The official Google Earth plugin is one free download that makes all sorts of cool stuff possible in your browser. There's
a full screen version of the program (complete with underwater views and 3D buildings) which can be searched by entering queries at the end of the URL. There's
a framed version with support for layers, historical imagery, day/night cycles, and the Google Sky starmap.
Less useful but more fun are Google's collection of "experiments" demonstrating the possibilities of the Earth API, including
a "Geo Whiz" geography quiz,
an antipode locater,
a 3D first-person view of San Francisco,
a virtual route-follower, and
MONSTER MILKTRUCK!, a crazy fun driving simulator that lets you careen a virtual milk truck through the Googleplex campus, ricochet off the Himalayas, or explore any other place you care to name.
Lots more can be found in the
Google Earth Gallery -- highlights include
a look at mountaintop removal mining,
a real-time flight tracker,
a guide to trails and outdoor recreation,
a 360 panorama catalog,
geotagged Panoramio photos,
and the comprehensive crowdsourced
Google Earth Community Layer.
And while it's too large to view online, don't miss loading
the Metafilter user location map into a desktop version of Google Earth!
[more inside]
posted by Rhaomi
on Jun 9, 2011 -
15 comments
ffffl*ckr — Use it to find the Flickr photos you like using the simple idea that people whose work you like, probably like stuff you'll like. You start with a set of pictures. If you authenticate, it'll use 20 of your last 100 favorites, otherwise it'll start with somebody else's favorites. Click any picture to load more. Don't like what that person likes? Scroll back and click a different picture you like.
[more inside]
posted by netbros
on Oct 2, 2010 -
12 comments
Yahoo is releasing a new service:
Firehose, a real-time, searchable index of
social content aggregated from around the web. Accessible via
YQL, Yahoo’s SQL-like query language, the Firehose will gather data from status updates, user ratings and reviews, comment threads, Google Buzz, Flickr, Delicious, Twitter, YouTube, Last.fm and a range of other sites and apps. [
via]
[more inside]
posted by netbros
on Apr 12, 2010 -
34 comments
This post will walk you through the weirdest thing: Flickr's mysterious obsession with Pandas (previously on MeFi:
Link).
posted by lipsum
on Mar 8, 2009 -
15 comments
Everyblock has launched. It's local news culled from (any and all available) services, including photos, news, restaurant inspections, classified ads, and civic announcements. Sounds pretty dry, but looking at
my old neighborhood in San Francisco, there's a wealth of hyperlocal information that you can't get in one place. They're currently in three major metro areas of the US with many more to come --
their launch announcement has more. This site was spearheaded by
Adrian Holovaty, a pioneer of the intersection between journalism and computer science, and
winner of a $1million grant last year to build such sites.
posted by mathowie
on Jan 23, 2008 -
34 comments
Dapper: The Data Mapper A
recently launched service that allows users to extract data from any website into XML, and transform or build applications and mashups with that data.
Described by it's creators as a way to, "easily build an API for any website... through a visual and intuitive process". Plagiarism Today, meanwhile, has
cause for concern, "Dapper is a scraper. Nothing more... now the technologically impaired can scrape content from any site... the potential danger [is] very, very real".
posted by MetaMonkey
on Sep 5, 2006 -
31 comments
For the last six months or so, it's been a war between Yahoo and Google to see who can outdo each other. They're often releasing competing products at nearly the same time, but
Google Maps has held the lead on coolest map for a while now. Yahoo finally countered today,
releasing their beta maps, which work much like Google's, though it uses flash instead of javascript. I kind of like the little video game-style radar map in the upper right to show where you are in the bigger picture and the directions feature closeups on the left pane when expanded. Apparently all the cool API stuff works in it already, and
they've released an events browser to show that off as well.
posted by mathowie
on Nov 3, 2005 -
60 comments
Amazon Light is project powered by
amazon's SOAP API, with a design and interaction reminiscent of Google's clean no-frills approach. Pretty cool and clean way to use the site (without annoying popups or gold box offers).
posted by mathowie
on Jul 17, 2002 -
38 comments
