Mapperz - The Map & GIS News finding blog. With so many Mapping sites online. This blog tries to provide you with the best maps and services that are currently available online.
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Transport for London (TfL) have launched Bus Maps using Google Maps. *almost a contender for best UK Map Mashup Ever. Example route 38 Daytime with all bus stops listed Night-time Route 38 - with all stops.
Optional Night or Daytime Routes
Clear Directions and all stops included
Nice 'search for routes near here' feature Search other nearby routes or plan your journey - or check for planned disruption.
Timetables and Bus frequency is available for all bus stops making it much easier to find your best routes.
If this were in 'real-time' - similar to Real-Time Buses on Google Maps 'University of Michigan Magic Bus' then this would be one of the best Google Map UK Mashups ever >> Met Office Invent still leads that in @mapperz opinion. Still a very good update to what was on offer before.
Google Labs " Google City Tours" which uses Google Maps. The idea is that anyone can locate points of interest and plan up-to three day trips in major cities.
City Tours has a number of tours for pre-set for San Francisco, New York, London and Dublin. Major landmarks, museums and art galleries are available in each of the cities.
Landmarks can be edited on your own tour using the google map. Info windows display this information for the markers includes user rating and the opening hours. The Sidebar shows the order of the walk and the time it should take to walk from one location to the next.
Mapperz Suggestion: The walking directions should follow the walkable path for the streets and not as the crow files in this case. Hopefully this gets an update.
Review of the Day at Wembley Stadium 17/09/2008 The new turf getting laid down for the next event England v Kazakhstan (thanks the friendly security guard for letting me go turf side to take this pic.)
Google Developer Day, London,UK Nothing amazingly new, geolocation for mobiles, GeoIP location, some new phone that shows maps fairly quickly. (though not it's real location)
Meeting some of the real developers people for Google Maps API but not all. Some wanting more details of what is coming - like the reverse geocoder and new geocoder response (creates a bounding box set of coordinates so zoom levels can be applied). But Google rarely give away what is likely to be coming out.
Seemed a little less busy than last years event maybe due to having more space.
Some items like 'clouds' and 'dojo' completely over my head for some of it. Like the Google Apps potential for saleability - 4 users or 400,000 users hosted and load balancing handled by Google.
(jump to 2.25 minutes in the video to view the maps)
Good Food, Good Location, Good Company made a nice day out.
Google have announced the full line up for the day
Here are the 'Mapping' related sessions
Mashing up Google Data APIs
Ryan Boyd
This session will provide a quick overview of Google Data APIs and demonstrate some ways to use them in mashups with other APIs like Maps, App Engine and more. Expect to see code in a variety of languages.
Prerequisites: Developers attending this session should be comfortable with at least one of PHP, Python, JavaScript or Java. Experience working with REST-based APIs a plus.
A Deeper Look at Google App Engine
Mano Marks
Google App Engine allows you to build and run applications on the same highly scalable web infrastructure that Google uses to run it own applications. This allows you to build an application once, and then never have to worry about how many people are using it, how many machines you're using, or how you're going to handle all the traffic. This talk will introduce you to the basic features of Google App Engine, and walk you through building a quick, interactive application.
Some of the topics we will cover are:
App Engine's Datastore
Authentication using Google accounts
The web framework
Our image manipulation API
Using Memcache
App Engine best practices
This session is intended for intermediate developers who are new to Google App Engine.
Prerequisites: If you want to follow along with setting up an application, then you should have a laptop with Python 2.5 and the App Engine Development Server installed and an App Engine account. Python knowledge is helpful but not required.
What's New in Geo
Russell Middleton
This session will cover recent developments in Google Maps and Google Earth, including the Earth browser plugin and new ways to share and leverage geographic data.
Prerequisites: Basic knowledge of XHTML, CSS, XML and Javascript
Gears for mobile and the new Geolocation API
Charles Wiles
This session will provide an overview of Gears and it's usefulness in mobile browsers and then focus on how you can easily location-enable web apps with a few simple javascript calls.
Prerequisites: You should have reviewed the Gears APIs on code.google.com/apis/gears and in particular, have familiarised yourself with the Geolocation API.
Note:It is recommended you have a laptop with the 'Prerequisites' installed.
The Maps API allows you to embed geographical information into your site using JavaScript, you can add overlays to your map including markers, polylines and shadowed information windows. It is a great way to enhance your current site content and best of all, using the Google Maps API is free. To learn more and to find out whether your site meets the terms of use, visit the Maps API FAQ.
