DigGeog » Google_Maps

More on embedding Google Maps

Noel Jenkins — Sun, 06 May 2007 09:49:47 +0000

Another demonstration of the usefulness of the Google Map Embedder tool.
The original Earth As Art Google Map was created by Jonathan Perkins. I’ve taken his KML overlay of images from the NASA/USGS website Our Earth As Art and displayed them on the map below, using the satellite view instead.

Our Earth As Art

Here’s a great classroom example from a UK geography teacher who has created a map of a local fieldwork enquiry:

Embedding Google My Maps in a blog or website

Noel Jenkins — Sat, 05 May 2007 11:54:10 +0000

I’ve completed a “how to” guide for embedding maps into a website or blog, like this one:

Google Maps and video

Noel Jenkins — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 22:35:14 +0000

Surely the long awaited moment when video can be embedded in Google Earth placemarks is almost upon us? Click this link and then the placemark balloon to see video of a lightning strike on the Empire State Building.

Digital Urban demonstrated this new feature of Google My Maps; more information can be found at Google Maps. I’m looking forward to seeing students creating their personal geographies via multimedia Google Maps.

Ed Parsons likes the “2.5D” rendering of buildings in Google Maps, sadly not happening for the UK any time soon!

Updates to Google Maps and Live Local

Noel Jenkins — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 18:29:16 +0000

New developments to the leading online mapping applications are widely reported today. Geography teachers should be aware that some of these features are going to be really useful for writing up fieldwork notes and coursework projects, especially as some form of GIS experience is required by the new Key Stage Three proposals.

Mapperz highlights the new version of Live Local, which is an essential resource for teachers who work in an area deprived of acceptable Google Earth imagery. One of the best new features is the opportunity to subscribe to collections via RSS. At some stage I’m going to repost my own Live Local Collections with the feed link in case anyone would be interested.

Ogle Earth has compared the relative merits of the drawing tools in Live Local and Google Maps in a useful article. I’ve pleased that a number of my students seem to have enhanced their GCSE projects this year with quite good annotation of map and photo data.

Finally, Google Earth Blog is one of several blogs to comment on the new My Maps feature of Google Maps. What’s really exciting is that you can create a My Map and then see the results in Google Earth.

Shaded relief mashup

Noel Jenkins — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 16:25:36 +0000

Jon Parker wrote with information about his new map project, that mashes Google Maps with custom tiles showing the world in shaded relief. It’s a really nice piece of work, that represents topography very clearly.

Visit www.shaded-relief.com and have a look.

Xrez; Ultra-high resolution landscape images

Noel Jenkins — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 18:40:25 +0000

Photo: XRez

I was fascinated by the ultra-high resolution landscape images produced by XRez and described in a post on Digital Urban today. The photographs are produced from hundreds of stitched together, overlapping images, and the Google Maps interface is employed to navigate around the image.

Several of the pictures would be very useful in the classroom and could make a really interesting exercise based on observation and reasoning skills – for example you could take a screen shot of a detail of part of an image under high magnification, then challenge students to find it, starting from the zoomed out version.

ooh Heat Maps!

Noel Jenkins — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 10:04:12 +0000

Recently Ogle Earth mentioned the GeoIQ API friom Fortiusone that can generate heat maps from geospatial data. The demographic battle between NYC and San Francisco demonstrates the potential.

click to enlarge

As one zooms to street level the data is recalculated, and switching to satellite view enables a close analysis of the data. Fun, and useful not only as a GIS demonstration, but as a resource for teaching urban geography.