Google Geo Developers Blog: August 2012

Fab Friday is How We Like It

Friday, August 31, 2012

It’s Friday again, and we’ve got more videos for you. First up is a video we found by AndroidHive on using the Google Places API on Android. A nice quick intro that walks you through the basic steps.

Chris Broadfoot and Paul Saxman hung out Thursday in Sydney talking about a few of their favorite maps and why they like them. Viewers on Google Developers Live also contributed their favorites.

If you haven’t checked out Google Developers Live for awhile, it’s a great way to get live and recorded content about all sorts of Google APIs and developer platforms. Here’s the direct link to the Google Maps Developer events and videos page.

Posted by Mano Marks, Maps Developer Relations Team

Validating Land Cover Datasets with Geo-Wiki.org

Thursday, August 30, 2012

This guest post is by Dr. Steffen Fritz, and Ian McCallum, researchers for the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, an international research organization that conducts policy-oriented research on global problems.

During the last decade, scientists have created several global land cover datasets. Comparison studies show that there are large spatial discrepancies between these products. One reason for these discrepancies is the lack of sufficient ground data for developing and validating these products. To address this issue, we have created the crowdsourcing tool Geo-Wiki.org, a web application using the Google Earth API and Google Earth plug-in. We chose Google Earth largely because of Google Earth’s navigation functionalities, including the ability to adjust the globe’s tilt and see the structure of the Earth’s surface, a significant advantage in recognizing land cover.

In a nutshell, volunteers can:

view disagreement maps derived from three recent global land cover datasets
select among available high resolution images as well as upload or view geo-tagged pictures (e.g. http://confluence.org), and
determine which land cover type is found on the ground and decide which dataset is correct.

We record the results in a spatial database.

Geo-Wiki.org adds data to Google Earth in many ways. A MapServer provides raster data that are overlaid above Google Earth imagery using KmlGroundOverlays. Vector data such as current pixel outlines are generated with JavaScript by creating and adding place marks with custom styles. Point data such as members or confluence points are loaded asynchronously as KML and simply added to Google Earth.

One of the main challenges we faced developing Geo-Wiki.org was the rapid handling of the large global datasets we wanted to visualize. To solve this, we chose the open source PostgreSQL relational database with a PostGIS extension to allow for spatial queries. The database stores the user details, user validations and the pixel polygons of the three global land cover data sets. Although the global land cover maps can be viewed as a semi-transparent layer on Google Earth, the bounding coordinates of each pixel are stored in the database. This representation was chosen in order to quickly retrieve the outlines of the pixels and their attributes at any given point on the Earth’s land surface.

In addition to the Google Earth API, Geo-Wiki.org uses the following technologies: Apache2 web server, PHP 5.2, MapServer, GeoServer, GDAL/OGR, PostgreSQL+PostGIS, JavaScript/AJAX.

We have recently launched a Geo-Wiki.org competition to raise awareness of the tool and to encourage community involvement in environmental monitoring.

Full Submissions for Google Places API Developer Challenge Now Open!

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

announcedGoogle Places API Developer ChallengeVIP experience at Google I/O 2013distinguished panel of luminaries

Bill Oates, Chief Information Officer, City of Boston

John Tolva, Chief Technology Officer, City of Chicago

Jay Nath, Chief Innovation Officer, City of San Francisco

Adel W. Ebeid, Chief Innovation Officer, City of Philadelphia

Mark Headd, Chief Data Officer, City of Philadelphia, and former Government Relations Director at Code for America

John Geraci, Founder of DIYcity.org and Outside.in

Adam DuVander, Executive Editor at ProgrammableWeb

Jeanne M. Holm, Chief Knowledge Architect at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and Chair of NASA’s Knowledge Management Team

Laurenellen McCann, National Policy Manager, Sunlight Foundation

Ed Parsons, Geospatial Technologist for Google

Paul Rademacher, Creator of the First Google Maps API Mashup and Creator of Stratocam

Rob Gray, Global Marketing Manager, Google Earth and Maps

videodeveloper community on Stack OverflowPosted by Justin Chu, Google Places API Product Manager

New options for the Maps Ad Unit

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Our developers often ask about opportunities for monetizing sites that use the Google Maps API. For years we've provided a way to add AdSense to their maps via the Maps Ad Unit, and today we're adding two new extensions to that feature. This means more choices for ads with your maps and an improved experience for your users.

The first extension adds six new ad formats that request a link unit rather than direct ads. Link units display a list of topics that are relevant to the content of your page. When a user clicks a topic, Google will show a page of related ads. Since link units can take up less screen space than direct ads they’re a great option to consider when you have limited space.

The second new extension allows you to customize the design of the Maps Ad Unit. We now support custom colors for the ad unit's background, border, link, text and URL. This enables you to set a color scheme that complements the design of your site.

You can now test-drive these new features with the demo below. While the demo illustrates only a subset of the supported formats with a limited number of predefined styles and on-map positioning, you have much more creative freedom over your own ad unit.

When you are ready to try this on your own site please see the developer documentation and Maps API reference for instructions on how to use these features with your ad unit.

Posted by Jorrit Herder, Software Engineer, Google Maps API

Friday, August 24, 2012

It’s Friday again, and we’re having a ball. Following in Curiosity’s wheel tracks, +Paul Saxman and +Brendan Kenny hosted Mars Mania and the Google Maps APIs! Working with imagery from the Mars rover and the Custom Street View Panorama API, they showed panoramas of Mars and talked about how you could too. Take a look:

Last time I had so much to mention I didn’t have space for this, but I think it deserves another look. On the 30th of July, +Marcelo Camelo and +Chris Broadfoot hosted a Q&A on getting started with the Google Places API. Lots of good stuff there, check it out:

And lastly, and because you know I love the maps of imaginary worlds from video games, I found the map of Tyria, the Guild Wars 2 world. On it, you can find crafting materials, trainers, ranger pets, and other points of interest.

Posted by Mano Marks, Maps Developer Relations Team

Map of the Week: Volkswagen Street View Quest

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Map of the Week:Volkswagen Street View QuestWhy we like it:Google Maps APIPunch BeetleGoogle Street View Google Maps API

VW Street View Quest
Posted by Carlos Cuesta, Google Maps API Product Marketing Manager

Map of the Week: runtastic PRO

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Map of the Week: runtastic PROWhy we like it: runtastic is using Google Earth to show a user 3D Earth View video playback of every run or GPS activity they track with runtastic PRO for Android. In addition to retracing a route, runtastic displays the time, pace, elevation, places of interest, and more. Users can also choose to review their activities with three zoom levels and three playback speeds. [Editor’s note: For this week’s “Map of the Week” post, we’ve asked Stephan Brunner, Head of Android Development at runtastic, to write a guest blog post about what his team used to create runtastic Earth View - Paul Saxman] Whether you’re running your first half marathon, biking across the Golden Gate Bridge, or hiking in Nepal, runtastic’s Google Earth playback feature allows you to hold on to the memory and imagery of your activity. How do we make this happen? The runtastic app captures GPS coordinate data and transforms it into a KML file, and then starts the Google Earth app with an Android Intent, passing a reference to the file in the Intent URI. The Google Earth app loads the track and takes it from there.
The <gx:Track> and <gx:Tour> extension to KML are the perfect tools for making the new 3D experience happen. The <gx:Track> element contains the entire GPS data recorded by the runtastic app, and <gx:Tour> defines the camera animations, overhead view and angle. The Google Earth app matches the elements of both lists using the time-span information from each list element. The result is a smooth animation of the track being painted based on the data from a run, which makes the user feel like they’re flying along it!

runtastic PRO Google Earth Tour on Galaxy Nexus

runtastic PRO Google Earth Tour on Nexus 7

With this great new 3D Earth View, we think that there is no reason to stay on the couch. Get out there and record some amazing activities!Posted by Paul Saxman, Google Maps API Developer Relations Team

Fab Friday is Back

Friday, August 10, 2012

After a great summer vacation, I’m back. I hope you missed me, because I missed you!

This week, there’s a couple of videos for you. First up, we have an Introduction to the Google Maps API, a webcast that I produced in collaboration with the Google I/O webinar team shortly before Google I/O. As you can tell, it has a nice, high production value. Additional plus, I got to use a teleprompter for the first time. So if you are someone who is new to the Google Maps API, or if you know someone who is, this video is a good start:

This week we also have the video of the Google Maps Developer Office Hours, part of Google Developers Live, that Paul Saxman and I did on Tuesday. We talked about the Google Places Developer Challenge and the new Symbols and Heatmap functionality built into the Google Maps API, as well as answered some questions.

And on another note, we’re getting close to 5,000 questions tagged as google-maps-api-3 on StackOverflow, and if you add in tags like google-maps-api-2, kml, and others we’re well over 5,000. I’m glad to see the SO community being so Maps friendly, with tons of great answers. So if you have any technical questions on our mapping APIs, that’s where you should head.

Posted by Mano Marks, Google Maps Developer Relations team

The power of places and big data for good: Google Places API Developer Challenge 2012

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Google Places API Developer ChallengeGoogle Places API
95 million placeshttp://developers.google.com/challengehere+Google Maps APIPosted by Carlos Cuesta, Google Maps API Product Marketing Manager

Maps APIs Blog

Fab Friday is How We Like It

Validating Land Cover Datasets with Geo-Wiki.org

Full Submissions for Google Places API Developer Challenge Now Open!

New options for the Maps Ad Unit

Map of the Week: Volkswagen Street View Quest

Map of the Week: runtastic PRO

Fab Friday is Back

The power of places and big data for good: Google Places API Developer Challenge 2012

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