Tag archive: Maps

Google Maps just got a little more useful. The company announced this morning that it added a weather layer to Maps that adds a grid of icons showing current conditions across a city, region or the globe. The feature is enabled via the drop-down menu at the top right of the Maps screen, which also contains the other layers, like those for traffic and transit. The layer only appears once a user zooms out to about the neighborhood level. A whole… Read More

No, these are not more satellite images of how our planet looks under the cover of darkness. Instead, they are visualizations of Twitter and Flickr use, created by map enthusiast Eric Fischer. The fascinating images give an indication as to the level of our social-networking obsession, with some parts of the world beaming brightly, while others stay lost in the shadows. Fischer used red dots to show geo-tagged Flickr pics, blue dots to show… Read More

In a move designed to pit Nokia head-to-head with Google, the Finnish phone company touted the new beta of Ovi Maps as the best mapping and route planning experience available. In addition to regular driving directions, the new beta offers a pedestrian route planning with public transport data for 80 cities around the world. While subways, trains, and trams are included, buses are not. Live traffic information is available for drivers using the… Read More

Internet giant Yahoo and mobile phone titan Nokia have collaborated on software and services for more than five years, and today the companies announced a major expansion of that pact: Yahoo will become the exclusive provider of email and chat services provided under Nokia's Ovi suite of services, while Nokia will become the exclusive provider of mapping and navigation services for Yahoo. The companies have also promised with work out… Read More

There’s more to Google Street View than entertainment and not getting lost, it seems. Authorities have used it, along with GPS tracking from a cell phone, to locate a nine-year-old girl reportedly taken by her grandmother. The problem began after Rose Maltais collected her granddaughter Natalie from her guardians for a weekend away. Athol, Massachusetts, police chief Timothy Anderson told the BBC that Rose Maltais "said that… Read More

Nokia has unveild a beta version of Maps 2.0, a new digital mapping application for its Series 60 and Series 40 mobile devices that aims to make those awkward paper maps a thing of the past for pedestrians, just as in-vehicle GPS systems have eliminated awkward paper-folding for drivers. The new services puts step-by-step, turn-by-turn directions on mobile phone screens just like in-vehicle systems, with the twist that Maps 2.0 offers a… Read More

As other companies were tackling the iPhone with new touch-screen phones at the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona on Monday, Nokia was reaffirming its dedication to high-end GPS with the Nokia 6210 Navigator and Maps 2.0, a new software package to accompany it. Together, they offer expanded navigation options for pedestrians, multimedia guides for cities, and even a digital compass to keep users on track. The 6210 is a… Read More

Google has officially launched its Mapplets add-ons to Google Maps, a new collection of tools and mini-applications which enable users to layer third-party data—like real estate listings, events, photos, gas prices, and even YouTube videos—directly onto Google Maps. Originally announced in May when Google debuted street-level photography in Google Maps, the new tools are directly accessible within Google Maps—click… Read More

At the Where 2.0 conference in San Jose, Google announced new enhacements to its Web-based Google Maps which add street-level panoramic view to selected locations, plus Mapplets, which enable developers to create mini-programs which operate within Google Maps. Google's new Street View feature adds 360° street-level panorama photographs to selected locations, enabling users to get a ground-level understanding of an area directly… Read More

Internet giant Google has added a new feature to its Google Maps offering: MyMaps is intended to let users quickly create custom maps via a simple point-and-click process, using Google Maps as a basis for their own creativity and map-making needs. "With this release, creating maps mashups is now as simple as pointing and clicking," said Google in a blog posting. MyMaps is now available in ten countries (Australia, Britain,… Read More

Yahoo yesterday said they had enhanced their Yahoo Maps service with a focus on improving ease of use and personalization. The new features are currently in beta and can be accessed here. The new Yahoo Maps, the online portal said, offer features including multi-point routing with drag and drop reordering, a larger main map and new mini map, drag and drop points of interest and expandable turn by turn directions and a "My Locations"… Read More

Online photo-sharing service SmugMug has announced that subscribers can now associate their photos with global locations using Google Maps. Users can enter an address associated with any photo, or upload data embedded in EXIF data from Global Positioning System (GPS) devices integrated into some cameras, phones, and camcorders. Visitors viewing photos with mapped locations will be able to zoom in on those locations using Google Maps.… Read More