Google_Maps » DigGeog

Goodbye Geobloggers, Hello Yuan.CC Maps

Google Earth, Google Maps, Photographs Comments Off

Mar 142006

Sadly, Geobloggers is no more according to Ogle Earth. Perhaps, as someone has hopefully suggested on the Flickr forums, the Geobloggers code could be open-sourced. For those not aware, Geobloggers was a visionary application that located Flickr photos in Google Maps, and later in Google Earth too.

My favourite free alternative to Geobloggers was the GMiF Fire Fox extension which embeds Google Maps into Flickr. I welcome the latest development: Yuan. CC Maps. My geotagged Flickr photographs have a new home! It’s a really simple application that works beautifully, though not with Google Earth (yet?).
Yuan.CC Maps looks like this: (quite a big file)

In the meantime Itag offers a way to conveniently tag a location to Flickr photos, and by adding the FlickrFly script, the photgraph is viewable in Google Earth.

Google Earth signature card

Google Earth, Google Maps, Teaching resources Comments Off

Mar 142006

Google Earth blog has discovered a most interesting site that generates a personalized placemark called a GE Card. Essentially it’s a link that can be added to an email or forum post that displays the kind of information you might include in an electronic signature but within Google Earth.
GE Card generator is in French, but is quite intuitive to use and has a nifty way to locate the co-ordinates for the placemark using Google Maps.

I created the link below using the generator, and an image from Flickr.

GECard – Digital [Google Earth signature]
Once you have created your personal GE Card, it’s easy to edit the details from within Google Earth. The screenshot below shows a modified GE Card. Just right click and edit the placemark, and although a rudimentary knowledge of html could be helpful, it’s not really necessary. GE Card might make a good activity for a modern language or Geography lesson. Students could create cards to illustrate all kinds of information.

modified GE Card
Right click on the placemark and choose ‘Edit’ to see what changes were made to the HTML of the standard card.

3D Tracking

Google Earth, Google Maps, GPS 1 Response »

Feb 112006

Having acquired my new phone (Nokia 6630) and a cheap Bluetooth GPS from EBay. I’ve finally been able to test 3dtracking.net
It all works just as advertised on the web site. Simply install a small application on your mobile, turn on a Bluetooth GPS and walk around. Your location is transmitted by the mobile to the 3dtracking server which draws your track live on a Google Map or in Google Earth.

click to enlarge

A practical fieldwork application still eludes me, but I’m working on it!

Yellow Arrow

Google Maps Comments Off

Jan 292006

Since moving away from London, I’d forgottten about the Yellow Arrow project. Although the concept was born in 2004, it is still very much part of the zeitgeist, and a recent investigation into Semipedia see post, together with my impending smart phone purchase (this week!) prompted a quick post.
Yellow Arrow describes itself as a “Massively Authored Artistic Production” or MAAP, according to the website. It’s a spatial anotation project, the aim being to tag features of interest with a yellow arrow sticker bearing a unique code. When someone finds the arrow, they text the code and receive back a message, about that location. In some cities, the yellow arrows form an unconventional tour through parts of the landscape that would be hidden from non-locals – creating a geographical adventure by text.

photo by Stillben
Potentially, Yellow Arrow would make a unique local study. Where would students place the arrows? What would the messages be?

A subversive, graffitti-based local place study, linking the virtual and human environment? It really sounds like my next fieldwork project! No seriously…

Flyr

Google Earth, Google Maps, Photographs Comments Off

Jan 292006

Flyer is a great little web application to store in your bookmarks. Click this link to try it out. Basically it searches for geotagged images and displays them in Google Earth or a Google Map. You can search by title or tags. For example, typing the tag “landslide” should take you to some of my pictures at Charmouth.

The geotags for this location are a little inaccurate and when geoblogggers is back, I’ll sort them out.

Locapoint DIY Google Maps

Google Maps 1 Response »

Jan 232006

This is just too easy! Locapoint provides an exceptionally simple way of annotating Google Maps. It’s also free! The only problem I’ve discovered is that the resulting code breaks this blog page. I’ll investigate further. The example shows the location of my previous post about the Charmouth landslip. It took about 30 seconds!

A big thanks to All Points Blog for highlighting this one!

I’ve now added the map to a page on Juicy Geography

Sand dune transect using Magnalox

Google Earth, Google Maps, GPS, Photographs Comments Off

Jan 142006

I spent part of today on Braunton Burrows investigating whether a hand-held GPS can take the place of compass, clinometer ranging poles, tape measure and general fieldwork tedium.

slack