Map Channels - Location Maps

Map Channels - Location Maps

*Using Google Maps API v3

Location Maps are simple controls to display a map of a single location. Street View can optionally be shown with the map.

Location Maps use the Google Maps v3 API and are provided free for commercial or non-commercial use.

No adverts are included in Location Maps. An 'embed' control links from the map to this page.

Control size, maptype, map controls, markers and more with the new Location Maps which utilizes the fast v3 of Google Maps API.

Technical Notes:

You may copy the embeddable Location Map HTML Page to your own website (change the url used within the embeddable HTML code).

• Location Maps use the new Google Maps v3 API. This is more compact so loads faster.
• No API Key is needed for the Google Maps v3 API.
• The Street View is displayed without using Flash so no browser plugins are required.
• The 'fullscreen view' option included with the v2 API is not available. To see a larger street view click on the Google logo to see the street view at maps.google.com.

Full API reference can be found here http://www.mapchannels.com/LocationMaps.aspx#api

See http://www.mapchannels.com/LocationMaps.aspx for more details

Source: http://www.mapchannels.com/

Mobile GeoRSS Maps *Beta* (Map Channels)

Mobile GeoRSS Maps *Beta* (by Map Channels)

"The easy way to add mapping for mobile websites"

Mobile GeoRSS Maps combines the Google Maps v3 API and Google Feeds API to display a GeoRSS feed on a map that is optimized for mobile phone display.


Create your own Map with feeds for your mobile, mymaps or georss feeds can auto-update and provide you with latest information whilst on the move.

Use Mobile GeoRSS Maps to simply add your map to your mobile website, or to generate a map link for emailing.

Google My Maps are supported. Use Mobile GeoRSS Maps to generate a mobile version of a My Map in seconds.

Mobile GeoRSS maps works on any phone which supports the Maps v3 API, such as the iPhone and Android or Symbian platforms.


Simple instructions to set you up for adding your own feeds to your mobile.

Technical Notes:

This map is a *beta* project, please contact us if you notice any bugs.

Only placemarks in a feed are displayed (lines and polygons are not displayed)

A maximum of 200 placemarks are displayed on the map

Custom Marker styles contained in a My Map are not displayed

base url for the following parameters
http://data.mapchannels.com/mobmap/100/map.htm

f = Feed URL or My Maps ID
r = Return URL
mt = Main Map Type (1=Road Map, 2=Satellite, 3=Hybrid, 4=Terrain)
pt =Profile Map Type (1=Road Map, 2=Satellite, 3=Hybrid, 4=Terrain)
z =Profile Map Zoom (between 1 and 20)
g =Geolocation (0=Off 1=On)
c =Marker Colour (0=Red 1=Blue 2=Green 3=White)

example:
http://data.mapchannels.com/mobmap/100/map.htm?g=1&mt=1&pt=1&z=16&c=0&s=1&f=http://www.entcal.com/rss/bristol_826.rss&r=
(will appear a full page map on a web browser)

Try it out here
http://www.mapchannels.com/MobileGeoRSSMaps.aspx

Nice, clean simple you set up and use, good work by the Map Channels keep up with developments at http://www.mapchannels.com/News.aspx

Switch Maps (Google,Yahoo,OSM, Bing...) in One Map

Switch Maps (Google,Yahoo,OSM, Bing...) in One Map

Map Channels have released Switch Maps


Switch Maps - Straight forward, easy to use and embed in your website or blog.
(Just copy and paste the code)

Switch Maps allow you to create a map that contains:

• Google Maps
• Google Earth (3D Globe) - plugin required
• Street View
• Bing Maps
• Bing Maps - Bird's Eye View
• Open Street Map
• Yahoo Maps.
  

Creating a map is very easy select your map type then customise the map controls and set the width & height of your map.
Then use the 'Update' Button then Switch Maps creates the code that will allow you to embed your map in a website or blog.


Try Switching Map modes: Useful if one map type doesn't coverage your area another will.

Switch Maps also includes the option to include layers that show user photos from Panoramio and Picasa.
You can see some of the many map views available in Switch Maps in the Switch Maps Gallery.

Related links:
http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/2010/01/google-maps-plus-some.html
http://www.mapchannels.com/SwitchMaps.aspx
http://www.mapchannels.com/News.aspx

Well done to Map Channels on creating this excellent and versatile map creation tool.

The London Of Sherlock Holmes...Mapped

The London Of Sherlock Holmes...Mapped

The New movie and the New Map of Locations


Find the locations of Sherlock Holmes and even some answers to clues on this Map of Sherlock Holmes in London.


The whole world is about to go Sherlock Holmes bonkers, due to the Warner Brothers movie starring Robert Downey Junior and Jude Law and Directed by Guy Ritchie of Lock Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels and Snatch fame.

"With each new telling, the character receives a certain amount of reinvention. One thing is constant, though. London. You can't have Holmes without the city he was so intimately associated with. But which parts of town did he know best? Our well of nerdiness will never run dry, so we re-read all the original Holmes tales and plotted every London location on the map above.

Some interesting patterns emerge. Naturally, there's plenty of action around the Baker Street area, but Holmes never once set foot in nearby Soho. Zooming out, there's a surprising cluster of incidents around Crystal Palace. The reason is elementary when you know that Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle lived for a time in South Norwood. We haven't plotted the numerous out-of-town locations mentioned in the books, but you can get a sense of Holmes' peregrinations by noting which rail stations he used most. Southern stations Charing Cross and Waterloo are visited a combined total of 16 times, while King's Cross and Euston are only blessed with the detective's patronage on four occasions."

Key: Green = precise location; red = imprecise location; purple = real-world Holmes-related sites; blue line = route taken by Holmes. Page numbers refer to those in the Folio Society's 1994 collection

source: The Londonist

Created by the Excellent Tools at Map Channels

View the Map
http://londonist.com/2009/11/the_london_of_sherlock_holmesmapped.php

Official Film (2009)
Official Website for the New Movie
http://sherlock-holmes-movie.warnerbros.com/

Map Channels - June 2009

Map Channels - June 2009

A busy month for Map Channels: They have released the following 3 new features this month alone.


• 17 Jun 2009 : Iran Election Twitter Map


Mapping tweets about the Iran Election using twitter #tags

• 15 Jun 2009 : Map Feed Converter v1 (beta)

A utility to convert data between KML and tab-delimited format and text to KML.

• 1 Jun 2009 : Map Channels Version 3.02

Which helps you create maps for your own website quickly and easily.

Updated to fix some bugs and add new features.

Also see http://www.mashedworld.com/ for Google Maps and Street View Projects

Look forward to even more to come...

Recently Related:
http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/2009/06/iran-protests-on-google-maps.html
To keep up-to-date with the latest from Map Channels use the RSS Feed on the News page
http://www.mapchannels.com/News.aspx

If your bored on a Friday try the Quiz Maps:
http://www.mapchannels.com/QuizMaps.aspx

Street Tours - Street View New!

Street Tours - Street View New!


Map Channels have been busy once again and produced a handy set of tools where you can record Google Street View sightings in your own custom map and then embed on to your website.

"Create your own mapped Google Street View tours - embed onto your website"



Blue areas indicate where Street View is currently available.

Future coverage are likely to expand for the UK and new areas such Germany, Belgium and Canada will be introduced.

related links:
http://streetcities.com/Main.aspx
http://www.mashedworld.com/Home.aspx [Street Tours available here]
http://www.mapchannels.com/DualMaps.aspx

Map Channels Version 3 (Beta)

Map Channels Version 3 (Beta)

update 02/03/2009 - Map Channels v3.01 - added features:

* Google Map Maker tiles can be selected
* Fixed caching bugs affecting update and display of map scripts
* Added map cursor shape option
* Added filter and info window link colour options
* Fixed info window and tooltip style bugs
* Added 'infoInitial' map setting and '&id' parameter to display a selected place marker
when the map first loads
* Added local map hosting instructions

Not just an update, but a complete re-write of the code.

New Features

• Restructuring of the design process
• User-definable dictionaries to present maps in any language
• Support for spreadsheet data in either tab-delimited format or from Google Spreadsheets
• Support for GeoRSS feeds using the Google Feeds API
• Marker clustering to display large numbers of markers on a map
• Google Street View (UK Streetview is on it's way...)
• Microsoft Virtual Earth (includes the birds eye view mode; oblique aerial imagery)

Clustering is now available as an option so maps can display more markers easily.

This involves gathering markers dependant on the number that obsure the map detail.

But also gives the user feeback that there are x amount of markers in an area

See the image below ( image source: Google Maps Mania)

Note: The Markers have dynamic numbers displayed on them indicating number of markers within a cluster at a particular zoom level of the map.

There is an option to display Street View and Virtual Earth as in Dual Maps.

(Look out Germany and the UK in the coming weeks)

Multi-language support is improved, users can create a custom dictionary to translate all phrases used on the map.

Feeds supported include KML, GeoRSS, Google Spreadsheet and Tab-delimited text. Feeds can be created separately from the map and from spreadsheet feeds.

Developers can customise the javascript used to display info window, tooltip and icon text.

Demos using Map Channels Version 3 (beta) are available here

http://events.mapchannels.com/ and http://www.seebournemouth.com/

Map Channels - Quiz Maps

Map Channels - Quiz Maps



"Test your geographic puzzle solving skills" and guesswork with this interactive fun map and locating game

Quiz Maps are geographical quizzes using Google Maps and Panoramio Images.

There are ten questions per quiz, answering all ten questions correctly is the challenge.

Besides the quiz there is a Google search bar, plus optional map layers of Wikipedia articles and Panoramio images.

Map quiz can be embedded on your own website and available in 2 formats:

1. World Capitals
2. US State Capitals
   

• Panoramio images are used as visual clues, these are randomly chosen from popular Panoramio photos of a city. As a result some images may be more helpful than others.

• Further features are planned for Quiz Maps, please Contact Map Channels with any comments and suggestions, or if you would like a custom quiz map created.

Go Play: http://www.mapchannels.com/QuizMaps.aspx

Map Channels Events - New!

Map Channels Events - New!


Find sporting events or concerts by location fast.

Map Channels is an exceptional website portal and provider of a range of free mapping tools and custom mapping services:

It has now expanded and now integrates events, mapping and ticket purchase in one website.


Quickly locate events all over the world and select the event by map or city search, also different currencies are supported.

"A world of events at your fingertips"
• Interactive event calendars and venue maps
• Find events by name, category, date or location
• Ticket price comparison
• View city tours, attractions and activities
• Explore venues with Google Street View and Google Earth

Well done the Map Channels Team [again]
To see their progress visit http://mapchannels.com/News.aspx

Map Channels Feed Maps

Map Channels Feed Maps New!


Multiple Feeds from MyMaps or Google Spreadsheets can be brought together on a single map.

How to do this...
To save the KML file, goto 'My Maps', right click on 'View In Google Earth' and copy the link location. Open a new browser tab and paste in the copied link. Edit the link and replace 'output=nl' with 'output=kml', then press 'enter' and save the KML file.

If you locally host your KML data you can use Google Site Maps to get your data included in Google Searches.

GeoRSS Format
My Maps have a GeoRSS option which Feed Maps can use (using the Google AJAX Feeds API). GeoRSS has the advantage that the data is read from the current copy of the My Maps data. Feed caching is used, so changes can take up to an hour to be included in the GeoRSS file.

Advantages and Disadvantages...
The drawback of using GeoRSS is that the style information for markers, line and polygons is not included. You can get around this problem by creating a separate My Map for each place type. Within your Feed Map code load each My Maps as a separate GeoRSS feed and set a different marker style for each feed.
Google Spreadsheet Format
Data from Google Spreadsheets can be used in Feed Maps. The spreadsheet must be published to be used. The first (header) row of the spreadsheet is skipped.

JSON Slow - Tab-delimited Fast
Unlike My Maps, Google Spreadsheets supports JSON format which lets you load in updated spreadsheet data. However the JSON format used does contain a large amount of unnecessary data and as a result map data may not load as quickly as other formats.
Tab-Delimited Text Format
Tab-delimited text files are probably the most efficient feed format. Fields are separated by single tab characters and rows are separated by carriage return (\r) and line feed (\n) characters. You can use a spreadsheet program to edit the file. The Header line is always skipped.


Recommend is the London Tutorial to see how it it done.
http://www.mapchannels.com/mcfm_tutorials/tutorial8.htm