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

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

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

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

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

Google Maps now integrates with Wikipedia (click "More" tab). Concharto is a geographic wiki for documenting historical events. Flick also has a map service.
posted by stbalbach on May 14, 2008 - 22 comments

Need an apartment? MapsKrieg is a mashup of Google Maps and Craigslist real estate listings that can show you just how close to the Tenderloin you'll be.
posted by plexi on Apr 30, 2008 - 9 comments

Although its App Engine rollout is getting the bulk of the headlines today, Google rolled out another small product: an expansion of its Google Transit website. [more inside]
posted by WCityMike on Apr 8, 2008 - 47 comments

Year Zero throughout history. Waffle Houses per capita. The 20th Century on Google Image. Dorothy Gambrell is very fond of data. [more inside]
posted by nebulawindphone on Mar 21, 2008 - 14 comments

The 21 Steps is a spy thriller short story that is told using Google Maps. [via mefi projects]
posted by brain_drain on Mar 20, 2008 - 20 comments

GoogleDrive. Drive a little car around Google Maps. Potentially useless. Enjoy.
posted by XQUZYPHYR on Mar 18, 2008 - 41 comments

The Beer Mapping Project is a Google Maps mashup with brewery and pub locations. So far, they cover eight countries, including Belgium, the UK, Australia, and, well, Italy. There are of course multiple regions of the US.
posted by A dead Quaker on Feb 13, 2008 - 13 comments

Plan your trip to a far away spot on the globe. You might wish to walk in a straight line or maybe just take the shortest route (other than, perhaps, digging). Take your camera in case you pass one of these. [more inside]
posted by rongorongo on Feb 6, 2008 - 28 comments

The most interesting spots on Google maps.
posted by desjardins on Dec 14, 2007 - 33 comments

The most amazing Google thing in awhile launched today. Walk the streets of New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Denver, and Miami using Google's new Street View. You can look and move in any direction, and the detail is good enough to read license plates. It is getting lots of attention, though it makes some people a little afraid and has others scrambling. [Requires Flash. Click on the city names, really, it is worth it.]
posted by blahblahblah on May 29, 2007 - 107 comments

Mother Roads. You can now customize Google maps to add commentary, photos, audio, and video. creating your own annotated maps. The linked example is a collection of oral histories of Route 66; look around for Olympic Host Cities, Monster Sightings, and more.
posted by Miko on Apr 5, 2007 - 22 comments

Long Wharf in Boston and European route E5 are now stops on convenient routes for anyone looking to save a little money on airfare. Whether you're heading from Newfoundland to England or Moscow to Alaska, Google Maps recommends these places as (literal) jumping-off points. Just remember to pack your goggles.
posted by CrunchyFrog on Mar 29, 2007 - 13 comments

A Google Map mash-up shows how hospital closures in NYC disproportionately effect the poor and people of colour. It's a pretty slick presentation of the data.
posted by chunking express on Mar 1, 2007 - 36 comments

Murder Map Mashup: New York, Boston, Baltimore, and New Orleans have all mapped Google to murder.
posted by four panels on Feb 13, 2007 - 25 comments

a Google Maps view of NYC, centered on Central Park Google Maps has started displaying subway stops (with the names of the lines that serve each each stop) in New York City. Clearly this is a work in progress (full building outlines are available only in some parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn, and some subway stops currently list only one of the multiple trains that serve the stop). Still, this is excellent news not only for natives but also for tourists (whose only subway-map reference may be the significantly, sometimes radically "not to scale" version put out by the MTA).
posted by allterrainbrain on Feb 9, 2007 - 46 comments

Das Projekt "Map"
posted by Tlogmer on Dec 1, 2006 - 18 comments

Printed Matter "Markus Dressen has taken the power of Google Maps towards a showcase of illumined manuscripts, Bauhaus design, and medieval whimsy"
posted by dhruva on Oct 23, 2006 - 6 comments

Google Video + Google Maps + Rendezvous = Awesome Its been posted previously, but now with a map illustrating the route taken in real-time.
posted by lemonfridge on Aug 18, 2006 - 26 comments

Google Maps flight simulator. Well, not a simulator so much. But surprisingly good fun. Flash.
posted by Jimbob on Aug 5, 2006 - 25 comments

If you want to see all the interesting stuff hidden in Google Maps then you need look no further than a site like Google Sightseeing, but what about the other way around? If you've ever wished Google Maps was better labeled then Wikimapia might be what you're looking for.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia on Jul 19, 2006 - 29 comments

Virtual Tresspassing is yet another Google maps mashup, but one of the minority (at least that I have found) that let you add markers of your own that are persistent and visible to others. Is it at all useful? Who cares, I was a cute kid and I don't have to risk PMITA prison like a common street tagger - I can be leet and from da streetz while remaining a pasty-faced geek.
posted by phearlez on Apr 19, 2006 - 10 comments

Oprahhhhh Froooooom Sppaaaaaaaaacccceee... and other interesting landmarks via The World According to Google.
posted by Saucy Intruder on Mar 23, 2006 - 25 comments

Google goes to Mars. Mars looks big [video].
posted by bigmusic on Mar 12, 2006 - 29 comments

A world of sounds. Despite their difficult URL, The Freesound Project has grown at a rapid pace over the last year, arguably surpassing archive.org's audio library when it comes to sound effects, field recordings, site design, and usability. Now Freesound is combining their sound library with geotagging and Google Maps, allowing users to navigate the world by sound too! (previously on mefi)
posted by insomnia_lj on Mar 4, 2006 - 11 comments

Google's UK satellite photos have been drastically improved
posted by Protocols of the Elders of Awesome on Feb 5, 2006 - 72 comments

GarbageScout. An interactive online map for locating and posting free stuff that's lying around your neighborhood.
posted by stbalbach on Feb 4, 2006 - 22 comments

Yet another Google Maps hack for the NYC subway system. This one helps you plan your trip from point A to point B, and gives you an estimated travel time. Most locals will quickly find that the routes it suggests usually aren't the optimum, however this may be useful for visitors, at least until Friday morning. In the event of a strike, this is your best bet for some form of direction.
posted by allkindsoftime on Dec 14, 2005 - 20 comments

Wayfaring.com -- Share your personalized Google maps of your favorite watering holes, hiking trails, or roadside attractions, using numerous customization features. Still in its early stages, you can follow its growing pains on the development blog or post bug reports in the forums.
posted by Gator on Dec 2, 2005 - 4 comments

Play RISK using Google Maps. From the FAQ: For some reason I decided a bit after the API for Google Maps came out that it would be awesome to be able to play Risk on it... I've always been a gamer and thought this was the perfect step.
posted by KevinSkomsvold on Nov 8, 2005 - 37 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

Placeopedia combines Wikipedia and Google Maps.
posted by Tlogmer on Sep 21, 2005 - 11 comments

FlashEarth is a Flash app that adds continuous zoom and rotation abilities to Google Maps/MSN VirtualEarth. Created by Paul Neave.
posted by gwint on Aug 17, 2005 - 16 comments

The GMap Pedometer is the coolest Google maps application I've seen. I found my 3-mile round trip daily commute is really only 2.5 miles, damnit.
posted by MrMoonPie on Aug 8, 2005 - 83 comments

Find the Landmark: A Google Maps Game
posted by Vidiot on Aug 1, 2005 - 9 comments

Google Earth: Zero Hour +1 If Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith was responsible for a productivity loss of $600 million (for people playing hooky), then the release of Google Earth has to be responsible for at least $100m. So the next question is...what's next? When you think about all the Google Maps hacks, from craigslist, to GasBuddy (offline), Chicago Crimestats and Transit Maps, London Traffic Cams, various sight seeing sites, NYC Subway Stops, plus integration with BlogWise, Terraserver, Host-IP (broken?), Yahoo Traffic, and the US Census, you might wonder what else could be integrated into gEarth?

Things I'm hoping for? How about integrating historical markers, daytrip resources, factory tours, social demographics (like Nationmaster), politics (fundraising, election results, registration, polling place location, election irregularities), mapped to do lists, real-time weather and traffic, things that aren't there anymore, custom atlas creation, IMDB movie location shoots, tighter integration with topographical maps, WiFi access Points, a News Attention Index, shipwrecks, Job Searches, and tighter integration with the USGS. As shown in the gEarth interface (left hand side, first one in "Layers"), their online community is already working on using, improving, and customizing gEarth's new features, including some updates (Caution, requires the integration of *.kml file, *.eta, or *.kmz files.)
posted by rzklkng on Jun 29, 2005 - 21 comments

Do You Live Near a Brothel? It turns out that I do, and they're at Sacramento State's Art Department, the local office of NOW, and the Sacramento Film Commission, among others. Dubya, as it turns out, lives near a bunch of them as well, including the Center for Public Integrity and the local branch of the DC Public Library. You can find out the houses of ill repute near you, too, by simply entering your zip code and the word "brothels" in the Google Maps search box. It's supposed to be returning destinations for that type of local business. Oops. Google has no comment.
posted by robhuddles on May 13, 2005 - 52 comments

Google Globetrotting. Play armchair traveler or spot-the-anomaly with thousands of Google Maps satellite photos!
posted by Lush on May 6, 2005 - 9 comments

Google Maps now does satellite images which is pretty cool (zoom all the way in), and what everyone predicted they would do with the Keyhole software company they bought. The part that freaks me out is finding my own house with my own car in the driveway, taken last fall (by the looks of construction in the neighborhood). I guess it's time for all of us to have our Streisand moment and wonder when satellite imagery has gotten too good. [via]
posted by mathowie on Apr 4, 2005 - 132 comments

Google maps is still in beta form and still limited to the US. One potentially useful feature is the option to search for suppliers of a particular service. For example searching for Pizza in Chicago brings up a map showing pizza outlets in central Chicago.

Searching for an Asshole, Dickhead, or even Institutionalized economic repression, however, bring up some rather more unusual results. Links possibly NSFW. Via memepool.
posted by bap98189 on Feb 17, 2005 - 35 comments

Use the free 7 day trial while it's available! This lil program lets you zoom in pretty darn close on just about any spot in the world. And it is FREAKING COOL. I don't have much better commentary than that, sorry. You can zoom around to your favorite locations, tilt the camera, show all road names, rotate views - and once you've got a bunch of stuff plugged in its really neat to just click between them and watch the flyby. I can't believe this isn't a double post, but couldn't find it on search. Have fun!
posted by glenwood on Nov 21, 2004 - 67 comments

In the long tradition of Google anouncements may I present to you Google Location search (which if you recall was the winner of the competition they held last year)
posted by zeoslap on Sep 23, 2003 - 7 comments

The TouchGraph GoogleBrowser uses Google's related: links to visualize local maps of the web. Enter www.metafilter.com and watch the spider unfurl its arms. Click on "Show Singles" for more specific pages, or set the "radius" to 10 for more nodes. (Full instructions are here. ) Requires something called the Java Virtual Machine and may be IE-only, but that doesn't matter: my neighbors just called to ask if I was going to keep whooping like that all night.
posted by gleuschk on Jul 2, 2002 - 25 comments