How do you get to grandma’s house in the digital age?

It’s like asking five New Yorkers how to get to Brooklyn: Everyone’s got a different answer and no one’s necessarily wrong.

Say you live in St. Petersburg and grandma lives in Palm Beach. Mapquest would send you southeast from Tampa. The trip would be 200 miles and take three hours and 27 minutes.

Google, however, would send you northeast before sending you southeast. That trip would be 232 miles and take three hours and 50 minutes.

Mapquest sends you through Brandon on SR 60 — no fun if it’s rush hour — and then through Bartow and on to Yeehaw Junction to Florida’s Turnpike. Google sends you along Interstate 4 near Orlando — always a potential traffic nightmare — through Kissimmee and then to Florida’s Turnpike.

How can there be so many ways to get from Point A to Point B?

It’s all about the algorithms.

Source: St. Petersburg Times

Note: Shirl Kennedy, ResourceShelf senior editor, is a news researcher for the St. Petersburg Times.

New methods of studying avian influenza strains and visually mapping their movement around the world will help scientists more quickly learn the behavior of the pandemic H1N1 flu virus, Ohio State University researchers say.

The researchers linked many powerful computer systems together to analyze enormous amounts of genetic data collected from all publicly available isolated strains of the H5N1 virus – the cause of avian flu. They then developed a new Web-based application that will allow health officials and the public visualize how the virus moved across the globe using Google Earth.

The resulting visualizations, based on results of the data analysis, represent the most comprehensive map to date of how avian flu has been transmitted among sites in Asia, Africa and Europe.

[Snip]

“We are taking into account more data but at the same time, we’re making simpler visualizations, allowing users to choose what they want to see,” said Daniel Janies, associate professor of biomedical informatics at Ohio State and senior author of the study.

The visualizations and application are available online at “We are taking into account more data but at the same time, we’re making simpler visualizations, allowing users to choose what they want to see,” said Daniel Janies, associate professor of biomedical informatics at Ohio State and senior author of the study.

“We’ve created an environment where people can avail themselves of flu information specific to their region of the world or their area of interest. We waded through all of the complexities so people in the public health realm who want to determine how a flu virus got from point A to point B can find that out, and we’ll have better public health outcomes as a result.”

The visualizations and application are available online at http://routemap.osu.edu.

Source: Ohio State University

Ordnance Survey map data will be freely available online to everybody from 2010, the Government has announced.

The move will allow people to interpret public statistics about crime, health and education by postcode, local authority or electoral boundary.

[Snip]

Opening it up is key to the success of government plans to free its data via data.gov.uk, say the site’s creators.

“Making all that data available doesn’t make much sense without the geography to tie it all together,” Professor Nigel Shadbolt, one of two Information Advisers to the government, told BBC News.

The other adviser is Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the web. He and Prof Shadbolt have been tasked with guiding the Making Public Data Public project.

Source: BBC

They don’t know it, but people who use Google’s online maps may be getting directions from Richard Hintz.

Mr. Hintz, a 62-year-old engineer who lives in Berkeley, Calif., has tweaked the locations of more than 200 business listings and points of interest in cities across the state, sliding an on-screen place marker down the block here, moving another one across the street there. Farther afield, he has mapped parts of Cambodia and Laos, where he likes to go on motorcycle trips.

Mr. Hintz said these acts of geo-volunteerism were motivated in part by self-interest: he wants to know where he’s going. But “it has this added attraction that it helps others,” he said.

Mr. Hintz is a foot soldier in an army of volunteer cartographers who are logging every detail of neighborhoods near and far into online atlases. From Petaluma to Peshawar, these amateurs are arming themselves with GPS devices and easy-to-use software to create digital maps where none were available before, or fixing mistakes and adding information to existing ones.

Source: New York Times

Matt McGee on SearchEngineLand writes:

A new version of Google Earth for the iPhone is due soon, and among its new features is one with a personal touch: the ability to see maps you’ve created and/or saved in Google Maps. To make this happen, the new Google Earth iPhone app will add the ability to login to your Google account — a feature that could open up additional personalization doors in the future.

Matt’s post has a couple of screenshots and more details.

Want even more?

Google’s LatLong Blog is the place to turn.

Browsing the world from the palm of your hand can be a thrilling experience, and viewing photos, Wikipedia articles, and place information is a great way to discover new parts of the globe. With the latest version of Google Earth for iPhone, we’ve made this even easier. Now, when you touch an icon, a small glow appears under your finger to let you know which icon you have picked. If your finger touches more than one icon, you’ll be taken to a list of all icons, so you can select the one you are interested in.

So, iPhone/iTouch users, keep checking the app store to see if you have any apps requiring an update. Google says that 2.0 will be rolling out across the world in the next 24 hours.

Sources: Search Engine Land / Google LatLong Blog

BillMaps is very easy to use but potentially very useful for those who like to “see” how something looks. Sometimes you can see something on a map (e.g. a trend) that would be difficult to detect just by looking at the text.

Simply enter a bill number (the database goes back to 101st Congress) and then select what you would one of the two mapping options. You can either map where the sponsors of a bill are from or what a vote looks like on a map. In other words, Google Map “pins” are placed inside the state where the congressperson is from and colored either green for “aye” or red for “nay.”

Each pin can be clicked and you’ll find the name of the voter and direct links to info about that person from the OpenCongress database and the Govtrack.us database (a ResourceShelf fave).

On the home page you can find links to:

+ Most Tracked Bills this Week
+ Most Supported Bills this Week
+ Most Opposed Bills this Week
+ Hot Bills
+ Most Blogged Bills this Week

Btw, on any list page you can access a brief bill summary by moving your cursor over the title of the bill.

So here’s an example. First, we selected Most Tracked Bills this Week
We’re finding out where the “most tracked” number is coming from. Our guess, GovTrack.us.

Next, we selected #H.197: National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2009, click and we see where the 162 sponsors are from.
In addition to the map you’ll find a brief summary and related bills.

Here’s another example, we went to the top of the home page and entered H.1 from the 110th Congress and then vote. The bill was titled, Implementing the 9/11 Commission Recommendations Act of 2007. Here’s the map.

Below the map you’ll see 435 votes. Next to that you’ll spot an “S.” Click and you’ll go to the sponsor map. On a sponsor map, look for a “V.” When clicked you’ll go to a vote map for that piece of legislation.

A nice use of several databases and API’s (Application Programming Interfaces) to create something that can provide a view not visible without the use of a map.

Access BillMaps

Bing Maps UK Features Include:

Aerial and “Bird’s Eye” Imagery. Here’s a “Bird’s Eye” of Big Ben and of the home of BBC Monitoring (you can zoom-in on this image)

When you hover over the Road (maps link) you’ll see in addition to the Road map options for London Street Map and Ordnance Survey Map, plus thumbnails of each.

Default search queries to location instead of business. So, put in a location and you’ll be directed accordingly.

The popular and well know A-to-Z style maps are now available via Collins Bartholomew. The A-to-Z style maps provide a high level of detail in a very readable format. These are great for getting to know you way around London.

Ordnance Survey Maps-Maps for the outdoorsman (or outdoorswoman).

Symbols representing the different types of public transit are now clearly marked on the map. We no longer have clashing or overlapping symbols – they are just nicely arranged next to each other. You can hover over a station symbol to identify what the station name is. Also, each symbol is clickable to give you information about the station such as name, the lines that cross it and a link to the Transportation for London web site for planning your trip.

Tube Maps, Nearby Stations (try a postcode), and “What’s Nearby.” (Look in the left panel, click and the results are mapped.

London congestion info, walking directions, and several other features listed in the blog post.

Source: Bing Blog

See Also: Bing! Bing! Bing! A Busy Week at Bing and It’s Only Wednesday

Yesterday, Bing Maps got a makeover and added some new features. The problem was we were unable to find the location where you could create a direct link to a specific location on a map and either place it on a web page, share it by e-mail, tweet it, etc.

However, we now have the answer. It’s quite easy.

1) Find the location you need by using the large search box at the top of the page.

2) Now that you’ve found the location you can zoom-in or zoom-out and view the aerial and “Bird’s Eye” imagey by pulling down on the “aerial arrow” at the top of the page. Now you can select the type of imagery you want and it’s easy to move from one to the other. It’s interesting to compare the aerial imagery with the Bird’s Eye content. Of course, it’s also easy to move back to the map view. Btw, the Bird’s Eye view is available for many locations around the world but it’s still not available in some areas. If it’s not available, the “Bird’s Eye” box will not be active.

3) You’ve found the map and now you have the imagery you need. Now, how do you share it?

4) At the bottom of the page look for an envelope icon, Click it. You should see a box that contains a URL to that precise location. In many cases, once your looking at a Bird’s Eye image you can zoom-in one more level.

Have fun! Here are a few examples:

+ O’Hare Airport, Chicago

+ The London Eye

+ Fenway Park, Boston

+ Colosseum, Rome

+ CN Tower

Today, news that Street View has added more imagery in Spain, Netherlands, and Mexico.

From the Blog Post:

Now you can explore around huge swathes of Spain, an extra 30 towns in Netherlands and 5 cities in Mexico.

The blog post also contains several examples of interesting locations now available with Street View

Source: Google LatLong Blog

Here are few highlights, the complete post with explanations on how to use these news features can be found here:

+ Draggable Routes – Yes! This is a great (and much requested) feature added to Bing Maps allowing you to generate a route, then in the case that you need to change the route, you can simply grab any part of it and drag it to where you want the route to actually go.

+ Zoom Bar – No longer just a zoom in and zoom out button, the zoom bar allows you to jump to specific zoom levels within predefined settings

+ Command Parsing – Want driving directions? Enter “Bellevue, WA to Space Needle” in the Bing Maps search box. Want traffic info? Enter “Seattle Traffic” in the Bing Maps search box.

+ Embed a Map – You can now take a map view right from Bing Maps and embed it into your site. To do this, you’ll want to click the Share button once your map is where you want it to be. You can copy the embed code from there; or, you can click the Customize View link which will take you to the embeddable map customizer (EMC).

Source: Bing Maps Blog

As we said last night, to find the “Bird’s Eye” imagery, enter a location in the “big search box” (NOT the directions search box unless you want directions) found at the top of this page. Click enter. Now, at the top of the map you should see a drop down box that labeled “aerial.” Drop down and select Bird’s Eye imagery. That’s it you’ll be looking at some cool content. Bird’s Eye imagery is NOT available for every location around the globe. If you come across a location where it’s not available, the Bird’s Eye button will not light up when you use the drop down menu.

How can you create a direct links to a specific location to view a map, aerial imagery or a Bird’s Eye images? You’ll need to build your own URL. Follow the directions on this page.

*** Note to Microsoft: We’re a bit disappointed at ResourceShelf. While it’s certainly possible to create direct links to specific locations and images, it’s a challenge. Sure, you can have users step through the entire process by searching, clicking, zooming, and selecting a specific map or image but if you want to include a direct link to an image or map in a school report (for example) it’s going to take some time to get use to the method.

Hat Tip: Adena S. at All Points Blog

*** UPDATE: We’ve solved our issues with the direct links. This post explains it all. It also contains some cool imagery.

+ The Tower Bridge in London

+ The Space Needle in Seattle

+ The U.S. Capitol and with State Capitol Buildings from Most States

+ The CN Tower in Toronto

+ Hawaii Beaches**

and many more locations.

* * Imagery from Hawaii is new to Google Street View. GSV now has imagery for all 50 states.

As much as we like Google Street View imagery we also like “Bird’s Eye Imagery” from Bing Maps. Areas (global in scope) that have Bird’s Eye imagery increase on a regular basis. Here’s one example, the CN Tower in Toronto. Here’s the map. To get to Bird’s Eye, select “Aerial” (near the top of the maps) and the select “Bird’s Eye.”

One source of information is the FEMA website, where you can view what are called Flood Insurance Rate Maps, or FIRMs. These maps are used as the basis for issuing federal flood insurance and often for local floodplain zoning. As of October 1, 2009 they are available only in digital format. You retrieve maps by clicking on the Find-a-FIRM button, then entering a street address. The name of the map covering the desired area appears, and clicking on the View icon downloads the map.

But although these maps are full of information, the process of viewing it is not all that user-friendly.

A second article is available listing databases that contain flood information for Missouri and Kansas.

Source: Kansas City Examiner, Washington Examiner

Hat Tip: All Points Blog

Google and its UK map provider, Tele Atlas, are cleaning the egg off their faces this week over the appearance of a town called Argleton in Google Maps.
…and there’s even an Argleton place page with photos and more.

Matt also points out that there is Google page with pictures of homes, ads, and links to popular places. He adds that although the British press reported the story over the weekend, the “mystery” has been going on for over a year.

Source: SEL

As of 3am on Wednesday, November 4, 2009, you can still find Argleton in Google Maps.

Note from Gary:

Matt’s post also mentions that some have wondered if a town in Maryland named Middle Earth might also be an error, He gives me a shout out (Thanks Matt!) for determining that Middle Earth, MD does exist. My guess is that it’s a section of California, MD. What source(s) did I use to determine it was legit? After not finding Middle Earth, MD in the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names I checked another database, the Geographic Names Information Database (GNIS) via the USGS. Run a quick search and you’ll see that Middle Earth, MD is a populated place in St, Mary’s County, MD. It was added to the GNIS is May, 1996. Once again it illustrates that it’s always a good idea (when possible) to check more than one source.

Pendleton writes:

This month’s release showcases high precision imagery for the USA, Canada and the United Kingdom. The biggest drop by far was Greater Vancouver Metro.

Cool! New imagery just a few months before the Winter Olympics.

You can take a virtual tour of some of the new content using the Bing Maps World Tour app.

Note: Although the blog posts says it’s the October, 2009 update, the World Tour app reports it’s the November, 2009 update. We will try to get an answer.

Happy Touring!

Source: Bing Maps Blog

See Also: Since we mentioned it, here’s a Bird’s Eye Image of Apple Inc. Headquarters in Cupertino, CA. If you click the plus sign (+) you can continue to zoom-in one level.

UPDATE: Google Just Released Their List of Updated Imagery. You can access it here.

This time around, Footnote.com, is digitizing all publicly available Census materials from 1790-1930. These dates represent the period when all materials (including names) from a given census have been made publicly available. Through its partnership with NARA, Footnote.com will add more than 9.5 million pages of content when the census database project is complete. We’ve learned that Footnote.com is digitizing all of this material on their own.

From a Footnote.com Blog Post:

With over 60 million historical records already online, Footnote.com will use the U.S. Census records to tie content together, creating a pathway to discover additional records that previously have been difficult to find.

The Interactive Census Project Home Page offers much more detail and examples. You can also create email alerts when new states are added to the census database. On the lower-left side of the page you can track the progress of each census has been digitized. As you’ll see, the 1860 census is complete and the 1930 census is just about done.

Searching is free, Footnote provides numerous options to refine your search (here’s an example). Accessing the complete record is fee-based either subscribing to the database for a annually or monthly. You can also by individual documents for $2.95. Btw, Footnote.com also sells institutional access to libraries through EBSCO.

Footnote looks at the census project as a “highway” to assist the researcher in finding more information in other databases.

If you’ve been reading ResourceShelf for a while you’ve seen an increasing number of mention their services. Here’s a list of a few of them,

+ In August of 2009. we posted on the release of a joint project with the National Archives (NARA) to digitize holocaust material.

+ In December of 2008, in a partnership with NARA, Footnote released the largest interactive World War II collection online.

+ In March, 2008 we posted about Footnote.com offering an interactive version of the Vietnam Wall.

Our first post about Footnote dates back to January, 2007.

If you run this search using the ResourceShelf database, you’ll be able to see and read all of our Footnote.com posts.

But wait, there’s more. A quick review of the Footnote “press room” offers up even more projects. You can learn about them here.

What’s New?

1] …new terrain and vegetation imagery at zoom levels 4 – 9. Now you can visualize real-world terrain (such as mountains) that you’ll be driving through on your next trip across the country.

2]… Completely redone the entire road network to improve readability and shape of the roads with the new colors and styling. A cleaner map style is achieved by highlighting the major roads more clearly and the smaller access roads with narrower lines and lighter colors.

3] More building footprints [in large cities] showing how large a building is on the street. In addition, you’ll now see main subway stops shown on the map.

4] Improved hybrid map view.

Access MapQuest

Source: MapQuest Blog

Hat Tip: A.S. @ All Points Blog

Chris Pendleton on the Bing Blog reminds us that a major digitization project, every issue ever published of National Geographic from 1887-2008, is now available (it was officially released yesterday according to this media announcement) on 6 DVD’s or an external hard drive. That’s right, all of the writing, the legendary imagery, the supplement , even the advertisements are included. For many topics, Nat Geo magazine is a resource that documents people, places, and events, on a global scale. In other words, for all of the reasons just mentioned and many others, makes the magazine an important part of the historical record.

By the way, the reason it was mentioned on the Bing Blog is because Bing is providing some the technology that powers the digitized version this recently released collection.

From the Blog Post

Nat Geo uses Bing Maps in their Geobrowse functionality which allows you to browse a map anywhere in the world to find locations where relevant articles are referenced using geographic metadata.

Yes, we still love paper and those massive collections of past issues of the print version of National Geographic Magazine many people own (where are yours)? They’re also important.

That said, we also hear and read that for today’s student, it’s all about digital access. Yes, of course, that’s rather sad. However, a digitized archive of this size and scope can truly demonstrate the power of digital info technology for people of all ages and turn 120 years of content into important research and learning resources.

Another digitized archive of the magazine was released seven years abut this 120 year collection is the most complete version ever published with more content, more search options, saving/sharing tools, interactive maps, and more. One thing we noticed right of the bat is the that the new version is available for both PC and Mac. The “112 year version” was PC only.

Here are a few fast facts about the new collection. They were gleaned from Nat Geo site (including the video overview) and news release.

+ All Issues from October, 1888-December, 2008 are included

+ Six DVD’s include more than 200,000 pages; 300 wall map supplements, more than 8,400 articles; more than 250,000 photographs

+ All images scanned in high-resolution

+ Flip one page at a time, zoom, print

+ Geobrowse

A new Geobrowse function powered by Bing Maps that allows users with Internet access to search nearly 5,000 locations on a globe that are featured in the magazine’s archive of articles and maps.

+ Search by keyword, date, contributor, and topic; refine by date or content type

+ Browse by month or year

+ Create personalized reading lists; share these lists with other users in the Nat Geo community

+ Pre-loaded “favorite article lists” compiled by experts

National Geographic is selling the DVD’s for $69.95/US and the hard drive version for $199.95/US.

The lowest price we found as of Sunday November 1st was $42.78 from an Amazon.com Merchant. The DVD’s directly from Amazon.com are $44.99/US.

We’ve ordered a copy of the DVD’s and after spending some time with them we will report back.

DigitalGlobe, [has] announced it has signed an agreement with Microsoft Corp. to launch the Clear30 program, an initiative to distribute high-resolution, 30-cm aerial imagery of contiguous landscapes, initially in the U.S. and Western Europe. These orthophoto mosaics will be available through Bing Maps and through DigitalGlobe channels. The Clear30 imagery will be exclusive to Bing and DigitalGlobe.

[Snip]

The Clear30 initiative is a new agreement that expands the current relationship between Microsoft and DigitalGlobe and reflects a commitment to increase accessibility and use of high-resolution digital imagery. To collect the first ever multicontinental aerial imagery from 30 cm, the companies will use the UltraCamG, a large format digital aerial camera manufactured by Vexcel Imaging GmbH,, a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft.

[Snip]

“We’re excited about the launch of the Clear30 program and our continued relationship with DigitalGlobe,” said Steve Stanzel, general manager of Bing Maps at Microsoft Corp. “By providing DigitalGlobe exclusive access to our advanced UltraCamG imagery, we can provide our mutual customers easy access and integration of high-resolution digital aerial orthophotos for vast landscapes around the world.”

Digital Globe provides imagery to many organizations and is also used at Google. Note the Digital Eye copyright at the bottom of this image.

Source: Digital Globe

Google is getting into the mobile navigation/turn-by-turn directions business and making the product available for free.

On launch day (November 6th), users will be able to access the service from only one phone, a new phone, the “DROID” from Motorola, and from one carrier, Verizon.

Obviously, more Android-based phones running Android 2.0 from Verizon as well as other carriers will soon begin to hit the streets along with users who can* upgrade their current Android phone.

* “Google is not sure whether Google Maps Navigation will work on older Android phones that will get upgraded to Android 2.0. That depends on the carrier and phone maker, [vice president of engineering at Google for mobile and developers. Vic] Gundotra said.” (CNET)
Greg Sterling from SEL guesses most pre 2.0 phones will be upgradable.

Google is also interested in the iPhone as well as other smartphone platforms but made no commitment as to when the navigation program might be available.

Using the official blog announcement as well as articles from Greg Sterling at Search Engine Land (SEL) and Tom Krazit at CNET, let’s compile some fast facts about the product and its many features:

+ Google Maps for Mobile Has Been Very Successful
Over 50 million global users (SEL).

+ Most Requested Feature Was Was Turn-by-Turn Navigation (SEL)

+ Products Official Name is Google Maps Navigation (Beta)

+ Seven Key Features
1) Automatically updates with new and updated maps. Google now provides their own data for maps in the US.

2) Search by entering text, even just a small amount, and then focus your results.

3) Search by voice (e.g. drive to San Francisco International Airport).

4) Current traffic conditions.

5) Search along a route (e.g. on your current route find the nearest drug store). You can also search by business name.

6) Satellite View provides a 3-D view of the route.

7) Street View. See what the street looks like (landmarks, etc.) before you get there.

This page provides a video overview of Google Maps Navigation as well as separate videos demonstrating each feature.

Much More After a Click

+ “Mobile platforms–Android and others–are so powerful now that you can build client apps that can do magical things connected to the cloud.” — Google CEO, Eric Schmidt

+ “Perhaps the most interesting and useful feature comes from Google Street View, allowing Google to provide a Street View image at every turn that the application suggests during your journey.” (CNET)

+ “Google is also leveraging its PC-mobile crossover capability. You can set up a personalized “My Map” on the PC (say, for a tour of wineries in Northern California), which is then transferred to mobile, and quickly get directions to each point on the intended route.” (SEL)

+ “As far as ads go, there are none in Navigation now but there will be at some point in the future, to correspond to ads on Google (PC) Maps today (and on the iPhone Maps).” (SEL)

Talk about the potential for hyperlocal advertising, wow! Imagine your driving between 6-10 p.m. and an ad for a restaurant just two blocks away in the direction you’re driving appears and offers you a dinner special if you give them a number on the ad that’s on your mobile device? Or you use the search along a route feature and ask for a gardening supplies. Drive just a few blocks off your route and a Google advertiser will offer you 20% if you supply the code placed on the ad.

+ “Google is not the first to offer a combination of turn-by-turn maps and Web services. Many different smartphone applications provide this type of navigation service, and companies like Garmin and TomTom are also working to embed Web-delivered data into their on-dash and built-in navigation systems.” (CNET)

TomTom offers a similar product for the iPhone. Here’s a link to the iTunes App Store to take a look. Even If you take differences in maps and features out of the equation, there is still a major difference. The TomTom product costs $99 (and includes Canada maps and turn-by-turn directions) while Google Mobile Navigation (U.S. only at launch) will be free. Btw, TomTom also offers iPhone apps for Brazil and Western Europe.

Verizon offers its own fee-based turn-by-turn service, VZ Navigator.

Questions. Will TomTom react to today’s news? How long will it take Google to roll out Maps Navigation in other countries and regions. Will Verizon pull its service? If not, how will they market it against Google’s free product?

Stay Tuned. This is going to be interesting.

Today’s changes are intended to keep the same information-rich map while making it easier to pick out the information that is most useful. The changes affect both the ‘Map’ and ‘Hybrid’ styles, and include numerous refinements to color, density, typography, and road styling worldwide. For example, in map view, local and arterial roads have been narrowed at medium zooms to improve legibility, and the overall colours have been optimized to be easier on the eye and conflict less with other things (such as traffic, transit lines and search results) that we overlay onto the map. Hybrid roads have gained a crisp outline to make them easier to follow, and the overall look is now closer to an augmented satellite view instead of a simple overlay.

In some areas the changes are obvious, while in others they are quite subtle. But overall we hope you’ll agree they’re a nice improvement.

The blog post continues with examples of some of the changes.

Source: Google Lat Long Blog