I've written a couple of articles (What's Your Latitude? Part 1 & Part 2) about Google Earth and Google Maps. Both applications continue to evolve. This article will focus on Google Maps, the 2D web based map application. Google Maps allows users to choose and customize the data that is presented on the maps. Users can toggle between a standard road map, satellite imagery or topographical representations of the maps. In addition users can turn on "Traffic" to view both "Live traffic" and predicted traffic data. Predicted data is based on past conditions.
Additional data can be presented on the maps by clicking the "more" button. Clicking the "Photos" check box will link geo-tagged photos from the Panoramio website. Panoramio is a photo sharing website owned by Google. Clicking the image will take you to the photo published on the Panoramio website. Similarly, clicking on a Wikipedia placemark will open a window with information and a link to the full article on Wikipedia. Wikipedia is an on-line encyclopedia anyone can edit.
In the previous articles I mentioned a feature in Google Maps called "Street View". Street View gives the user the ability to actually view imagery at the street level. Click on the "Street View" button and the roads with Street View available will be double lined in blue. Click between the double blue lines and the "Street View" image will be displayed in a window. Users can move through the "Street View", zoom images, pan around 360° and tilt the images up and down. Users can also view "Street View" in full screen mode Much of the Farmington Valley is now covered with Street View. Based on the below screen shot, I would say the images of the Farmington Valley were captured late last August or sometime in September.
The Street View feature has raised some concerns over privacy issues. As a result Google now offers a way for users to report and request removal of inappropriate images. To request an image be removed or blurred click on the "Street View Help" link in the Street View window. At the bottom is a link to "Report inappropriate image". This link will lead users to the request removal form.
In addition to the features mention above, users can further customize the data presented on Google Maps by clicking on the "My Maps" link. A number of additional content layers are available. Google Real Estate Search, Videos from YouTube, Gas Prices from GasBuddy.com, Places of Interest and data from the Weather Channel are some of the available data layers.
Users who have a Google account can further customize data and even create, save and share custom maps.
There are other features and tools for developers. I hope you found this article informative and enjoy using Google maps as much as I do. I'm not sure how much better it can get for interactive mapping, but if it can, Google will figure out how to bring it to you.
Richard