Denmark in Gray on Google Maps

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The Ã…rhus - Digital Elevation Model is a Google Map of the Danish town of Ã…rhus that uses map tiles created from a digital elevation scan of the town.

The map shows a 3d representation of the physical surface of Ã…rhus. This includes the height of buildings, tree tops, hills the ground and even a ship in the harbour. The Digital Elevation Model was created by the Danish government. The Google Map tiles from the model were created by microformats.dk using the CASA Image Cutter.

Microformats.dk has also created a similar map for Copenhagen, Copenhagen - Digital Elevation Model.

Half a Million Asteroids Mapped

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Today I've been taking a little weekend break away from Google Maps and have been playing instead with the Asterank 3d Asteroid Orbit Space Simulation.

The simulation is an amazing WebGL application that shows a view of our solar system with over 580,000 asteroids mapped. It is possible to rotate, zoom and pan the simulation. It is also possible to refine the asteroids shown by most valuable and most accessible (just in case you have plans to get into asteroid mining).


Whilst we are in the heavens you might also like the BBC's collection of images of the Earth taken from orbiting satellites. 2012 as Seen from Space includes eleven images of some important events that have taken place in the last year, as seen from the heavens.

The collection features satellite images of Hurricane Sandy, the capsized cruise ship the Costa Concordia and NASA's Curiosity Rover parachute landing on Mars.

Mapping the Detectives

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It's time to board the Orient Express as we set out on a journey to discover the most well travelled fictional detective - in the case of THE MISSING FICTIONAL DETECTIVE MAP.

SUSPECT No.1: Agatha Christie

The British crime writer Agatha Christie probably has one of the best claims at having provided the most well travelled fictional detectives. Her output included 66 detective novels and more than 15 short story collections in which she created more than 6 fictional detectives, including Miss Marple and the Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot. 


The Agatha Christie website's Christie Map is a Google Map showing the locations used in the crime writer's novels.

It is possible to refine the results shown on the page by individual Agatha Christie detective or by individual novel. For example, the screenshot above shows the locations in Poirot's 'Murder on the Orient Express'.

SUSPECT No.2: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Probably one of the most well known fictional detectives is the legendary Sherlock Holmes. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's creation is famous for his astute logical reasoning and his use of forensic science skills in solving the various mysteries brought his way.


We all know that Sherlock Holmes lived at 221b Baker Street, now, thanks to The Londonist, we can follow all of the great detective's known movements on Google Maps, with The London of Sherlock Holmes.

The Londonist have used Map Channels to plot every London location mentioned in Conan Doyle's famous novels.

SUSPECT No.3: Raymond Chandler

The American writer Raymond Chandler may have only written seven novels but the seemingly endless movie productions of his stories mean that his protagonist Philip Marlowe is well known to all of us.


GPSing Raymond Chandler is a collection of KML files showing the location of Chandler residences and locations used in Chandler's short stories and novels. The KML files can be viewed in Google Earth or you can and paste the links into the search box on Google Maps to view the locations.

SUSPECT No.4: Ian Fleming

James Bond, code name 007, may be a spy and not really a detective but his shadowy role in the British Secret Service has taken him all over the world.


The Guardian's James Bond Film Locations Map is a Google Map of locations used in the James Bond films.

Licensed to Kill, the ultimate James Bond fansite, has also created a Google Map for James Bond. The James Bond Location Map is a map of Bond's many travels and adventures.

SUSPECT No.5: Hergé

Tintin may be a reporter and not a detective but this didn't stop him solving a number of dangerous cases, many of which took him on a journeys around the world.


Tintin in Brussels is a Google My Map that should prove useful to any Tintin fans visiting Brussels. The map shows the location of the Tintin shop, a Tintin fresco, a Tintin sign and the location of many of Tintin's adventures in the Belgian capital.

A Game of Thrones on Google Maps

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The Interactive Game of Thrones Map is a Google Map of the fictional continents of Westeros and Essos from George Martin's series of fantasy novels A Song of Ice and Fire.

As well as including all the locations in a Game of Thrones the map allows you to view the paths of all the characters as the story progresses. To view a character's path select their name from the map sidebar and use the timeline slider control.


The map used in this Google Map was drawn by TheMountainGoat based on previous work by Tear of the Cartographer's Guild. TheMountainGoat website includes files to view the map in Google Earth.


Westeros Map is another Google Map of the fictional continent of Westeros from George Raymond Richard Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy novels.

Westeros is the great continent in which the Seven Kingdoms resides and the map shows the location of important places in the novels. Clicking on a link in the map sidebar will zoom the map to the selected location.

New Year's Weather on Google Maps

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Before heading out to watch any fireworks tonight you might want to check the latest weather from wezzoo.

The wezzoo social weather application for iOS and Android allows users to share the current weather conditions where ever they are. This means that the wezzoo desktop Google Map shows the real-time weather conditions throughout the world.

Users of the mobile app can submit a weather report and upload a photo to accompany their weather report. The wezzoo social network also allows users to follow other wezzoo members, either geographically to ensure they get up-to-date nearby weather reports, or friends far away to keep in touch with the weather conditions across the world.

Via: GeoInWeb

Book a Flight and Hotel with Google Maps

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Southwest Airlines have used Google Maps to create two useful applications to help passengers find and book the cheapest flights and hotels.

The Southwest Airlines GetAway Finder tool helps users to find flights for specific dates and then choose and book a hotel. The application takes the customer through a number of short steps that involve picking the starting point and destination, the dates of travel, selecting a hotel and the flight before allowing the user to book their selections.

If the user is only interested in booking a flight, without a hotel, they can use the Southwest Airlines Flight Guide. The guide allows the user to pick a starting point and then shows the cost of flights to destinations across the USA. If a destination is selected from the map the user can view all the available flights for the dates that they wish to travel.

Google Maps is now available for iPhone

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(Cross posted on Official Google Blog)

People around the world have been asking for Google Maps on iPhone. Starting today, we’re pleased to announce that Google Maps is here—rolling out across the world in the Apple App Store. It’s designed from the ground up to combine the comprehensiveness and accuracy of Google Maps with an interface that makes finding what you’re looking for faster and easier.

The app shows more map on screen and turns mobile mapping into one intuitive experience. It’s a sharper looking, vector-based map that loads quickly and provides smooth tilting and rotating of 2D and 3D views. The search box at the top is a good place to start—perhaps by entering the name of a new and interesting restaurant. An expandable info sheet at the bottom shows the address, opening hours, ratings and reviews, images, directions and other information.


At the heart of this app is our constantly improving map of the world that includes detailed information for more than 80 million businesses and points of interest. Preview where you want to go with Street View and see inside places with Business Photos to decide on a table or see if it’s better at the bar. To get you there, you’ve got voice-guided, turn-by-turn navigation, live traffic conditions to avoid the jams and if you want to use public transportation, find information for more than one million public transit stops.



The world around us is constantly changing and, thanks to feedback from you, we make tens of thousands of daily updates to keep Google Maps accurate and comprehensive. Here’s a helpful hint for the new app: if you see something off, simply shake your phone to send us feedback.

To complete the Google Maps ecosystem, we’re also releasing the Google Maps SDK for iOS, and a simple URL scheme to help developers use Google Maps when building their beautiful and innovative apps.

The new Google Maps app is available for the iPhone and iPod Touch (4th gen) iOS 5.1 and higher, in more than 40 countries and 29 languages, including Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish. Please note some of the features mentioned in this post aren’t available in all countries.

Visit the App Store today and download the new Google Maps app. We believe this delightful new experience is a great starting point—and we’ll continue to improve Google Maps for you, every day.

Posted by Daniel Graf, Director, Google Maps for Mobile

Count down to Christmas Eve with Google Santa Tracker

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(Cross posted on the Official Google Blog)

While millions of people eagerly await Christmas Day, Santa and his elves are keeping busy at the North Pole. They’re preparing presents, tuning up the sleigh, feeding the reindeer and, of course, checking the list (twice!) before they take flight on their trip around the world.

While we’ve been tracking Santa since 2004 with Google Earth, this year a team of dedicated Google Maps engineers built a new route algorithm to chart Santa’s journey around the world on Christmas Eve. On his sleigh, arguably the fastest airborne vehicle in the world, Santa whips from city to city delivering presents to millions of homes. You’ll be able to follow him on Google Maps and Google Earth, and get his stats starting at 2:00 a.m. PST Christmas Eve at google.com/santatracker.

Simulating Santa's path across the world—see it live Dec 24
In addition, with some help from developer elves, we’ve built a few other tools to help you track Santa from wherever you may be. Add the new Chrome extension or download the Android app to keep up with Santa from your smartphone or tablet. And to get the latest updates on his trip, follow Google Maps on Google+, Facebook and Twitter.

Get a dashboard view of Santa's journey on Google Maps
The Google Santa Tracker will launch on December 24, but the countdown to the journey starts now! Visit Santa’s Village today to watch the countdown clock and join the elves and reindeer in their preparations. You can even ask Santa to call a friend or family member.

We hope you enjoy tracking Santa with us this year. And on behalf of everyone at Google—happy holidays!

Posted by Brian McClendon, VP of Google Maps and Google Earth

Tips for getting the most from Google Maps on iPhone

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(Cross posted to Official Google Blog) 

We hope you’ve had a chance to try the new Google Maps app for iPhone (announced last week and available for download in the Apple App Store). The app is designed to be simple—just to work whenever you need it. Still, we have a few tips to make finding things with Google Maps even faster and easier. All the tips are collected on our site but here a few of my favorites:

• Swipe to see more. In Google Maps a wealth of information is often just a swipe away. Whether you’re looking at search results or directions, you can swipe the bottom info sheet left and right to see other options. To get more details on any of the results, swipe that info sheet upward (or just tap it—that works too). Even with the info sheet expanded, you can swipe to see those other results.

• Place a pin. Get more information about any location by just pressing and holding the map. The info sheet that pops up tells you the address, lets you save or share the place, and best of all, brings up...

• Street View. By far the easiest way to get to Street View is placing a pin. Tap the imagery preview on the info sheet to enter into Street View, then explore! I recommend the look-around feature (bottom left button) which changes what you’re looking at as you tilt and move your phone.

Want to learn more? See the rest of our tips on the site. And as you explore the app on your own, share your own tips using #googlemaps. Most of all, enjoy discovering your world.


Posted by Vicky Tait, Consumer Operations, Google Maps

Follow Santa live on Google Santa Tracker

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The North Pole air traffic control elves have just notified us that Santa has taken off! For the next day, you can visit the Google Santa Tracker to see where Santa’s headed next and keep tabs on how many presents he’s delivered. You can also keep up with him on your smartphone and tablet with the Android app, in your browser with the the Chrome extension, and even in 3D with Google Earth and Google Earth mobile (look for it in the Tour Guide feature with the latest version of Google Earth).



And follow Google Maps on Google+, Facebook and Twitter to get up-to-the-minute details on Santa’s journey around the world.

Ho ho ho! Happy holidays everyone!


Posted by Brian McClendon, VP of Google Maps and Google Earth

The 100 Best Google Maps of the Year

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Around this time of the year I normally look back at the best Google Maps that have been created in the previous twelve months. Each year, as the quality of applications created with the Google Maps API gets more and more impressive, it gets more and more difficult to single out just one or two maps from the hundreds of amazing maps reviewed on Google Maps Mania.

This year I therefore decided to pick the 100 Best Google Maps of the Year. Because 100 screenshots are a lot of images to display on one page I'm splitting this into two parts and (perversely) I'm starting with Part Two picked from the maps reviewed from July to December.

Part One of the 100 Best Google Maps of the Year will come tomorrow!

Spain's Jewish History on Google Maps

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Spain's Red de Juderías de España has partnered with Google to release a new website highlighting Spain's Jewish history.

Caminos de Sefarad uses Google Maps and Google Maps Street View to allow users to visit and tour Spanish cities and discover Spain’s Jewish past. Clicking on a map marker opens an information window with historical information about the selected location and the option to view a 360º panorama using Street View.

The mapped locations can be explored by category, type, geographic zone and date. In total, 523 sites, 910 dates, and 1,667 pictures have been mapped.

Via: Google Europe Blog

Also See

• The Jew Map - important landmarks in Jewish history 
• Jewish Women on the Map - a guide to physical landmarks in Jewish women’s history

The Cost of Two Turtle Doves on Google Maps

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On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me two turtle doves. - The cheapskate! According to the PNC Christmas Price Index the cost of two turtle doves is the same in 2012 as it was in 2011.

Every year PNC Bank shows the current cost of each of the gifts mentioned in the song The Twelve Days of Christmas and compares the cost to previous years. This year the PNC Christmas Price Index has created a fun Google Maps Street View game to explore the current cost of the twelve gifts.

The game takes the user on a journey around the world using Street View. For example, to find out the cost of two French doves you need to visit the Eiffel Tower on Street View and find and feed two hungry birds before this year's price of two French doves is revealed.

The Google Maps of the Year - Part One

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Having illogically posted Part Two of The Google Maps of the Year yesterday, today we get The Google Maps of the Year - Part One.

The Google Maps of the Year - Part One is a round-up of some of the best maps produced with the Google Maps API during January to June 2012. It includes links to some great maps and in conjunction with Part One (July-December 2012) shows both the power and the flexibility of the Google Maps API.

Test Drive a Car with Street View

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BMW i Born Electric allows you to take a virtual test drive in the BMW i8 Concept or the BMW i3 Concept with Google Maps and Street View.

After you select which car you want to drive and the route you wish to take you are placed in the driving seat of your car. Through the windshield you have a great view of your route, thanks to Street View. A small map shows your current location and how much power you have in your electric battery.

If you select the 'Interior 360' option you can pan around inside the car and get a 360 degree interior view of the car and a 360 exterior view of your location in Street View.

Create City View with Google Maps

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Open City Agora is a new Google Maps based application that allows users to create map views that mix several layers of location information from a number of different sources.

Users can create map views from the available layers and save and share their views. The available map layers include a crime heat map layer, film locations, bike lanes, bike parking spots and pubic transit. Users can also add stores, restaurants and points of information to the map using Google Places.

You could therefore use Open City Agora, for example, to create a map that shows the location of Chinese restaurants, bike parking spots and bicycle lanes to help find Chinese restaurants that you can bike to and park your bike nearby.

Users can save their created map views and get a URL for their map to share with friends. Open CIty Agora is currently available in San Francisco and New York.

Bam - It's Google Maps Friday Fun

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Bam - You Come to Another Light

I hear that the new Google Maps iPhone app has rather impressive turn-by-turn navigation. Here is some secret video of Google testing turn-by-turn directions for the iPhone, using the voice of Larry Williams aka Dickeman.

Bam - Along Come Eleven Subs All at Once

Isn't it always the way. I've been waiting ages to catch a nuclear sub on Google Maps and then Bam! eleven come along all at once.
Bam - Ingress on xkcd
Google's Android game Ingress seems to have made its mark with its first appearance on xkcd.

Bam - 360 Degree Video

I've always been a big fan of interactive 360 degree video. The Sphericam is an affordable, GPS-enabled, live internet streaming, 360º video camera which has a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to go into production.

I know I want one!

The video above can be seen in its full interactive glory here.

Spanish Startups on Google Maps

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Spain Startup Map is a Google Map of Internet startups, investors and tech events in Spain.

Markers on the map are categorised by type and the map can be filtered by category. So, for example, if you just want to view the location of upcoming tech events on the map you could switch off all the other categories of marker.

Individual companies and events can be searched by name and the map also contains quick links to major cities on the map.

Also See

• Startup Genome Madrid
• Startup Genome Barcelona

Put down your language learning books, we've got transliterated tiles in the API!

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Posted by Pamela Fox, Maps API Team

Due to the usage of non-latin characters in languages like Russian, and our decision to label countries and cities in their native tongue, I've always found browsing foreign countries in Google Maps to be quite the educational experience. How else would I have discovered that other languages have such pretty swirly letters? Unfortunately, it's also quite a frustrating experience when you're actually trying to find some place in those countries ("Tokyo! SHOW ME TOKYO!! aRrrgghghH!"). Well, thankfully the Google Maps team has now made it easier to have both an educational and satisfying experience with the recent introduction of transliterated tiles for Russia, Greece, Japan, and Thailand.

For users with a browser setting for the native languages of those countries, they'll continue seeing the tiles with just the labels in that language. But for everyone else, they'll see tiles with both the labels in the native character set and in the latin character set below it. You can trust the language setting to get that effect in the Maps API, or if you'd like, you can force a particular output in both the Javascript and Static Maps API by appending the"hl" parameter to the script src or image src with the desired language value. Experiment with the various language/country combinations in the example below to see this in action in both the Static and Javascript APIs:

We're Going to Google I/O!

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Posted by Mano Marks, Geo APIs Team

I'm getting excited about Google I/O May 28th & 29th in San Francisco. The reason I'm excited is that many of you will be there too, and it will be a great chance to meet. Google I/O is like the Google Developer Day we had last year, which in turn was based on Google Geo Developer Day, which we had two years ago. This year, there will be a whole track on Maps & Geo, including KML, Maps, and Mapplets. There will, of course, be other tracks, AJAX, APIs & Tools, Social, and Mobile. Both Pamela and I will be there, along with all the Google Geo stars.

The event won’t be limited to just Google APIs and developer tools. There is a lot of knowledge about web development in general at Google, and we’d like to share that expertise so that all applications on the web get better. And of course, we're focusing a lot on Open Source tools, like the new libkml (more about that in a later post).

Over the two days of Google I/O, Google engineers and other leading software developers will share their knowledge in breakout sessions, hands-on Code Labs, and Q&A Fireside Chats. That's your chance to sit down with Google engineers and ask all the questions you've ever wanted to, as well as meet each other.

Visit the Google I/O website to learn more and register. Space is limited, so be sure to make plans to attend now.

And after Google I/O, we'll be doing other developer days all over the world, so if you can't make it to SF, hopefully you can make it to one closer to you.

Air Traffic Control on Google Maps

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If you have ever wondered what it is like being an air traffic controller then you should have a play with WebTrak.

WebTrak has created flight tracking maps for many major airports around the world. Using the WebTrak Google Maps it is possible to view an animation for flights in and out of an airport for any given day. The planes on the map are color-coded to show planes coming into land and those that have just taken off.

You can click on the individual planes to view details about each flight. Each map also shows the locations of noise-monitoring stations. The stations also work in real-time so that it is possible to view noise levels for any station at any given time on any given day.

I can't actually find a list of all the WebTrak maps for different airports around the world. However the URL for each airport seems to work using world airport codes - so, for example, if you want to view London Gatwick airport you would add 'lgw' to the end of the WebTrak URL.

Mom & Pop's Shopping Tips on Google Maps

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Just in time for Christmas The Guardian has released the Local Shopping Map, a Google Map of readers' tips on local shopping.

The map shows tips about the best places to shop that have been submitted by The Guardian's readers using the #LocalShopping on Twitter or Instagram. To submit a tip to the map shoppers just need to turn location on and take a picture & post their tip to Twitter, Instagram or N0tice.

The map uses an interesting marker clustering system with some very smart information windows. When you click on one of the clustered markers the map doesn't zoom into display the individual markers, as is the now usual practice with most marker clustering solutions. Instead it opens an information window listing all the clustered tips.

This doesn't work particularly well when the clustered marker has 90 tips to display but does work well when there are only a few tips clustered together. This is because the listed view in the information window is interactive. If you select an individual tip in an information window the list slides out of view and the individual tip slides into the window. The user can then read the individual tip and scroll through to read other nearby submitted tips.

Where to Move on Google Maps

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BlockAvenue has graded every neighborhood and city block in the country for the quality of life it provides. The grade for each block is based on a number of factors that are important in determining the quality of life in an area, such as crime statistics, the availability of public transit and the number and the quality of local restaurants and stores.

The BlockAvenue Google Map uses lettered map markers to show at a glance the grade for each city block. If you like the grade given to a particularly block you can zoom in on the neighborhood and discover the locations of local cafes, restaurants and other points of interest.

Users of BlocakAvenue can even leave their own comments and ratings for blocks and rate local businesses, schools etc.

Hat-tip: Street View Funny

Send a Google Maps Xmas Card

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A Holiday Message is a neat little WebGL and Google Maps application that lets you create your own Street View Christmas card.

Creating your own holiday message is very easy - you just need to enter your address or, to create an instant message, just share your location with the app. The app then uses the Google Maps Street View of your location to present a short pan around your street before presenting a Christmas greeting on top of the Street View of your location.

Users can change the wording of the Christmas message shown on the card and when they have finished they can grab a link to the card and share it with their friends. Because the app uses WebGL you might need to use Google Chrome.

Hairy Noses on Google Maps

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Clean Air Asia is a guide to air pollution in Asia with a handy info-graphic guide to how much nose hair you need to live safely in different Asian cities.

If you select a city on the Clean Air Asia Google Map you can get a quick overview of the air quality in the city and a handy little nose hair graphic shows how long your nose hair should to be. Clean Air Asia claim that "the more dirty air you breathe, the more nose hair you need".

After checking out how much nose hair you need for where you live you can upload a photo of your face and superimpose different styles of nose hair on your picture to see how you would look with the safe amount of nose hair.

Hat-tip: Street View Funny

The Future of Paris on Google Maps

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The Pavillon de l'Arsenal is a Paris museum and the center for information, documentation and exhibition for urban planning and the architecture of Paris. To highlight and showcase the architectural projects currently planned and under construction in the French capital the museum has created a Google Map called Metropole 2020.

The map shows the locations of the city's architectural projects. It is possible to search for projects by category and, if you select the Google Earth browser view, you can also see 3d models of the planned projects in situ.

If you select a marker on the map you can view photographs and a detailed summary of the selected project.