MarineTraffic is a live map recording ship traffic based on AIS data. The site mainly covers European and North American coasts and includes info on vessels and ports, plus a gallery with some cool ship photos. Similar: see ShipAIS for live vessel movements from around the UK.
posted by madamjujujive on Nov 9, 2009 - 4 comments

Destination: Argleton! Visiting an imaginary place. A fake town in Google Maps.
posted by gleuschk on Nov 3, 2009 - 25 comments

Ride the City maps the best or safest urban bicycle route from point A to B. Presently featuring multi-lingual maps from New York, Chicago, Austin, Louisville, San Diego, and Seattle. Their blog posts updates about new cities added to the grid, or other topics relating to urban bicycling.
posted by netbros on Oct 29, 2009 - 16 comments

The Infamous Witch. El Protector. Opryland. The Strange Case of Scenic Drive. Blogger Aunt B. of TinyCatPants uses Google Maps to link to the "locations" of her original Nashville-area ghost stories, one for every day of October. Link takes you to the map; start with "The Infamous Witch."
posted by emjaybee on Oct 27, 2009 - 13 comments

"Less than 10% of the world's land is more than 48 hours of ground-based travel from the nearest city." In August, archeologists discovered what may be the oldest map in the world. Years ago, MetaFilter introduced us to the concept of the "upside-down map". But a new map released Friday attempts to illustrate how our improved transportation network has managed to consolidate distances on earth.
posted by jefficator on Oct 26, 2009 - 48 comments

The history of Monopoly has been a long one, but the game also helped change history through its participation in providing hidden maps and tools to help British POWs during WWII.
posted by NoraCharles on Sep 19, 2009 - 36 comments

MAPCO's aim is to provide genealogists, students and historians with free access to high quality scans of rare and beautiful antique maps and views. The site displays a variety of highly collectable 18th and 19th century maps and plans of London and the British Isles... [more inside]
posted by slimepuppy on Sep 14, 2009 - 16 comments

Tomorrow, Monopoly City Streets begins, introducing a world-wide game combining google maps and the classic family fight-starter. Buy any street in the world, build houses, hotels and more. Remember, property always goes up, and your siblings always cheat.
posted by pompomtom on Sep 7, 2009 - 25 comments

Atlas of Historical County Boundaries. The Newberry Library has an online atlas of U.S. States and how their county boundaries have changed over time. Once you have your state on the screen, type in a date and you will see the historical county borders over the current borders. [more inside]
posted by marxchivist on Aug 31, 2009 - 11 comments

A piano has 88 keys; Ohio has 88 counties. Cartographer Andy Woodruff noticed this fact while driving through Ohio to complete his Counties Visited Map, and decided, despite knowing nothing about music, to make a map based on this coincidence.
posted by yiftach on Aug 19, 2009 - 29 comments

The World's Best Alternative Subway Maps, including Eddie Jabbour's NYC Kick Map.
posted by nickyskye on Aug 7, 2009 - 48 comments

Internet Mapping Project l slide-showl more about it here. Please draw a map of the internet, as you see it. Indicate your "home". You can download a blank PDF here and email it to [Kevin Kelly] when done. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye on Jul 30, 2009 - 7 comments

Durango Bill's Home Page. With topics that include: 3D end-to-end tour of the Grand Canyon, the origin and formation of the Colorado River, and examples of river systems that cut through mountain ranges instead of taking easier routes around them in Ancestral Rivers of the World. [more inside]
posted by netbros on Jul 22, 2009 - 5 comments

It would take over 50 years after the creation of this map before it was confirmed that California is indeed attached to the mainland of America. 20 Fascinating Ancient Maps (via). More zoomable historical maps at the World Digital Library. (previously)
posted by desjardins on Jul 22, 2009 - 32 comments

Murder: New York City. A map pinpointing murders in the five boroughs of NYC from 2003-09. Broken down by time of day, weapon used, age, sex and ethnicity of both victim and perpetrator. Not surprisingly, in the heat of summer the body count rises. [more inside]
posted by crossoverman on Jul 21, 2009 - 48 comments

High-priced emergency locksmith services clog up local business listings (and Google Maps), driving all the emergency calls to their numbers. It's happened all over the country. E.g., a 'brash new locksmith company' comes to Madison, WI.
posted by grobstein on Jul 8, 2009 - 76 comments

The alphabet in satellite imagery of Slavonia. [via]
posted by parudox on Jun 29, 2009 - 7 comments

"Now this is cool. Hellenic Shipping has a Google Maps mashup showing interactive, live data on the global shipping fleet." [via]
posted by lalex on Jun 18, 2009 - 43 comments

Biblemap.org is an interactive map system for the bible, which is great for visualising where certain biblical events are said to have occured. It's also great for people who don't subscribe to any kind of organised religion but do like looking at maps (like me!).
posted by Effigy2000 on Jun 14, 2009 - 24 comments

The Civil War Preservation Trust has a wonderful page of assorted American Civil War maps. Includes the excellent CWPT topographical maps [viewable online, download .pdf requires free registration], and historical maps. My favorites are the animated maps, on the map of the First Day of Chancellorsville you can toggle between the topo map and a present-day satellite view so you can see the effects of modern development on the battlefield. [via]
posted by marxchivist on Jun 12, 2009 - 5 comments

Have you ever wondered what New York was like before it was a city? Find out at The Mannahatta Project, by navigating through the map to discover Manhattan Island and its native wildlife in 1609. [more inside]
posted by netbros on Jun 4, 2009 - 16 comments

North Korea has a reputation as one of the most secretive, authoritarian, repressive countries in the world. But that doesn't stop Curtis Melvin, a PhD student at George Mason University, from trying to shine some light into the country's dark corners l His North Korea Economy Watch site, which includes The most authoritative map of North Korea on Google Earth l Gulags, Nukes and a Water Slide: Citizen Spies Lift North Korea's Veil.
posted by nickyskye on Jun 2, 2009 - 39 comments

Mapping sound at the British Library. The British Library has organized several of its archival sound collections on Google Maps. The results include Accents and Dialects, wildlife and soundscape recordings from Britain, music from India and Uganda, and a whole mess of noisy frogs. [more inside]
posted by LarryC on May 14, 2009 - 8 comments

The seven deadly sins, mapped across the USA
posted by jtron on Apr 27, 2009 - 61 comments

The Cartography of Recession. Act I, The Collapse: Slate's interactive map of vanishing jobs by county, The Fed's maps of subprime mortgages, USA Today's housing bubble maps, Gini coefficients by state, budget deficits and foreclosures from CNN. Act II, Intervention: The data of Stimuluswatch, mapped, and expected job gains by state, while newspapers and the auto industry die. Act III, the Future: A terrific interactive map from the Atlantic (and accompanying article) hints at the future, showing the evolving patterns of population flows (also see the amazing New York Times immigration map), innovation, and income by city over time.
posted by blahblahblah on Apr 19, 2009 - 23 comments

Paper Cuts tracks U.S. newspaper layoffs and buyouts. Roughly 24,000 jobs lost in 2008-09. It includes all newspaper jobs, from editor to ad rep, reporter to marketing, copy editor to pressman, design to carrier, and anyone else who works for a newspaper. Mapped papers that have closed or stopped publishing a print edition.
posted by netbros on Apr 15, 2009 - 24 comments

A map of the top 50 craft breweries in America by volume. State map of per capita beer consumption. [more inside]
posted by baphomet on Mar 29, 2009 - 119 comments

Holy Land Maps and Ancient Maps of Jerusalem both showcase parts of Eran Laor Cartographic Collection. Both collectiona can be browsed by cartographer and date. Here are some of my favorite maps: 1497 perspective map of Jerusalem, Jacotin's 1818 map of Nazareth, Jordan and Acre, 1685 perspective map of Jerusalem, 1482 Ptolemy of the Middle East, 1751 map of Egypt, Arabia and the Middle East and 1928 perspective map of Jerusalem (complete with Hebrew guide). [Another part of The Eran Laor Cartographic Collection previously on MetaFilter]
posted by Kattullus on Mar 2, 2009 - 5 comments

Powhatan's Mantle was the emblem of kingship worn by Wahunsenacawh, also known as Chief Powhatan, father of Pocahontas. A deerskin cloak ornamented with shell beadwork, it may at first appear to be only clothing but in fact it is also a map of the Powhatan Confederacy, which ruled most of eastern Virginia when the English first settled there. The mantle was acquired by one of the John Tradescants whose collection was the foundation of Oxford University's Ashmolean Collection and the mantle resides there still today. The first linked article is a fascination article about the mantle as well as a gallery of images of and related to Powhatan's Mantle.
posted by Kattullus on Feb 12, 2009 - 5 comments

Twitter Chatter During the Super Bowl An interactive link from the New York Times.
posted by jokeefe on Feb 3, 2009 - 23 comments

Change has come to Google Maps. The Cheney veil of pixels is gone from the Vice President's residence at the Naval Observatory. But don't look for sat photos to show you whatever it was that happened beneath the house.
posted by CunningLinguist on Jan 26, 2009 - 26 comments

Strangemaps presents a unique map of the United Statements of America; it's a map of the USA with each state's motto (or a translation thereof) by artist Emily Wick. The strangemaps post includes an explanation of most of the mottoes below the image.
posted by Eideteker on Jan 19, 2009 - 30 comments

Missed Connections by state A map showing missed connections for Craigslist, by state and gender breakdown, for approximately the last two weeks by Very Small Array.
posted by ugf on Jan 9, 2009 - 57 comments

The Milky Way Transit Authority. [Via]
posted by homunculus on Jan 8, 2009 - 18 comments

Leah Evans is a textile artist who maps imaginary worlds in her quilts.
posted by grapefruitmoon on Jan 1, 2009 - 14 comments

Ground Zero. This Google Maps mashup shows the thermal damage caused by various nuclear weapons or an asteroid on the city of your choice.
posted by homunculus on Dec 27, 2008 - 53 comments

Martian maps and a few others in good quality PDF.
posted by Wolfdog on Dec 16, 2008 - 9 comments

New York Magazine? Popular Science? The Bulletin of The Atomic Scientists? Ebony? Every issue, every page, back into the mists of history. [more inside]
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken on Dec 9, 2008 - 46 comments

I often find myself asking, "Who wants to kill me and how can I avoid them?"
It seems that the list is pretty long. There are a whole batch of international threats out to get me. There also appear to be a number of street gangs, happy to do the deed as well. What's worse is that they are spreading. However, since I don't travel abroad and I don't live in a fancy-dancy city like Los Angeles, Chicago or Fargo, I'm probably safe right? Nope, sadly it seems hate groups are everywhere -- in my backyard and probably yours. I think this year I'm having Thanksgiving in the bunker.
posted by BeReasonable on Nov 26, 2008 - 43 comments

High Peaks: aerial panoramas of 18 famous Himalayan mountains, from the Digital Himalayas Collections, which include all kinds of interesting things: old and new photographs, short films from the 1930's, maps, rare books and manuscripts, songs and stories in the languages of the locals in these remote parts of the world at high altitudes.
posted by nickyskye on Nov 1, 2008 - 32 comments

Electoral maps, going all the way back to the beginning.
posted by interrobang on Oct 27, 2008 - 36 comments

NextBus uses GPS to tell you the predicted time of the next bus. Google maps show buses in real time, and you can get updates on your phone/PDA. The coverage is limited to certain agencies within the US, so these other sites might be useful: Hopstop covers subways and buses in NYC, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, DC, and more. (mobile version) Google Transit has many US metro areas in addition to Canada, Europe, and Japan. (previously) Many more locations inside. [more inside]
posted by desjardins on Oct 21, 2008 - 36 comments

"We can have all the applications and Internet connectivity [...] but that still won't get at issues of lack of electricity and cartographic literacy and suppression of geospatial information by the state and their complicit corporations" reads a recent post on Geowanking, a mailing list for GIS nerds. [SLMLP] [more inside]
posted by finite on Oct 9, 2008 - 13 comments

Trains of Russia, photos from Pavoroz.com, a site about the railways of Russia, the Baltics and the C.I.S. (Commonwealth of Independent States). More than 50 000 pictures of steam, diesel, and electric locomotives, EMU and DMU trains, draisines, stations, tracks, etc. The collection is updated daily. The Turkestan-Siberian railway. [more inside]
posted by nickyskye on Oct 6, 2008 - 26 comments

Remember that disheartening map that cataloged the ratio of unmarried men to women per city, wherein the East coast was Single Lady Central and the West coast was a Boystown? Now there's an interactive version where you can adjust for age range, which dramatically affects the results. [VIA PROJECTS]
posted by zoomorphic on Sep 10, 2008 - 68 comments

Tired of dealing with Amazon and the chains? New in town and wondering where all the best bookstores are? Traveling and looking for a bookstore on your visit? Try the new Publishers Marketplace Bookstore Maps mashup. There you can find all stores in an area, or just the kind you're looking for—e.g. just B&Ns in Pittsburgh or just indies and specialty stores in San Francisco. Notice a store is missing? Tell them so they can add their store to the map. Future plans include adding granularity to the specialty store category so that you can sort by type, such as Mystery, Science Fiction, Used, or Gay & Lesbian.
posted by Toekneesan on Sep 4, 2008 - 24 comments

Visualizing Early Washington. A project at the Imaging Research Center of the University of Maryland-Baltimore County has reconstructed the original landscape of Washington DC before its radical transformation into a modern capital city. [more inside]
posted by Horace Rumpole on Sep 2, 2008 - 21 comments

'Cinematic maps' of American elections a project from the Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond [more inside]
posted by imposster on Aug 25, 2008 - 5 comments

Place Spotting ― Try to solve this Google map quiz. In the upper part of the page you see a satellite picture. Drag and zoom the map in the lower part of the page until it shows the same location as the upper map. Here's how.
posted by netbros on Aug 16, 2008 - 32 comments

National Geographic Map of the Day. Previously featuring maps that run the gamut from automotive discovery and exploration; through literary, witchhunts and imaginary; to historical and Olympic.
posted by Mitheral on Aug 15, 2008 - 9 comments