politique et élections.Where regional results have already been called that region is color-coded on the map to show which candidate received the most votes.

Users of the map can click on any region on the map to view the breakdown of the votes given to each of the two candidates.

Cussing London on Google Maps

 
Ed Manley, a researcher at University College London and author of the Urban Movementsblog, has analysed Tweets in London looking at the prevalence of swearing on Twitter.

Manley looked at the swearing patterns on Twitter by time (swearing seems to get more popular the longer the day progresses) and geographically. A Google Map of the spatial patterns of swearing in London can be viewed on The Guardian website.

The map shows that swearing is less prevalent in the centre of the city and more widely practised in London's outer boroughs.

So do Londoner's swear more at home than at work?

Manley thinks not.You can read his theory about why swearing is more prevalent in some boroughs that others on the Urban Movements blog. 

The Museums of France on Google Maps

 
Carte Interactive des Lieux d’Histoire et de Mémoire is a Google Maps guide to over a thousand museums in France.

As well as searching for museums by location it is possible to refine the museums displayed on the map by their historical period of interest (prehistory, antiquity, contemporary etc). If you click on a museum's marker an information window opens with details about the museum, a picture gallery and sometime even a video tour of the museum.

What if Google Maps Went Live?

 
What if Google Maps Went Live? is an art project from flux/S that imagines a map with live satellite views.

The film was recorded using six cameras attached to fishing rods on the former Philips industrial site Strijp S in Eindhoven. The concept explores ideas around redefining public spaces as places for collaborative performance art.


The project reminds me of Gidivigo's video that previews what Google Maps live satellite view will look like (when it is released in 2050 (maybe)).

His video shows a Google Maps satellite view with cars and trains moving as they would if the view was live.

To the Office via the Store

 
Japanese company Aid DCC has created a nice Google Map that gives directions to their Osaka office with the option of going via different types of store.

Here We Go To Aid DCC's Office displays an animated route from the nearest subway stations to the Aid DCC office. Users of the map can choose to get directions that include stops at different categories of stores along the route, e.g. via bread shops, banks or flower shops.

The map includes custom designed circular information windows that make a nice change to the default square information windows that you normally associate with the Google Maps API.