Google Maps and 3D experiments

The Google Maps API lets you access high-resolution 3D map tiles now. Robert Hodgin has been experimenting with the new data source using Houdini, which is 3D graphics software that might as well be black magic.

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Finding the physical location in an online video via Google Maps clues

GeoGuessr player rainbolt is next-level good at reading Google Maps. Given a short Vine clip, he walks through his process of figuring out the exact location of the video in about 15 minutes:

It shows what you can do with publicly available bits of information to answer very specific questions. [via Waxy]

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Faking traffic on Google Maps with a wagon of 99 smartphones

Google Maps incorporates data from smartphones to estimate traffic in any given location. Artist Simon Weckert used this tidbit to throw the statistical models off the scent. With a wagon of 99 smartphones, he turned roads red on Google Maps just by walking around.

Nice.

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When bad data leads to a disappearing neighborhood

Caitlin Dewey for OneZero describes the case of the Fruit Belt neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, or “Medical Park” as it was incorrectly named in Google Maps:

Lott learned that the issue had been festering for years, and she wanted answers. The 2,300 residents in the Fruit Belt didn’t refer to the community as “Medical Park,” but Google Maps had done so since the late 2000s. Community members argued the designation was a calculated tweak in favor of gentrification, a digital rechristening that would be used to sell houses, market Airbnbs, and wrest the neighborhood’s future from the people who had made a home there for generations.

Lott didn’t know it at the time, but the misnomer also revealed a great deal about the invisible process major tech firms use to put neighborhoods on their maps — and how decisions based off arcane data sets can affect communities thousands of miles away.

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Screen-capping Google Maps for traffic

TrafficAlyson Hurt quickly wrote some code to take screen captures of a Google Maps window periodically.

The original intention was to see the change in traffic during the January 2016 blizzard on the east coast, but this seems like it might come in handy for something else. I'm not sure for what, but I'm bookmarking it just in case.

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Pac-Man Google Maps

Pac-Man Google Maps

You can currently play Pac-Man on Google Maps. Just go to some location and click the Pac-Man square in the bottom left corner, and you'll be running the local streets. Because March 31.

I only played for a little bit, but it appears to follow the same ghost algorithms.

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Old maps overlaid on Google Maps

Old maps overlaid on Google Maps

The British Library georeferencing project places old maps, as far back as the 16th century, on top of Google Maps for browsing and as a mode of comparison.

The British Library began a project to crowdsource the georeferencing of its scanned historic mapping in 2011 by partnering with Klokan Technologies to customise its online georeferencing tool. There have been five public releases of maps since 2012, all of which met with tremendous success. In total over 8,000 maps have been "placed" by participants and subsequently checked for accuracy and approved.

Has someone else done this? I feel like I've seen something like this project before, but the closest thing I can think of is Historypin, which overlaid images on top of Google Streetview.

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