This site is made possible by member support. ❤️
Big thanks to Arcustech for hosting the site and offering amazing tech support.
When you buy through links on kottke.org, I may earn an affiliate commission. Thanks for supporting the site!
kottke.org. home of fine hypertext products since 1998.
Google mixes their chocolate and peanut butter to map out locations found in books on Google Maps. Check out the maps for Around the World in Eighty Days or War and Peace (near the bottom of the page). More information about this project here.
Gothamist Maps uses Google Maps to pinpoint news alerts (fires, robberies, car accidents, etc.) on a map of NYC. Pretty cool.
EarthWallpapers is a collection of desktop wallpaper taken from Google Maps satellite photos. This one’s my new desktop.
Google Maps + Fast Food shows all the the McDonald’s, Burger Kings, Wendy’s, and Jack in the Boxes in the US on a scrollable, zoomable map. Here’s lower Manhattan + parts of Brooklyn and New Jersey. (Alternate plurals of Jack in the Box: Jacks in the Box or Jack in the Boxen?)
Interactive map (powered by, what else, Google Maps) showing which area will be flooded when the sea level rises. Here’s what parts of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens will look like if the sea level rises 7 meters.
ASCII Maps, a fully-functional version of Google Maps represented in ASCII. Doesn’t work in Safari tho. (via infosthetics)
This blog cites a Target store advertising on Google Maps (by painting their logo on the roof), but it’s more likely that the bullseye is there for the benefit of airline passengers landing at nearby O’Hare (as this slightly wider view shows). (via bb)
Wow, an interactive transit map for NYC. I haven’t kept up with all the Google/Yahoo Maps subway mashups, but this one is pretty impressive. Click start and end points and it tells you which subway to board and how long the trip will take, including walking time.
New version of Yahoo Maps catches up to Google Maps and does them one or two better. Quite the homage, though. (via df)
VGMap is a library developed at Eyebeam that lets you overlay arbitrary data and graphics onto Google Maps with Flash. Since you can dump anything you want into a Flash movie, you’re free to annotate Google Maps with anything you want, from audio clips to banner ads of businesses. As an example, they’ve overlayed the NYC subway onto a map of Manhattan.
Cool Google Maps photo of the taxi lot at JFK. (via new york hack)
Local man uses Google Maps to find the undiscovered remains of a Roman villa near his town in Italy.
Google Moon: explore the Apollo landing sites in the Google Maps interface.
Another use for Google Maps: getting out of traffic tickets in the courtroom. Many traffic cases are decided in favor of the state because of a lack of information on the part of the defendant…you’d be surprised at how good a chance you have of fighting a ticket if you show up armed with good information.
Google Maps hack: Iraq War casualty map. “This page shows the progession of US military casualties from the Iraq war. Each click displays 30 more casualties, starting from the beginning of the war. Each soldier is shown in at their home town. Click their icon for more details.”
Google introduces an API for Google Maps. And there was much rejoicing by the cartography hacking community.
Giant-Ass Image Viewer. Python script (+JavaScript and CSS) for cutting up and viewing large images, a la Google Maps.
Google Sightseeing highlights interesting satellite photos taken from Google Maps.
Ask and ye shall receive: Google Maps with the NYC subway stops on it. A little flaky in Safari, but works well in Firefox.
Google Maps launches in the UK with London Tube stations right on the map. Google, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please do the same for the NYC subway. Please?
Stay Connected