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New Google Maps

FoxPro

By FoxPro
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Jeremy

Jeremy

Posted
Posted

Correct. Once they are out of beta we'll add them. In the meantime, it's fun to drag the map to the east and there's the UK but.. wait a minute... where's Europe? :lol:

 

It's good to know that even Google has trouble getting international maps too. With their resources even.

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Jeremy

Jeremy

Posted
Posted

I'll bet they paid a pretty penny for the UK. The Crown holds the copyright to the Ordnance Survey maps, as I understand it.

That's correct. And it is really, really expensive. Even the postal codes are owned by the Queen herself.

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reveritt

+reveritt

Posted
Posted

I'll bet they paid a pretty penny for the UK. The Crown holds the copyright to the Ordnance Survey maps, as I understand it.

That's correct. And it is really, really expensive. Even the postal codes are owned by the Queen herself.

What makes you think that the Google UK maps are based on the Ordinance Survey maps? Have you ever checked out the mapping data you can get from the US Government? The Defense Mapping Agency, USGS, NOAA, and other agencies all sell digitized mapping data at very reasonable prices--some of it is international. The data is cheap because there is no practical application to go with it.

 

By the way, with regard to Crown Copyright, and other property of the Crown, it is not "owned by the queen herself", but by the Crown, which is different. If she ever abdicates, her considerable personal property remains hers, but not Crown property.

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Jeremy

Jeremy

Posted
Posted (edited)
What makes you think that the Google UK maps are based on the Ordinance Survey maps?  Have you ever checked out the mapping data you can get from the US Government?  The Defense Mapping Agency, USGS, NOAA, and other agencies all sell digitized mapping data at very reasonable prices--some of it is international.  The data is cheap because there is no practical application to go with it.

 

It may be cheap, but highly inaccurate and needs to be massaged into the correct format for most mapping applications. We are implementing this data into the maps but it's like night and day compared to the ordinance maps. You'll see how badly it is when it comes online.

 

By the way, with regard to Crown Copyright, and other property of the Crown, it is not "owned by the queen herself", but by the Crown, which is different.  If she ever abdicates, her considerable personal property remains hers, but not Crown property.

 

Um, yeah. It was said tongue in cheek. Chill out. I know the crown on her cartoon head owns the data. Geeze.

Edited by Jeremy
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bicknell

+bicknell

Posted
Posted

I'm playing with a proof of concept over in the benchmarking forum, see post Benchmarking topic 100531 which includes a link to my experimental map. I suggest you click on some of the marks.

 

Notice also that someone has hacked in topo maps and photographs from terraserver as well.

 

It's all easier than I expected from a code point of view. Obviously for geocaching.com use geocaching.com would need to properly license the code, which may be an issue. This is a huge help for route planning though, and a great tool.

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Maingray

+Maingray

Posted
Posted (edited)

The Google/Keyhole mapping technology is VERY powerful, and can be tied into the Google Websearch and 3rd party databases too. It just needs some minor tweaking to make it better (e.g crosshairs, which has been done by some 3rd party developers) and I'm pretty sure we'll be seeing a LOT more of that site in geocaching and in general.

Edited by maingray
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tossedsalad

tossedsalad

Posted
Posted

Where do they get their maps? I have used USAPhotoMaps which I believe uses terraserver. This can provide topo maps to 4 meter resolution, or b/w photos to 1 m or in some urban areas color photos to 0.25 m resolution. The Google maps seem to be 1 meter resolution or color photo 8 meter resolution rural or in the large cities.

 

So other than the 1 meter resolution vs. 4 meter on the maps (and the google maps are not topo and no trails) what is better about the Google maps compared to USAPhotoMaps?

 

Not trying to knock Google, but I don't get it.

 

Another nice thing about USAPhotoMaps is that the info is downloaded to your hard drive. So if you have a laptop or possibly a palmtop PC, you can take the maps with you (at least to your car :laughing:

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geognerd

+geognerd

Posted
Posted

Just remember that the satellite images aren't up-to-date. Despite the 2005 copyright, the imagery for my suburban Chicago neighborhood is at least 2 years old. Another nice tip for those of you who don't know is that you can enter decimal degrees in the search box on Google Maps. For example N41 45.000 W88 15.000 would be entered in the search box as "41.75, -88.25" (without the quotes of course). Found this feature helpful with my geocaching, seeing where to park and where trails are. Currently the MapQuest link on a cache page will bring up a map for the cache's coordinates. Hopefully the same will be done for Google Maps.

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Jeremy

Jeremy

Posted
Posted
Where do they get their maps?

DigitalGlobe supplies them. Their QuickBird satellite offers the finest satellite imagery available today. They provide their archival data to Google. Well, to Keyhole but they're Google now.

 

Obviously when you take pictures of the entire world they tend to go out of date, especially when an analyst has to adjust the footage to match the location on the planet. 2 years ain't bad.

 

You have to admit that Google has a great brand. They're doing their best to make maps sexy and many folks are eating that up.

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tossedsalad

tossedsalad

Posted
Posted

I don't know why anyone would consider 2 year old maps out of date. The maps on terraserver are up to 10 years old. The bank next door to me and even the street it is on is not on the terraserver maps or photos.

 

On the other hand, the google maps seem to leave off some of the fine details, like the entire **Shenandoah river**!

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CoasterFamily

+CoasterFamily

Posted
Posted

If you use Mozilla Firefox, be sure to check out the Geocaching GreaseMonkey scripts. I tweaked the script a bit myself and now have these links:

 

(All based of this cache).

 

Google Map

Google Map (inc Satellite) Yeah, this one doesn't work for this cache but you get the picture.

Directions from Home

Just the cache

 

These have been really helpful. Especially the link to directions from home.

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geognerd

+geognerd

Posted
Posted
I don't know why anyone would consider 2 year old maps out of date. The maps on terraserver are up to 10 years old. The bank next door to me and even the street it is on is not on the terraserver maps or photos.

 

Perhaps it is just my profession that causes me to find 2-year old imagery to be old. I develop and maintain geographic information systems in a rapidly developing area. I find the 1-yr old aerial photos from my county to be too old! Lucky for me, a group of governmental agencies funded a flyover of the Chicago area in April. Free new 1-ft resolution aerial photos by the end of this year/early next year. Woo hoo!

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Marky

+Marky

Posted
Posted
Perhaps it is just my profession that causes me to find 2-year old imagery to be old. I develop and maintain geographic information systems in a rapidly developing area. I find the 1-yr old aerial photos from my county to be too old! Lucky for me, a group of governmental agencies funded a flyover of the Chicago area in April. Free new 1-ft resolution aerial photos by the end of this year/early next year. Woo hoo!

At which point, they will be nearly a year old, lol.

 

--Marky

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