In+ersec+ion for Spatial People

The previous poll has been running for much too long, finally, here's the results! Out of 168 votes, there's clearly two camps. 58% of answers indicated that geospatial is special, at least a special type of data or that its overarching nature makes it special. That said, 20% (that's still 1 out of 5 of us) say that geospatial isn't special at all. In the 'neutral' answers, an additional 13% chose the option indicating that too many people deal with geospatial data without considering its spatial nature, and 10% admitted that no matter what, geospatial is special to them anyway! Yes yes, I will eventually write a followup on my entry named Is Geospatial Special? in order to provide precision on my point of view :-)

You are also invited to participate to the new poll on Google's augmented reality 'Project Glass'.

Here's the recent Google-related geonews.

From official sources:

• My iPad 2 invited me to update iOS's Google Earth to version 7: "With today’s release of Google Earth for iOS you can literally fly through breathtaking 3D city landscapes and images and follow virtual tours of places you’ve never been [...] The growing list of 3D cities include Boulder, Boston, Charlotte, Lawrence (Kan.), Long Beach (Ca.), Los Angeles, Portland (Ore.), San Diego, Santa Cruz, Tampa, Tucson, and the San Francisco Bay Area (including the Peninsula and East Bay) as well as Rome, Italy. [...] Also new in this release is a “tour guide” to show you interesting places to explore." This topic is discussed at Slashdot in a story named Google Outs 3D Maps For iOS Ahead of Apple.
• Google also announced more detailed maps in parts of Europe, Africa and Asia: "And today, we’re launching updated maps of Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lesotho, Macau, Portugal, San Marino, Singapore and Vatican City to do just that."

• As part of the 40th anniversary  of the Landsat satellite program, Google now includes more Landsat imagery: "We’re working with the USGS and Carnegie Mellon University, to make parts of this enormous collection of imagery available to the public in timelapse videos of the Earth's surface. With them you can travel through time, from 1999-2011, to see the transformation of our planet."
• There's new additional panoramic imagery of historic Antarctic locations
• Google also shared an entry named Maps for good: Google Earth Outreach Developer Grants 2012

From other sources:

• The GEB shares an entry on exploring the 2012 London Olympics in Google Earth
• The same source mentions 'Google Earth Studio', a tool for the media, in an entry on Google Earth's relevance for news
• The GEB also shares an entry on exploring fake deserts of the world in Google Earth

• Slashdot ran a discussion named Ox Bow Lake Formation, As Seen By the Google Earth Time Machine
• Tens of sources mentioned that Marissa Mayer, Google's former vice president of Local, Maps & Location Services was appointed CEO of Yahoo

Bloggage update: Geocurrents.info posted an interesting item on UNESCO World Heritage Sites (WHS) list. I suggested that their otherwise lovely static maps could be augmented via dynamic maps. They're not computer mappers, so I pointed them to Google Fusion Tables as the simplest way to post simple aggregate maps by country.

Do the raw count of WHS however reflect various countries' interest in preserving heritage, or rather the sheer size of population? Consolidating the WHS counts by class and merging the UN population and World Bank area data shows that WHS proportions even out when normalised against area, and even reverse against population density.

These very simple maps from data by country show a variety of ways data can be easily linked and posted in order to enhance static maps. Research data are often far more varied than single maps can portray - however beautifully - and simple web mapping techniques described here can enhance their scope. As maps are important political and policy tools, the ability to easily portray data in as many ways as possible is critical

Here's the recent Google-related geonews. From official sources:

• Google announced the release of My Track 2.0, the open source app on Android to generate GPS/GNSS tracks and share them in Google Maps and Google Earth
• Biking directions in Google Maps expands to several countries in Europe and Australia, a topic also discussed on Slashdot
• In the latest Google Earth for Android (and upcoming for iOS), they included a new tour guide feature for visual trips using the great new 3D imagery they are adding. There is 11,000 tours available covering 110 countries!

• California's National Parks are now available in Street View
• Walking directions made its way in Google Maps for Africa
• In the latest Google Maps for Android, you now get indoor maps of 20 popular museums, added to the 10,000 other indoor maps they already provided
• Related, there's an entry on going indoors at locations across the United Kingdom
• There is new 45° imagery available for 31 cities including 26 cities in the U.S. and 5 international locations
• Google also offers an entry on Map Makerpedia, their community tool for Google Map Maker (but you already know I prefer OpenStreetMap, for openness reasons)

Google have recently launched a new project called the “World Wonders Project”.

The Google World Wonders Project is a platform that brings world heritage sites of the modern and ancient world online. Using Google’s Street View technology, 3D modelling, photos, videos and in-depth information, you will be able to explore the world’s treasures from your classroom.

There are many interesting geographical locations available to explore on the site, including the Banks of the Seine in Paris, Yosemite National Park in the USA and the Dorset & East Devon Coast.

Viewing geographical locations as they are today can help your students to visualise and understand the significance of the subjects they’re studying.

Google is also offering three free and easy-to-use Geography resources, available to download from the site, which are designed to support teachers in delivering Geography in a fun, engaging and thought-provoking way. The resources are clear, well-structured and offer many ideas for using the Google World Wonders Project site in the classroom. The suggested activities are relevant for a variety of different locations and could be a useful inspiration for a range of geography topics.

Here's recent Google-related geonews, with some pretty interesting.

• While there's a new uninformative official entry on Project Glass, their augmented reality glasses we mentioned in April, Slashdot provides more information in this entry named More Details On Google Glass, including: "As we mentioned earlier, the developers at I/O have the option to buy the 'Explorer Edition' of Google Glass for $1,500. In addition to the (functional, but unfinished) device itself, they also get access to Google's engineers and to keep up with the devices development. Worry not: when the consumer version of the device is finalized, it will be cheaper, but of course they aren't ready to talk about actual prices yet. As for availability: "Less than a year after we get these Explorer Editions out.""

From official sources:

• A new Google Earth for Android version is out, with new 3D cities imagery, yes, that's the new great city imagery similar to what Apple Maps will provide with iOS 6, and Google will soon provide a new  iOS version of Google Earth too. The other major feature is the 'Tour guide': "We’ve put together short tours of thousands of famous places and historical sites across the globe so it’s easier than ever to discover amazing places." Here's which cities have the new 3D imagery: "Boulder, Boston, Charlotte, Lawrence, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Portland, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Tampa in the United States, along with Rome, Italy."
• The Dev blog announced that Public transit routing and layer now are now available in the Google Maps API

• It was announced and it's now reality, you can now Go offline with Google Maps for Android

• And because we need to seriously take care of our home, Planet Earth, Google shares Geo in Rio: Cool Tools for a Warming Planet, and another related official entry is about Crowdsourcing Forest Monitoring
• The official Dev blog shares an entry on symbols and heatmaps for the Google Maps API

Shortly after Apple dumped Google Maps for iOS, Google announces it's time to dramatically cut the price for others using the online service. Google also gives a plug for its map-based ad service.

Editor's note: in addition to this CNET article shared by user 'rk', the official Google Geo Developers Blog shares a full entry on the topic: "We’re beginning to monitor Maps API usage starting today, and, based on current usage, fees will only apply to the top 0.35% of sites regularly exceeding the published limits of 25,000 map loads every day for 90 consecutive days. We aren’t automating the application of these limits, so if your site consistently uses more than the free maps allowance we’ll contact you to discuss your options. Please rest assured that your map will not stop working due to a sudden surge in popularity."

Bloggage update: So how does all this web mapping stack up @ home? Meaning: would my wife & daughter actually use it? I put this idea to the test when we planned a cross-Europe drive from my parents' in SW France to my cousins' in central Hungary via N Italy and Slovenia. I chronicle our evolution from Nat Geo atlas and pen&paper calculations, thru Google Maps and Via Michelin, to Lonely Planet and Google Earth. The result is that travel planning was made quick, plain and simple by combining various web maps with routing info and a bit of tinkering.

Here's the recent Google-related geonews in batch mode.

From the official sources:

• Google introduced 'Google Maps Coordinate': "That’s where Google Maps Coordinate comes in, a new tool designed to improve communication between businesses and their employees in the field.  As the number of mobile employees continues to grow, so does the need for a location sharing solution that works in real-time.  Research firm IDC estimates that there will be over 1.3 billion mobile workers by 2015 (37.2% of the total workforce). Google Maps Coordinate combines the power of Google’s mapping technologies with modern smartphones to help organizations assign jobs and deploy staff more efficiently." See introduction video below.
• There is traffic conditions in 7 new countries and updates in 19 existing ones: "Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Mexico, Peru, Romania and South Africa"
• Google Map Maker (which always makes me think of OpenStreetMap...) is now available in 8 new countries: "Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, and Switzerland"
• Street View is now available in Hawaii

From other sources:

• DM shares an article named A Use Case: Google’s Cloud-based Earth Builder: "Rod Erickson of Next Tier Concepts provides provides a solution using Software-as-a Service (SaaS)."

• APB mentions Google’s Peer to Peer Location Determination Patent Application