The World's Worst Tourist Traps

What defines a tourist trap? According to MSN Travel

For some, it’s the tacky T-shirt shops or overpriced museums; for others, it’s the crowds or the chain restaurants.

Here's a Google Maps View of some of "MSN Travel's" least favorite travel experiences.

(Related: America's One Trick Towns)

Recent Gun Violence in Chicago Mapped!

The recent spate of shootings in Chicago have been mapped out on Google Maps by a producer at CBS News, Chicago.

There were a total of 36 shootings with 10 of them being fatal. Here is a Google Maps View of the Chicago Gun Violence Locations from Friday afternoon April 18th, through April 23. (via Google LatLong Blog)

Google Maps Street View captures "Cyclist in Distress" and no one cares

Location: Cleveland, Ohio (via Bikeradar.com)

Teenage Boy Happily Riding his Bike	He is about to turn into his driveway
Ouch! that must hurt	Google Van continues on...

Google Van pulls further away....Even the neighbor across the street does not care....

Google Maps Mashup of Fortune 500 Headquarters

Wal-Mart Stores top the Fortune 500 List for 2008 with a revenue of ($ millions) 378,799.0 and a profit of ($ millions) 12,731.0.

Here's a look at Wal-Mart and the rest of Fortune 500 companies on Google Maps (created by folks at Fortune).

There are 33 companies in Michigan (state I live in) which made it to Fortune 1000 list. General Motors leads the list in Michigan. Here's a Google Maps View of Michigan's Fortune 1000 list.

Indian Premier League (Cricket) Teams - Mapped!

The Indian Premier League is a Twenty20 cricket competition created by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The first season of the Indian Premier League commenced on 18 April 2008. Currently there are 8 teams taking part. Mumbai Indians leads the list in terms of valuation ($111.9 million). The combined total valuation of the 8 teams is $723.59 million. Cricket players from around the world are taking part.

Here's a Google Maps Mashup of the Indian Premier League Teams with some basic information (Home Stadium, Team Owners, Team Worth ($$), Latest News (via Google News RSS Feeds), Video (YouTube)).

What will you be doing on Earth Day - 2008

April 22nd, 2008 is Earth Day. Folks at Google Maps have a created a map where you can put yourself on the map and share your ideas and let your fellow users know what you've committed to do for Earth Day 2008, and for the rest of the year.

For more on how Google Maps is being used to promote Earth Day, check out the post at Google Maps Mania.

Related:

World' Most Polluted Cities
Climate Change and Sea Level Rise

Traffic Prediction added to Google Maps

Its Monday around 8 AM and Employee Joe who lives in Troy, MI is heading to his work place in downtown Detroit, MI. He always drives down I-75 South to Detroit, MI. But last Monday, he ran into heavy traffic on I-75 (portion parallel to Big Beaver Road). So he was late for that important meeting. His Boss gave him a piece of advice - "Listen, Joe! in future before hitting the freeway, check out the Current and Future Traffic pattern/congestion on Google Maps".

Here's how the Boss explains it. He logs on to the computer and brings up Google Maps and zooms into Troy, MI. Next he clicks on Traffic Button which brings up a box in the upper right hand corner of Google Maps. He selects the option - "Traffic at Day and Time" and selects Monday 8.15 AM. And the result.... Google Maps Predicts that traffic at around 8.15 AM on a Monday would crawl at 0-25 MPH. Joe reacts..."Wow! That is neat!!" (Info on this Google Maps feature found at Google LatLong Blog)

Google Earth Updated with Cool features

Google Earth (version 4.3) has been updated with some great...great new features. One of them is "Lighting Effects" (day and night mode) which shows you the current position of the sun. And when you drag the time slider you can see how the sun progresses as the earth rotates. Check out this and the rest of the new features in this video created by Google Earth Blog:

Broadcast your World with SEERO

Seero is a geobroadcasting platform that combines live and on-demand video with real-time GPS tracking. Users can embed maps into their blogs as and their Seero content in Google Maps and Google Earth. Seero automatically generates the KML feed so that a user's new content will appear in their embedded map as they update it on Seero. For an example of this check out user Craig's KML feed.

He's also embedded this feed into his own blog, you can view the link here (check the video box on the side panel to display the Seero video content).

Viewers can load Seero's global KML feed in Google Earth and see the GPS positioning of each broadcaster along with their live video feed. For full information on KML feeds and a link to Seero's Google Earth live global feed click here.

Denmark tops in Network Readiness

Denmark tops the list of countries in "Network Readiness" in a report released by the World Economic Forum. United States also has a good showing coming in at #4. The same report lists Iceland as the top country in "Internet Access in Schools". Here the United States ranks 12th behind Estonia, Austria, Netherlands, Korea, Singapore...

Here's a Google Maps View of the above Data.

Trulia integrates Google Maps Street View with Real Estate Listings

Imagine going to a "open house" and then finding out that even though the house is great from the inside, the surroundings are not what you had hoped for.

Trulia solves this problem by integrating Google Maps Street View with its Real Estate Listings (via). Now you can get a outside view of the property you are interested in and decide for yourself whether you want to proceed further.

By using the new Google Maps Street View API, Trulia is helping buyers discover more information about particular neighborhoods.

Placespotting.com - A Google Maps Game

Placespotting is a cool Google Maps Mashup which is about finding places on a Google map.

You get a picture of a place somewhere on earth and have to find this place on a movable Google map. You can also create new "map-riddles" for your friends.

The game started in Switzerland and has already more than 5000 riddles stored and more than 500,000 people tried to solve a riddle.

Google's 2008 Beijing Olympics Torch Relay Map

The amazing folks from Google Maps Team have created a great Google Maps Mashup which maps out the 130 Day journey of Olympic Torch from Greece to Beijing, China. Check it out here. (via Google LatLong)

Then there is this little fellow (yours truly) who also created a similar mashup (back in May, 2007)

Martin Luther King - Timeline of Events

Martin Luther King was assassinated 40 years ago on April 4th, 1968. I have pieced together events in Martin Luther King's life on Google Maps. Source of my data was Wikipedia.

In the Google Maps Mashup I created, the location information for events pop up on Google Maps every 10 seconds. You can disable the "Auto Play" feature by clicking the "Disable/Pause" button.

Cities in Crisis - Low High School Graduation Rates

A report released by America's Promise Alliance finds that America's largest cities (click image for Google Maps View) are struggling to keep students in school. The report states

Our analysis finds that graduating from high school in the America’s largest cities amounts, essentially, to a coin toss. Only about one-half (52 percent) of students in the principal school systems of the 50 largest cities complete high school with a diploma. That rate is well below the national graduation rate of 70 percent, and even falls short of the average for urban districts across the country (60 percent). Only six of these 50 principal districts reach or exceed the national average. In the most extreme cases (Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, and Indianapolis), fewer than 35 percent of students graduate with a diploma.

Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics torch relay

The Olympic Torch started its 130 Day International Journey yesterday from Beijing, China. Check out the journey of Olympic Torch from Beijing China on Google Maps. Watch the locations pop up on Google Maps every 5 seconds or you can disable/pause the Auto Play feature and click through the locations.