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Google Book Search and Real-Time Traffic in Google Earth, and Much More...
posted by Satri
on Tuesday August 21, @08:25AM
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from the you-can't-have-too-much-of-a-good-thing? dept.
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from the you-can't-have-too-much-of-a-good-thing? dept.
The official Google Lat Long blog informs us the Google Book Search feature has found its way to Google Earth (previously on Slashgeo), in the mean time, they also announced real-time traffic directly in Google Earth. From the first announcement: "Did you ever wonder what Lewis and Clark said about your hometown as they passed through? What about if any other historical figures wrote about your part of the world? Earlier this year, we announced a first step toward geomapping the world's literary information by starting to integrate information from Google Book Search into Google Maps. Today, the Google Book Search and Google Earth teams are excited to announce the next step: a new layer in Earth that allows you to explore locations through the lens of the world's books." Ogle Earth shares what he thinks of the new features, including screenshots.
I take this opportunity to share a few older Google-related stories not yet featured on Slashgeo; a tutorial to create QuickTime VR panoramas out of Google Earth. The previous announcement on rush hour taken into account when evaluating directions within Google Maps. And finally, the inclusion of sponsored links capabilities in the Google Maps API, allowing you to display Google Ads on your Google Maps. See also related stories below.
Related Stories
Application Domains: Real-Time Train Mapping with Google Maps
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Very Spatial linked to a surprisingly interesting website providing real-time mapping of Dublin's trains using Google Maps. Not much info is provided about the site, but it's however worthed a look.
Technology: Another Google Mashup - Panorama Explorer
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Joon Moser writes "As we all know there are quite a lot of Google Mashups out there. Some of them tag photos on a Google map to provide geocoding information. Panorama Explorer is a photo sharing application that provides exactly that kind of a service.
But what makes Panorama Explorer special ? Besides that you can explore the world by using the navigation provided by Google Map, you have the possibility to search for photos by applying geo data filters. The next feature in pipeline is batch upload of photos combined with GPS data. Check it out !"
Application Domains: Live Traffic on Mobile Phones from Google
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Slashdot discuss a Reuters short news on Google offers live traffic maps on cell phones. The slashdot summary: "Reuters is covering the newest offering from Google: real-time traffic mapping on your cell phone. Now you can check how the traffic is ahead of you, of course as long as you don't cause the traffic incident yourself by checking the local issues on your cell phone while driving. Point your cell phone browser to http://google.com/gmm to get your local traffic maps if you live within one of the 30 U.S. cities where this is available."
Google Books Search with Mapped Content 2 comments
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The import cartography blog links to this blog explaining how books searched on Google now have their content mapped. From the official blog: "Our team has begun to animate the static information found in books by organizing a sample of locations from them on an interactive Google Map, with snippets of text from the book, and links to the actual pages where the locations are mentioned. When our automatic techniques determine that there are a good number of quality locations from a book to show you, you'll find a map on the "About this book" page." This seems this work only for the english language Google pages right now.
Ads in Google Earth and Minor Update
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The Google Earth Blog shares the recent updates about ads in Google Earth. From the blog: "Now, you might see a special very small placemark icon with a miniature logo of a sponsor on related searches. So, if you went into Google Earth and search for "hotels in Chicago" you will not only find the first 10 matches for hotels, but also may see a few "Sponsored links" placemarks. [...] I certainly like this better than the giant 3D billboards appearing in Virtual Earth 3D." Additionally, Ogle Earth provide some information on the bugfix release of Google Earth.
Application Domains: Google New Ad Tool to Make Money from Mashups 1 comment
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AnyGeo has a summary of Google's new tool to display adds on Google Maps mashups. Mapperz has a screenshot. From AnyGeo: "Now there's a solution (Beta) to help put more cash in the pockets of developers and map publishers. Those looking to advertise on mashups will find a really cool service that will get their ads served in a user-friendly, based on the geographic location being viewed by the map user. [...] Additional revenues will be possible based on ad performance but is apparently not necessary to rake in some green. Obviously with ads updating regularly and changing with the user's map position performance will no doubt be very good compared to the current ad solutions available." See also related stories below.
Technology: New GPS Navigator Using 'Wisdom of the Crowds'
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Slashdot discuss a new GPS navigation system which relies on 'wisdom of the crowds'. Their summary explains it more clearly: "The New York Times is running an article on Dash Express, a new navigation system for automobiles that not only receives GPS location data, but broadcasts information about its travels. Information is passed back to Dash over a cellular data network, where it is shared with other users to let them know if there are slowdowns or traffic jams on the road ahead. The real benefit of the system isn't apparent until enough units are collecting data in a given area - so Dash distributed over 2,000 prototype units to test drivers in 25 large cities." All Points Blog also links to a Wired article on Dash. In related stories below, I included many previous stories which aim at real-time traffic info from Nav Systems.
Application Domains: Microsoft Launches ClearFlow Traffic Tool for Live Maps
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Several geoblogs mentioned the launch of Microsoft ClearFlow, a traffic avoidance tool for their Live Maps. Slashdot also discusses the news, here's their summary:
"Microsoft announced plans to introduce a Web-based service for driving directions that incorporates complex software models to help users avoid traffic jams. The system is intended to reflect the complex traffic interactions that occur as traffic backs up on freeways and spills over onto city streets and will be freely available as part of the company's Live.com site for 72 cities in the US. Microsoft researchers designed algorithms that modeled traffic behavior by collecting trip data from Microsoft employees who volunteered to carry GPS units in their cars. In the end they were able to build a model for predicting traffic based on four years of data, effectively creating individual 'personalities' for over 800,000 road segments in the Seattle region. In all the system tracks about 60 million road segments in the US."
The DEB blog also have interesting comments on the future of this new offer:
"Here’s what needs happen next: - Microsoft releases a version of Live Maps Mobile, with similar features to Google Maps Mobile. - One of them steps up and includes turn-by-turn GPS into their mobile software. GMM is so close to being the killer mobile app. I can get turn-by-turn directions. It can see/follow my GPS. It just won’t tell me how far until my next turn!" I added previous traffic-related stories below.
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