Friday, January 02, 2009

Google Maps Friday Fun

London Taxis' GPS Tracks
The BBC's Britain from Above series has produced some amazing visualisations using the GPS trails of various vehicles. None of these use Google Maps but are incredible.

First off is an amazing visualisation of the GPS traces of 380 London taxis over the course of a single day.

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If that doesn't impress you, how about this visualisation of more than 7,500 aircraft, carrying more than half a million passengers.

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The English Channel is the busiest shipping lane in the world. About 1.28 minutes into this video is a visualisation of the GPS trails of ships in the English Channel.

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More than half a million HGV's (trucks) use the UK motorway system to transport goods around the country. These satellite traces reveal the extent of this vast distribution network, reaching every corner of the UK.

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This video attempts to map the information economy.

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Street View Captures Secret Porsche Road Test

A number of websites are reporting that this street view image is of a clandestine high-altitude road test featuring a fleet of new Porsches. The images were taken near the end of Mount Evans Road, Idaho Spring, Colorado.

Where is the Country Quiz

This Google Maps quiz is a simple find the country game. You are asked to click on the location of ten named countries on a Google Map. Correct guesses are shown in blue, incorrect guesses are shown in red.

The game includes a high score table and even some tips on how to improve your score.

Treasures of The New York Public Library Video Series
The New York Public Library Map Division holds some 431,000 maps, 16,000 atlases and books about cartography. The collection is international in scope, and dates from the 16th century to the present. This great video looks at just a fraction of the amazing maps the library has in its collection.

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