April Fool's Geography

Google Maps have got in quickly on the April Fools act.

Last year they created the 8-bit gaming maps. This year, they have added a TREASURE MAPS layer.
Click top right to add this to your Google Maps
Here's the venue for next week's GA Conference.
What other April Fools geographies will emerge ?

Thanks to Keir Clarke for the tip-off - also check out the LAT / LONG Treasure hunt...
Try GOOGLE STREET VIEW - sepia telescope ahoy... and get those screen grabs done now...

Global Billboard

I've been 'mourning' the disappearance of the wonderful GRACENOTE MUSIC MAP website, which I blogged about in 2007 and used numerous times before it vanished. I even contacted Gracenote, but got no joy...
Thanks to Keir Clarke for telling me about GLOBAL BILLBOARD.
Instead of the Gracenote map (which used data gathered when people ripped CDs), this uses favourites and plays on the LAST FM music service. It shows the top 5 artists and tracks.
In some countries the numbers are really small as a result (which was not a problem with Gracenote) and the numbers of records are too small. There also isn't the same local authenticity when visiting countries where the local bands were more popular before. There are also some inconsistencies...

Still, it's a useful additional tool for exploring the apparent cultural globalisation of some music acts...

Panorama...

Via Keir Clarke (from whom there are quite a few contributions on the blog)

This is a cool tool which would be useful for those exploring mountain landscapes...
An interactive PANORAMA creator...
In January, I was fortunate enough to travel to Salzburg. 
When taking off for the airport for the homeward journey after a wonderful 3 day visit for the digitalearth project, I had this incredible view across the Alps, south from Salzburg...

I could identify the features that I was looking at thanks to my iPhone app which did that for me (and was also made in Salzburg) but didn't have my phone switched on of course as I was on the plane...

The panorama maker provides a different version. You can set the starting point, the direction that the 'camera' is facing and the height of the 'camera'...
Here's what I produced in less than a minute... could have been a bit more accurate given more time...

Dangerous places - perceptions of crime using Street View

Thanks to a regular 'contributor' of blog posts: Keir Clarke

The site is produced by Tom Scott which uses the Google API and the recently released Crime maps from Police.Gov
It goes by the name WHO WANTS TO NOT GET STABBED

You have 5 attempts to identify the "safest" place from the image and the information that you are provided with about the police area


One for the Geography of Crime unit ?