California Earthquake Fault Activity Map #googlemaps

California Geological Survey has just released the California State Earthquake Fault Activity Map. The release coincides with California State Geological Survey's 150th Anniversary.

The Earthquake Fault Activity Map is color coded and shows which faults were active recently. The faults colored red indicate recent activity and the less active faults are color coded as purple. (via Silicon Valley Mercury News)

White House Trees in 3D #googlemaps

By now most of you have heard that Maps can be viewed in 3D in Google Maps. This is awesome. During Barack Obama's run up to becoming United States President, I had created "Obama Journey Maps". One of the journey maps I had created was using Google Earth API. So after yesterday's announcement I decided to revisit Obama Journey Map. I noticed something which I did not notice before. The 3D view of White House has been there for a while.. but now even the trees surrounding the White House are in 3D. Maybe I noticed this late, the view though is awesome. Here is a image grab from Google Maps 3D.

China (Yushu, Qinghai) Earthquake Imagery #geoeye #googlemaps

On Tuesday April 13th, a powerful 7.1 earthquake hit Qinghai province in China. The earthquake caused extensive damage and almost 1700+ lives were lost. The scale of the damage can be seen with these images from the region. Here's a image from GeoEye showing the destruction. Click on the image for a larger high resolution view of the destruction.



Image grab from Google Maps prior to the earthquake



(Note: Download this KML for a view in Google Earth of before and after earthquake imagery from Yushu, China - via Google LatLong Blog)

Icelandic Volcano Tweets #googlemaps #volcano

The Icelandic volcanic ash cloud has caused major travel disruption across the globe. Twitter is a great tool to gauge traveler reaction and other travel conditions at airports around the world. I put together a Google Maps Mashup of tweets related to "Volcano+Ash" from Europe and North Eastern US.

The map animates through each of the latest Tweets, all you have to do is sit back and watch.

Virginia Tech Anniversary

It was 3 years ago today (April 16th, 2007), a gunman goes on a shooting rampage killing 33 at the Virginia Tech Campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. At the time I put together this Google Maps View of the innocent lives which were lost.

Google Map showing aircrafts avoiding UK's ash-filled skies

A volcanic eruption in Iceland is sending ash cloud over to UK which has resulted in airspace over Britain to shutdown.

At Flightradar24.com you can see in realtime on Google Maps, aircrafts clearing the British skies. After several tries I was able to access flightradar24.com, maybe because the traffic to the site which currently might be heavy. (via Techcrunch)

Launched in Sweden in 2007, Flightradar24’s network of hackers and geeks who have an ADS-B receiver has grown to over 100 ADS-B receivers. They receive the information from airplanes with ADS-B and send this information to a server, which then plots it on the map. Only airplanes within the coverage area of the 100 receivers are visible.

Stranded Trawlers of the shrinking Aral Sea #googlemaps

Aral Sea which lies between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, was once amongst the 4 largest lakes in the world. It has now shrunk to 10% of its original size. Global Warming has nothing to do with this disaster. The Aral Sea has been steadily shrinking since 1960's when the Soviets started diverting the rivers which fed into the lake, for irrigation purposes.

So as the Aral Sea was shrinking it left behind trawlers which had no where to go and were stranded. Some of these stranded trawlers can be clearly seen in Google Maps. I have counted 10 but I am sure there are many many more. I have put together a Google Maps view of the stranded trawlers. If you find more, please do let me know and I will add it to this map.

Eyjafjallajokull Volcano, Iceland - a view from space

GeoEye has released a one meter resolution satellite image of Eyjafjallajokull Volcano, located in southern Iceland, taken from 423 miles up in space by IKONOS Satellite. This image was taken on March 31st, 2010. The volcano erupted on March 20th, 2010 after almost 200 years (wikipedia link).

Southern California Earthquake Tweets #earthquake #googlemaps

Southern California (BAJA, California, Mexico) got hit by a powerful 6.9 earthquake this evening. This just happened moments ago so the damage if any is not known but one can guage the situation on the ground by looking at tweets from the region. I have quickly put together this Google Maps Mashup which looks at tweets from Southern California (related to earthquake). The tweets are within 750 miles radius from Los Angeles. The map moves on to the next tweet after 5 seconds.

"My iPad" tweets mapped #ipad #googlemaps

iPads have started arriving today across United States. So who is having their new iPad delivered today? Here's a map I put together which shows happy...excited.. folks who got their new iPad today and are tweeting about it.

The map moves on to next tweet location after 5 seconds. I have split the tweets up between Eastern and Western United States.

Popular Google Products...

So which are the popular Google Products and how do you find out. For me of course its Google Maps and Google Earth but what does Google think about which Google Products are popular?

Yay! they agree with me!! and here's the proof. On Google's home page type in "Google " and then click "Google Search". Here's what you will see...



on a side note..... what about "Google is "

Google Maps Envelope - Beta #googlemaps

Here's a nice idea which interestingly surfaces around April 1st. Say you want to send a paper mail to someone but are lazy enough to print it out. Not to worry because if Google ever embraces this concept then all you would have to do is type your letter in GMAIL and then click the "send envelope" button in GMAIL instead of "send" button. What this does is that your letter is printed by Google and then mailed by Google (for a small postage fee) in an envelope which has "Google Maps" printed on it showing the sender's and recipients destination along with the route.

Designers Rahul Mahtani & Yofred Moik from the Industrial Design program at Syracuse University came up with this concept called Google Envelopes. (via Yanko Design)

Google Maps Street View of Indian Temples in Michigan

I have created so many mashups but never created one with Google Maps Street View. So here it is ... a mashup showing Indian Temples in Metro Detroit. This mashup shows the temples in Street View along with a Satellite view of the temple location.

The information window in map view has a forward and back arrow which will take you to the next or previous temple location. This mashup page also has a sidebar with Temple listings which when clicked will show you the Google Map Street View of the Temple.

If there are temples in the area I missed please do let me know.

Global Warming settles island dispute between India and Bangladesh

A 30 year island dispute between India and Bangladesh has been settled, thanks to Global Warming. The rising sea-levels caused by Global Warming has buried the island in Bay of Bengal known as "Moore Island" to India and "South Talpatti" to Bangladesh. Now there's nothing to dispute over. This Google Maps view (2010 imagery) of the island clearly shows it being covered by water. (more at BBC)

NCAA Basketball Championship History Mapped!!

Check out my NCAA Mens' Basketball Championship History - Google Maps Mashup which I had created couple of years ago. It shows locations of championship teams, the runners-up, championship venues from 1939 to 2010. You can sort the data by Scores, Miles traveled by winners and losers.
(GO GREEN!!)

Indian Railways could have used Google Maps in their Advertisement :)

Check this Indian Railways Advertisement which announces inauguration of a luxury train service "Maharaja Express" from eastern Indian city of Kolkata to New Delhi. This advertisement has a small map embedded in it which shows the route. Great Idea!!

The only problem is that the map shows Kolkata sitting on water in Bay of Bengal and it shows New Delhi in Pakistan.

Indian Railways' PR Officer said "It is a great mistake. We apologise for this. The advertising agency has been suspended".

(via Hindustan Times)

World's Most Admired Companies - 2010 #fortune #googlemaps

Fortune has come out with its annual list of "The World's most Admired Companies". Coming in at #1 this year is of course Apple followed by Google.

Here's a Google Maps view of the locations of "Top 50 Most Admired Companies". The map opens up with a marker placed at Apple's headquarters (Cupertino, California). The information window which opens up above the marker has very basic information like the company name with a link to more detailed information at the Fortune site. In addition the address information is also shown.

Indian Premier League Tweets Mapped #ipl #googlemaps

Check out Indian Premier League Tweets from India, mapped out on Google Maps. The map moves on to the next tweet location after every 5 seconds at which point a information window opens up at the tweet location showing the tweet text.

Indian Premier League is is a Twenty20 cricket competition initiated by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) . The first season of the Indian Premier League commenced on 18 April 2008. It includes 8 teams or "franchises" consisting of players from different countries.

Indian Premier League Venues Mapped #IPL #googlemaps

The Indian Premier League is a Twenty20 cricket competition got underway in India yesterday. There are 8 teams taking part in the tournament. 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.

Yesterday Google announced that the YouTube global community will be able to tune in to the IPL’s YouTube Channel (www.youtube.com/ipl) for streaming and on-demand access to witness the start of what promises to be one of the most widely-distributed sporting events in history. Fans can watch matches, highlight videos, player interviews and much more all on the IPL’s YouTube Channel

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)).

Chile and Haiti earthquake maps mentioned in Google Earth Outreach Showcase

Google Earth Outreach showcases how non-profit and public benefit organizations are using Google Earth and Maps to visualize their cause.

I would like to pass this along that couple of my maps related to Haiti and Chile Earthquakes have been mentioned at the Google Earth Outreach Showcase Gallery. They are

• Chile Earthquake - GeoTagged YouTube Videos
• Chile Earthquake Tweets
• Haiti Earthquake - GeoTagged YouTube Videos
• Geographically Organized Haiti Volunteer Opportunities