Cyber Journalist points out an interesting example of a news map from Via Virtual Earth. They put together a map displaying headlines from MSNBC. You can move to different sections of the globe and zoom in with a slider. Keyword searching results in clickable red dots positioned at the location of the story.
Virtual Earth is a new map and search system by Microsoft.
Google Maps was the real breakthrough. Their open API allowed developers to roll their own interfaces, embedding Google Maps in their own web pages with JavaScript. Soon map widgets were being profiled in Make Magazine, O’Reilly, Dasnet.org, Map Room, GeoBloggers, Google Maps Mania and many others.
Google Earth (the downloadable application), can swoop in from space and circle as you please. Navigational tools let you zip around any locale, moving in and out, panning around, and circling.
Even though Google Earth’s world is mainly based on flat satellite photos, it does some trickery with perspective that results in a surprisingly three-dimensional look, such as in this view of Wrigley Park (above). WiGLE.net is a submission-based catalog of wireless networks. Portland’s WiFi hotspots use Google Maps.
Scipionus.com (above), is a “wiki” page/Google Map of the Gulf Coast. All of the information on the map has been provided by ordinary citizens, most of whom presumably have come to the site in search of information on the flood themselves. Greg Stoll explains how to make your own map.
Individuals can Geotag Photos to enable Geo Photoblogging for integrating Google Maps with Flickr photos.
The Washington Post has Katrina Panoramas.
Kathryn Cramer explains how to make GoogleMaps using GoogleEarth. It’s the best way to check if a New Orleans address is under water.
O’Reily has collected a flood of new map hacks. Here’s O’Reilly’s Collection of Map Hacking Goodies. You can create a real-time GPS tracker using Google Maps API. Don’t worry about having a GPS device, you can emulate a garmin using GPSGate.
Yahoo co-founder David Filo took a personal interest in helping the victims of Hurricane Katrina; he attended Tulane University in New Orleans. Filo wrote a metasearch engine to index all the disparate related Web sites. Thus was born Yahoo’s Katrina People Finder site. The site has registered about 650,000 searches since it went online Sept. 4, said Jeremy Johnston, Technical Yahoo. Yahoo partnered with SBC to set up a computer lab at the Houston Astrodome to help people affected by the disaster connect with others, he said.
Yahoo is not the only company helping with the hurricane relief efforts. Google has launched a similar, Katrina People Search, site, and Lycos has created one as well.
