Google Maps adds Louisville Street View

Louisville is the latest city to get Google Maps Street View. If you're not familiar with it, Street View gives you a ground-level look at selected cities. You can take a virtual drive down any street, rotating the view 360 degrees to see building fronts and pedestrians. Louisville and Lexington are among 37 new areas added this week. Google is blurring faces now after spotting strange or embarrassing moments captured by Google's roving cameras became a Web sport. Other features added to Google Maps recently include photographs from Panoramio and entries from Wikipedia. To try these just click on the "Street View" or "More" buttons on the upper right corner of the map.

This YouTube video gives you a better idea of what Street View is all about:

[via Twitter]

DesMoinesRegister.com Parkersburg Tornado Map

If you've ever ignored a tornado siren check out The Des Moines Register's map of the Parkersburg, Iowa, tornado, which killed seven people. It shows before and after pictures of the homes destroyed, video of survivors and most astonishing of all, video from a bank ATM showing a house across the street destroyed as the tornado rips through it.

[via Twitter]

Thematic Mapping Blog

The goal of the Thematic Mapping Blog "is to elaborate ideas of how geobrowsers and open source tools can be used for thematic mapping."

[via Free Geography Tools]

PolicyMap

PolicyMap is yet another Web site that gathers multiple sources of data and promises to make it easier to access and analyze. Unlike Numbrary and Infochimps, however, wants to make money doing it. PolicyMap offers three levels of service: Free; standard, for $2,000 a year; and premium, where prices range from $5,000 to a single user and $35,000 for 10 (the latter are the prices for governments and non-profits -- commercial users must call). Paying customers can upload their own data and have more mapping and reporting options. I haven't had time to play with it, but even the free service seems extensive, including access to "over 4,000 indicators related to housing, mortgage originations, demographics, crime, education, income, jobs, energy and taxes" and the ability to plot those datasets on thematic maps. They market themselves explicitly to media, quoting a Washingtonpost.com reporter on the site and boasting that "PolicyMap provides media professionals with quick access to reliable data in media-ready formats":

With PolicyMap, media can:

    * Generate maps and tables to incorporate in reports and articles
    * Search by address, city, state, zip code, county or census tract
    * Create topical reports by predefined region, radius, or custom-drawn region
    * Compare data across geographies or view trends over time

PolicyMap was "produced" by The Reinvestment Fund, "a progressive, results-oriented, socially responsible community investment group that today works across the Mid-Atlantic region." You can read more about PolicyMap on their blog.

[via Free Geography Tools]

Just how useful to terrorists is geographic data on the Web?

You may recall the wholesale pulling of information from the Web after 9/11. It was a remarkable example of institutional fear, simple-mindedness and the politically-sensitive bureaucrat's instinct for cosmetic solutions over meaningful ones. The RAND Corporation took an in-depth look at the dangers of putting geographic data on the Web and found that it posed little risk at all. The 2004 report, which I just came across, is called "Mapping the Risks: Assessing the Homeland Security Implications of Publicly Available Geospatial Information" (PDF):

Our analysis found that very few of the publicly accessible federal geospatial sources appear useful to meeting a potential attacker’s information needs. Fewer than 6 percent of the 629 federal geospatial information datasets we examined appeared as though they could be useful to a potential attacker. Further, we found no publicly available federal geospatial datasets that we considered critical to meeting the attacker’s information needs (i.e., those that the attacker could not perform the attack without).

Our analysis suggests that most publicly accessible federal geospatial information is unlikely to provide significant (i.e., useful and unique) information for satisfying attackers’ information needs. Fewer than 1 percent of the 629 federal datasets we examined appeared both potentially useful and unique. Moreover, since the September 11 attacks, these information sources are no longer being made public by federal agencies. However, we cannot conclude that publicly accessible federal geospatial information provides no special benefit to the attacker. Neither can we conclude that it would benefit the attacker. Our sample suggests that the information, if it exists, is not distributed widely and may be scarce.

In many cases, diverse alternative geospatial and nongeospatial information sources exist for meeting the information needs of potential attackers. In our sampling of more than 300 publicly available nonfederal geospatial information alternative sources, we found that the same, similar, or more useful geospatial information on U.S. critical sites is available from a diverse set of nonfederal sources. These sources include industry and commercial businesses, academic institutions, NGOs, state and local governments, international sources, and even private citizens who publish relevant materials on the World Wide Web. Some geospatial data and information that these nonfederal sources distribute are derived from federal sources that are publicly accessible. Similarly, these nonfederal organizations are increasingly becoming sources of geospatial data and information for various federal agencies (see Chapter Three for additional discussion). In addition, relevant information is often obtainable via direct access or direct observation of the U.S. critical site.

Incidentally, appendix B of the report gives a very comprehensive list of federal geospatial data sources on the Web, including the URLs. Just don't tell bin Laden.

(via The FOI Advocate)

Berkeley/Penn Urban & Environmental Modeler's Datakit

... is free to download and consists of electronic map files "describing many of the physical, administrative, transportation, demographic, economic, land use and land cover, and environmental characteristics of the 48 contiguous United States." These include:

• Municipal, county, metropolitan area, and state boundaries
• Census block and census tract boundaries and selected attributes, including net housing and population densities.
• Highway, railroad, and urban rail transit networks; and air and seaport locations
• Locations of major employment centers and employment data for 1994 and 2003.
• Measures of 30- and 45-minute job accessibility for every location in the U.S.
• Boundaries of all federal lands, including national parks and monuments, national forests, Bureau of Land Management lands, and military facilities.
• Elevation and slope data generated from the National Elevation Dataset (NED).
• Comprehensive land cover data for 1992 and 2001 from the U.S. Geological Survey, including agriculture, forest, pasture, urban, and wetland locations.
• Locations of all major water bodies including rivers, streams, lakes, and reservoirs.
• Locations of lacaustrine, palustrine, and riverine wetlands from the National Wetlands Inventory.

Google Static Maps API

You can now generate a static Google Map just by constructing a URL. There's a wizard to make it even easier. These are image maps — not the zoomable, clickable Google Maps you typically see — which Google says are ideal for multimedia-heavy Web sites because they'll load fast.

The URL to make the map above, which shows the location of the CJ, looks like this:

http://maps.google.com/staticmap?center=38.2463,-85.7608&zoom=9&size=200x200&maptype=mobile\&markers=38.2463,-85.7608,greenc|&key=ABQIAAAAinb4lNGZMYVUNPnvHp7HRRT2yXp_ZAY8_ufC3CFXhHIE1NvwkxSUeiWoopzbMAgQgXOhmRYBQWWYaA

Just stick it in an image tag and you're done.

'Course, if you do this, you will get a map that looks, as a certain programmer/journalist points out, "so 2005."

Free neighborhood boundary map files from Zillow (with some strings attached)

You can download them here:

The Zillow data team has created a database of nearly 7,000 neighborhood boundaries in the largest cities in the U.S. And we'd like to share them with you! We're sharing these neighborhoods under a Creative Commons license to allow people to use and contribute to our growing database.

Now comes the fine print: You are free to use the files in this database in applications as long as you attribute Zillow when you use it. You may also make your own changes to the database files and distribute them, as long as you provide them under the same kind of license and give Zillow attribution. The neighborhood shapes are available below, zipped up in the Arc Shapefile format.

Free Geography Tools notes that coverage is still limited, but Zillow is encouraging contributions and will incorporate them in their files if they prove accurate.

Google Maps now show terrain

View Larger Map

The Google Lat Long Blog explains:

These maps focus on physical features such as mountains, valleys, and vegetation. They contain labels for even very small mountains and trails and are enhanced with subtle shading that can often give a better sense of elevation changes than a satellite image alone.

For example, we think Terrain maps may just be the best way to experience the grandeur of the Grand Canyon or to plan your hiking trip on the Appalachian Trail. And of course, big mountains look really cool. Better yet, you can mix them with custom maps from our users, such as a map of highest points in the United States or a guide to the Pyrenees mountains.

To see the new style, simply click on the "Terrain" button in the upper-right corner of the map.

Multiple people can also now collaborate on making a Google map and you can import KML, KMZ and GeoRSS files.

The World Bank, Mapped

The bank explains:

"We’ve mashed up Google Maps with World Bank data to give you a visual entry point to browse our projects, news, statistics and public information center by country."

geodata.gov

... is "Your One Stop for Federal, State & Local Geographic Data." This looks to be a great resource. Lots of search options, and if the data is downloadable, it gives you a direct link to the files.

geodata.gov will help you:

• Find Data or Map Services
• Make a Map
• Browse Community Information
• Cooperate on Data Acquisitions

Southern California fire maps

Ah, the Santa Ana winds, I remember them well from my California childhood, when I had to lean my skinny body hard into the blast and fight just to inch my way down the sidewalk. I also remember all too well when my pre-teen self threw a match into the dry grass behind our San Clemente neighborhood and watched in horror as the flames took off. Fortunately the winds weren't blowing at the time, and my friends and I managed to stamp out the fire with our sneakers before it burned out of control. The latest fires are not only generating memories for a new generation of California children, they're also a near-perfect Google mapping opportunity.

Mapping Phone Data in Four Easy Steps

... as explained by Juice Analytics:

Have you run into this problem: you have a list of phone numbers and associated values which would be best shown geographically to see patterns, but there isn't a clear way to put the data on a map. Maybe you'd like to see a map of customer service calls by call duration or inbound sales by average order size.

I wanted to share how to MacGyver a solution with a piece of twine, bubble gum, Excel and a free online map tool. To me, this is a nice testament to the simple but powerful data visualizations that can be accomplished without programming skills or expensive applications.

Presidential Election Maps 1789-2000

 Free to download from the National Atlas:

The National Atlas offers a wall map, Presidential Elections 1789-2000, which has also been reformatted into 14 pages designed to be viewed and downloaded from the Web. These Presidential Elections printable maps show electoral votes won, by political party, for the fifty-four Presidential elections from George Washington in 1789 to George W. Bush in 2000. The maps are grouped four or six to a page and show electoral vote results by State. The map for 2000 is also offered on a page by itself, showing popular vote results by county as well as electoral vote results by State.

Ten Easy Steps to Learn About a Place with Google Earth

... from the Google Earth Blog.

Yahoo! MapMixer

 

... lets you upload the image of any map and overlay it on Yahoo! Maps:

The world is a big place. There are thousands of maps out there that provide unique details about any given destination. MapMixer is a new site that combines those maps with Yahoo! Maps to give you a better view of the world.

It's easy to mix your own map. Upload an image of your map, use our layering tool to align it with Yahoo! Maps and we'll do the rest! Your map will have all the features of Yahoo! Maps (zooming, panning). You can also syndicate it on your own site or blog.

Embed a custom Google map on your Web site

You will see a lot more Google Maps on newspaper Web pages now that Google has made it easy to embed customized versions of its maps anywhere. Google Maps Mania shows you how it works. This doesn't have the flexibility that comes from hand-coding them yourself, but now you can make a dynamic locator map in minutes, and given how hard that was just a short while ago, that's no small thing.

Choose your own route with Google Maps

Google shows how you can use its new map feature that allows you to choose your own route between two points by dragging and dropping. You drag and drop the roads you want to take and Google Maps automatically updates the directions, including the distance traveled and the estimated time the trip will take. I tried it, experimenting with different ways to drive to and from work, and found it difficult to get the route I wanted on tightly packed city streets. I kept missing my mark and my route would wander off in strange ways. It's easier if the route you're planning gives you more room to work, such as a trip from Mountain View, CA, to Kirkland, WA, as demonstrated in the video.

Flickrvision

Twittervision is a hypnotic way to watch lives unfold via Twitter. Now there's Flickrvision, which does same thing for Flickr. It maps and displays photographs as they are uploaded to the photo sharing site from around the world.

Gmaps Pedometer

Reporters often need to describe the distance between two points. Courier-Journal reporter Chris Otts recommends the Gmaps Pedometer, which makes doing that easy. You just click to add points to the map and it tells you the distance between them. Intended for runners, it also lets you save and bookmark routes, compute calories burned and export to GPX, a way of exchanging GPS - Global Positioning System – data.