Olympics Street View

I strongly suspect that when the Olympics Park for the 2012 London Olympics opens next year the Google Street View trike will be one of the first visitors.

However at the moment there is no Street View available for the site of next year's Olympics. I therefore decided today to create my own Street View map of the Olympics construction site in east London.

I have to apologise for the poor quality of the photography. I created the Street View panoramas for this map using a free Android app from 360 VTcreator, which, whilst it is a brilliant free app, doesn't really create photographs of a high enough definition for Street View. I advise you not to zoom in!

View the Olympics Street View

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Aerial View Map

Google has released new 'Bird's Eye' type imagery for Rome. The new imagery includes some great aerial views of the Colosseum, St. Peter's Basilica and other historical sites across the Italian capital.

I've updated my Aerial View Map to include some of the amazing sights around Rome captured in Google's new 45° imagery. The map also includes some pretty stunning imagery from Venice, the USA and South Africa.

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London 2012, Olympics Park

In London we have had a few days of glorious weather. I've taken the opportunity to have a walk around the site of the 2012 London Olympic games. Construction of the park is transforming what was once a pretty industrial and grubby part of the east end of London.

I took my phone with me on my walk and so decided to take a few photographs. Of course when I got home the first thought I had was to create a map from the pictures. So here it is ...

View the London 2012, Olympics Park on Google Maps.

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There and Then

I've updated my There and Then app. The update changes the design of the app to mirror the design of the Sky Map.

There and Then places a number of archive videos, taken from YouTube, and places them over the same view as seen today in Google Street View.

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Updated Sky Map

I've updated the Sky Map to include all the astronomy videos on one map.

I've also made a couple of other design changes. You can now navigate to the different videos by clicking on the thumbnail images at the bottom of the map. It is also possible to remove the video from the map by clicking on the 'video layer' button (just click it again to bring the video back).

The videos can be controlled via the buttons positioned at the right of the screen.

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Google Sky & Chromeless Videos

It is possible to create a pretty impressive effect by embedding chromeless videos in Google Maps. I've put together a number of examples here.

The maps show a number of astronomical animations overlaid on top of Google Sky. I've used the YouTube API to show the videos in a chromeless player. The effect is pretty cool, creating an almost seamless overlay of the video on the map.

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Nuclear Exclusion Zone

20km Exclusion Zone - Comparison Tool

Japan has ordered a 20km (12 mile) exclusion zone around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Those living between 20km and 30km have also been told not to leave their homes.

I've created this Google Map to show the exclusion zone around the power plant. You can also use the search option to see what a 20km exclusion zone would look like at any other location around the world.

If the center of the zone doesn't exactly match your address you can also drag the marker to the location of your choice.

I've also added 33 serious nuclear power plant accidents around the world since 1952. The data comes from a Fusion Table created by The Guardian's Data Blog.

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The London Olympics Velodrome

The Velodrome is the first completed stadium for the 2012 London Olympics. This has coincided fortuitously with Google updating the satellite imagery for the site of the London Olympics.

The Velodrome’s concrete lower tier will have 3,500 seats located around the track. A further 2,500 seats will be suspended in two upper tiers within the two curves of the venue’s roof. In between the lower concrete tiers and upper tiers there will be a glass wall, giving spectators a 360-degree view across the Olympic Park and allowing people outside the venue to see the sporting action taking place inside.

After the games a mountain bike course and road-cycle circuit will be added to create a VeloPark for the local community, sports clubs and elite athletes.

View a video of The London Olympics Velodrome on Google Maps

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The Blitz

On September 7, 1940, the first night of the Blitz, over 800 bombs were dropped on London. This Google Map animates all the bombs dropped on London on that date.

The map uses Google Fusion Tables. Fusion Tables contains some pretty powerful spatial query functions. To create the animation I just run through the Fusion Table holding the data, showing each bomb in chronological order.

The map was partly inspired by Google's Mano Marks, who has been experimenting with creating time-line slide bars for use with Google Maps and Fusion Tables. Looking at Mano's examples got me thinking it would be nice to do a chronological animation.

This proof of concept isn't perfect (I don't like the flickering between each query) but works fairly well as a first try.

View the The Blitz Google Map.

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Aerial View Map

Google have released new aerial imagery on Google Maps.

Google's aerial view is similar to Bing Map's bird's eye view, giving an oblique rather than an overhead view. The new imagery is available in Tuscon, Arizona, Norfolk, VA, San Antonio,TX and Albuquerque, NM.

This Aerial View Map now includes aerial imagery from a number of US locations and from Venice and South Africa.

Bird's Eye View

This second map places Bing Maps' Bird's Eye View side by side with Google Maps' aerial view. You can view the same locations as seen by Bing and Google Maps.

I have added an image from the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tuscon to the map.

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