Forget the old atlas. Encyclopedic, photographic, practical, funny, the mapping service of Google, Google Maps, takes you everywhere. Really everywhere.
It lacks not even the Moon … because Google, for the 36th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, created a map of the Moon. And … did the same thing with the red planet.
To say that since the creation of Google Maps, the mapping service of Google and the Google Earth software, our approach has changed for the geography. Extremely simple to use, Google Maps (like Google Earth) can move at high speed into the views of the Earth by dragging the map, zooming in and zooming out, showing the world as a map, satellite images or both …
Take full advantage of maps
You want to see what the neighborhood really looks like a city or pinpoint the location of an appointment? Google Street View, with its panoramic floor-level, it will save you. You need to plan a route and you do not have a GPS? Google Maps will take you safely without firing a shot. An immediate urge to go under the southern latitudes for the holidays? Discover your summer destination in photos, but also points of interest, and information directly from Wikipedia in Google’s mapping service. Whether you have a PC available, or even a cell phone. In short, to make the best maps … continue reading our special report.
Your own map on Google Maps
We do this almost over, so the mapping service of Google is popular. But if you do not know it yet, just click on the Maps link on the main page of Google.
By default, the first time you connect, Google Maps will focus on the U.S.. But it is important to establish once and for all, the initial display. To do this, log in using an identifier. If you do not have one, or you’re offline, click on the Login link at the top right. Enter your login or click Create an account now and follow the instructions. Back on the map, click in the left column on the link Set a default address. In the text box that appears, enter the desired location.
To remove ambiguities, it is necessary to give some clarification from Google. If you simply enter the name of a street, without specifying the city, the answer will certainly be crazy, like “madison ave” leading to another country of the world.
So enter your address in this form: street number, street, city, state or district, postal code, country. For example: 20 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10010, USA. Once your address is found, click Save. Now when you open Google Maps, the view will be centered on your address. On the map itself, different views are available: Map, Satellite and Terrain. To switch from one to another, simply click on the button at the top right. But other information is available. By clicking on Extras, for example, you can choose to view the Wikipedia entries linked to places in the area in view now, just for the photographs posted by users.
Search a route
Google Maps includes a tool for routing. To access, click the Get Directions link at the top left. Then enter your departure address and arrival. Please click on the View options which allow you to choose the type of paths to follow. You can easily plan steps, by clicking Add destination. Click the Route button to view the proposals: will be given travel time and provided all possible alternative routes. You can print the information by clicking Print in the top right of the map.
And if you are worried about possible traffic jams, remember that in the main interface of Google Maps, simply click on the Traffic to be informed of the movement in real time for many roads and arteries.
See maps and create your own
Google Maps is also a richness of information more useful than another. To qualify in the main interface, click on My Maps. There you will be able to add “maps” all done. At Google, the terminology “maps” means additional information. With the tools provided by the vendor, it is possible to add markers, with additional content, but also draw on the map to identify areas, highlight trips, etc. Professional publishers (hotel groups, town halls, etc.) have created such content. To view, click the Browse a directory link.
In the next page you will submit a list of additional content that you can add by clicking on a button Add to Google Maps.
Back in Google Maps when you click on My Maps, a list of maps added is visible in the left column. Click on the title of a map so that the associated information will be displayed. Each time you click on the name of a map, their information will be added to information already present. A list of maps, with a checkbox in front, at the bottom of the left column. Check or uncheck the map at your convenience, so as not to overload too much information on the screen.
Feel free to also create your own content: simply click on Create a new map. Enter a title and description, and above all, determine immediately if the map is Public (it can be found and accessed by anyone on the Internet) or Private.
The tools available are then very simple: by selecting with the tool in the shape of hand, you move the map. With the tool-shaped marker, you create benchmarks to click where you can insert text and images. The third and last tool in the shape of broken line can draw shapes and lines on you because, for example, trace a journey.
See local info
Appeared very recently, a new function to see in a glance all information related to a location. Perform a search, for example, Madison Ave, New York. In the results list on the left, next to the main response appears the More info link. Click it. A new page opens in which are gathered all the information known local by Google Maps on the rise: transportation, pictures of users, pre-filled relationship to calculate a route, etc. A tip: click on the little blue icon shaped channel in the upper right. The link to this page appears. Copy it into the address bar of your browser and press Enter. You can save the address in your Favorites: all places (the streets of the U.S.) and have a unique Web address.
Walk in cities
Google has hit the headlines by integrating its mapping service panoramic views taken at breast height. For this, a fleet of cars with odd and mast fitted with 360 photographic targets have been released into the streets of U.S. cities and abroad. Since then, Google has even developed the same type in tricycle, to access more places.
To use Google Street View, nothing more simple: zoom up, then continue to zoom in by double-clicking. If a view is available, it will appear.
You can then manipulate the view in all directions by clicking the left button of the mouse, keeping it down, then moving the mouse. You can also double-click directly in sight of where you want to move. Finally, the streets are shown as arrows on which you can click to move virtually in the cities.
But only large cities have such panoramic views. To find out if they are available in a general view of Google Maps, enter with the mouse the little man in orange top left of the map. Move it on the map all the streets lined with blue have panoramic views. Let the man in the place you want to explore.
Finally, if you want to leave the view, click the small white cross on a gray background in the top right of the interface.
Put your photos on your map
And if you try a small revival for the evening slides? With mapping tools of Google, you can combine all your photos to where they were taken! It’s extremely simple and very effective. Two tools, or rather two versions of the same tool, you can do. Picasa is the photo manager of Google. It comes in two versions: Picasa Web Albums, an online service and Picasa, a software to download. In principle, only the online version allows geographically locate your photos. But the new version of Picasa, the 3.5, permits too.
Picasa Web Albums
To use Picasa Web Albums, on the home page of Google, click the More link and then on the menu that appears, click Photos.
To operate the service, you must be logged in with your Google Account. Then just click the Upload button to create your own web albums, uploading the files from your hard disk to the Web.
In the upload window, select the Show location on the map to involve the entire album in one location. To do this, simply click on the desired spot on for you that is! You can zoom or move around the map as you would with Google Maps. You can even enter the place name in the text box location shooting and the map will automatically center where you have requested.
Once you have online photo albums, select one of them, and then click bottom right on the Create a Geo map album if you have not already located your images, or View the map if you’ve already located some of the photos or album (during the upload).
The photos in your album will appear as images on the left, and a map occupies the right side of the screen. Click on a thumbnail with the left button of the mouse, hold the button down and drag the photo to the desired location on the map. Release the button when the photo you appear correctly placed. You can always, if the location does not suit you, move it the picture with the mouse. Simple.
Picasa 3.5
Older versions of Picasa does not allow to locate your photos. The function required the installation of Google Earth. The latest version (3.5) solves this problem. You can download the software here, for Windows or Mac.
Once installed, it can, as simply as Picasa Web Albums, place your photos on the map. To do this, when a photograph is displayed, simply click on the button, which will bring up a Google map. To place your files, it can then drag and drop.
Did you know it?
The photographic views of Google Maps are known, mostly wrongly satellite photos. It is actually collage of photographs taken from aircraft at relatively low altitudes.
Zoom in Google Maps is mostly stuck to a maximum of 20 times. But it is sometimes possible to zoom further in satellite photos. To do this, click on the Link box in the upper right of the view. The address of the view is automatically selected. Press Ctrl + C, then double-click in the Address bar of your browser. Press Ctrl + V to copy the address of sight, then press Enter. In the end of the address, you can see the characters &z= followed by a number: it is the zoom. Replace this number by 23 and press Enter. If the mapping is available, you will pass the zoom level normally provided by the interface.
A mini-map is available that allows you, whatever your view, to move quickly on the globe. For the show, click at the bottom right corner of the map on the small arrow pointing diagonally up left. In the small map that appears, the part framed in blue is the current view. Using the mouse, grab the blue box and move quickly to navigate on the map.
The mouse wheel is widely exploited in Google Maps: rather than clicking the zoom slider, you can zoom in and out with the wheel. You can also zoom in by double-clicking the left button of the mouse, and zoom out by double-clicking the right button.
Games using Google Maps
Where’s Waldo?
But where is Waldo? A search of Google Street View allows you to track him. If the player is lost in the streets of London, messages are displayed in the warn and encourage you. A very simple game or maybe too simple …
Monopoly City Streets
Remember that this free version of Monopoly can wander through the world, while making acquisitions. Periodically, post-it appears on the map informed of the activities of players. Too bad that the servers are so slow …
Geoquake Driving Simulator
To roll in the streets of Google Maps, the player can either drive a small car or a tractor-trailer and is immune to accidents. Whether traveling on buildings or walkways, the vehicle continued its route without crashing into obstacles. There is no doubt the weakness of this game is still fun.
Google Maps in a multitude of sites
Google has given to developers a way to embed maps directly into their sites. So webmasters have created hundreds of mashups, sites with content from the amalgamation of data from multiple sites. Here is a small anthology.
Urban guides
Ihaochi.com
Find on the map of the city of your choice, Wikipedia articles to relevant sites, photos from Picasa, Flickr or Panoramio, videos from YouTube, and finally shows and concerts being via Upcoming. So much for the legends of the map. In the right margin, you can view Tweets posted by residents (see Local Tweets) and more rarely news (Local News).
Real Estate
Housingmaps.com
Find a home in the U.S. for renting or for sale in this website, through Google Maps. You can select the price and the city to search.
Hotels
Trivop.com
On Trivop.com, you can watch videos of hotels – the specialty of the site – directly on the map. Once a location is selected, you must activate the icon of the globe in video. In the blink of an eye, we can visualize the inside of the place and location.
Microblogging
Twittervision.com
The micromessages posted on Twitter appear as and when they are published on the world map. We just have to let the tool – still in test version – you walk from one country to another.
Clicking on the name of the person enough to get on the Twitter page, provided, however, be quite rapid. The same principle exists for Wikipedia (lkozma.net) or pictures of Flickr (Flickrvision.com).
Thebobs.com
Who blog where? Click on any of the benchmarks of the map played by this site which lists all the blogs. They are the authors who register. It is also possible to search by country, by author …
Geoimpress.com
GeoImpress joints maps from Google Maps with Twitter micromessages (select Thoughts) or photos of Flickr (select Impressions). This can sometimes give an overview of a region and its inhabitants. Still, messages and pictures are often personal.
Google Earth, the Blue Planet on a large scale
Google Earth is not quite Google Maps. It is a software installed on your computer, also published by Google, you can download the software here (also in Linux and Mac versions). To use a bit less intuitive as Google Maps, it allows – in addition to geolocation – recording visits to discover places in 3D, navigate to the seabed (but no fish!) or fly in the sky, even to other planets.
Identify yourself
The first temptation is to customize the software. And why not start saving your place of residence? Enter your address specifying the street, postal code and city in the Go to field. Press Enter, let the software do or drag the scroll wheel on your mouse to your house. Once the location displayed, add a marker by clicking on the icon of yellow paper clip. You can assign a name and colors: “My house” or insert one of your photos. Go to the Add tab, then upload your photo image, and drag the cursor to make it more or less transparent in terms of Google Earth. It is possible to superimpose a second image. In the Toolbar, click the fourth icon Add an image overlay. And let your creativity. Again, you can choose to display the picture with more or less transparency.
Save your routes
You can continue recording a route. Choose Add, Journey, and then assign a name and color. Select Routes in the left margin, and specify, for example, your place of work. The software will automatically display the distance and duration of any route down the left margin. To print, select Printer. In the right window to open the map from Google Maps. It is also possible to register via the File menu, Save, Save my favorite places. The same applies to each visit. Interested? Keep in mind the places visited and possibly share your discoveries with your entourage.
Send them to your friends
From the File tab, you can send an email, an image, a view, or a marker displayed in Google Earth. You must have either an email address in Microsoft Outlook or Gmail. To avoid that the tool demand systematically choose between one or other of these messengers, click the Tools tab, then Options, select General, select the last email used in Messenger.
Be guided by 3D or not
The world is vast and you do not know where to start. Be guided by Google Earth. In places located in the left margin, select Sightseeing, then start the tour here. To continue the journey around the world, press the Play button in the bar reading is displayed on the screen and drag the slider to zoom in on a place.
The tool takes care to remember it is imperative to check the 3D Buildings box in Geographic Data (or Practical information based on your version) before visiting a place. To enliven this virtual tour, we can only recommend you also check geographic data, then galleries, then referring to Panoramio photos, Wikipedia for historic places, and finally YouTube. Even if the videos are of unequal, they can sometimes shed light on the cultural life, for example.
Deepen your knowledge
Click the Add Content window for the appearance of the search engine of Google Earth. You have to choose the topic that interests you (selection, ocean, building in 3D, etc..). The texts are mostly in English or Japanese. Most innovations are, alas, not active. At any moment on earth as in the sky, you can click on a blue square visible on the map and access to content related to the place visited (videos, Wikipedia page, photos …) or upload your own images via Panoramio.
Plan your trip
In Geographic data (or Practical infos), click on the + of Gallery, then click on the + of Travel and Tourism. Choose one of the (still rare) markets. Latest to date: Korea Tourism. To visit, you locate the logo. Each item refers to a fact sheet in French, photo support and inserts a link back to the site devoted to tourism in South Korea. In theory, you can plan your trip and create routes. Right click, select Directions from here, then choose another place to make new right-click route to this place. Unfortunately, bugs do not always get a result.
Travel from the Earth to the sky or to the Moon
In the toolbar at the top of the page, click the icon and select Earth, Sky, Moon or Mars. If the icon is grayed out, check for example that you have completed the tour (press the cross on the drive). Also, if you do not want to see the mark of your home in the sky, remember to uncheck favorite places in the left margin.
Conquer the galaxy
In the toolbar, click the button shaped like a small planet and select Sky. Then, in Geographic data (or Practical infos), press the + button to display all the criteria of the Sky database, activate Welcome to Sky. Among other possibilities, you can identify the location of the planets and their movements or even find old maps.
Dive into the ocean
Go to Geographical data (or Practical infos), check Oceans. The tool offers a whole bunch of types of exploration, including deep underwater. You can check all or part of the fourteen categories. Press Enter. You can select, for example, National Geographic and access to articles, quizzes and atlas of the oceans, or prefer videos of world marine Cousteau on animals. The discovery of the oceans may also be limited to practical information such as best surf or diving (check Watersports).
Have fun with maps
Google Maps Art
The artist Jason Ruck has selected a series of satellite photographs so beautiful that they look like paintings. Remember to zoom in to identify the location on the map.
Google Maps on your mobile phone
With the popularity of the general public for smartphones, mobile Internet subscriptions among all the operators and the emergence last year of Android, the operating system created by Google, the Google mapping is logically arrive until in our mobile phones.
It does not appear in the shape of web pages to view in your browser, but as a free application to download and install. Beware, however: Visiting maps in mobile situation is through an Internet connection. Take care of your bill!
Google has been careful to decline Maps service for virtually all of their mobile operating systems: it therefore operates on most bottom-of-the-range mobile phones with Java-enabled, Palm devices (Palm OS 5 or higher), BlackBerry smartphones, smartphones with Windows Mobile 5.0 (or later) or Symbian 3rd edition, iPhones, and of course, all Android smartphones.
Note that these last two categories, the application comes standard with the mobile phone. In addition, Google has also developed the Google Earth application for the Apple’s iPhone, available for free on the App Store via iTunes, which works the same way as on PC.
Install Google Maps
To download Google Maps, go with the mobile browser installed by default on your mobile phone at http://m.google.com/maps. Google’s services will then identify your device and operating system installed and automatically show you a specific download link. Click it and follow the instructions. Thereafter, you should find Google Maps in your Applications folder or Programs.
Explore the mobile mapping
Google Maps for mobile provides the same functions as PCs. First, you can view maps, move, zoom, outline, in satellite view or hybrid.
The traffic conditions can be consulted in certain regions. In large cities, the stations transport links are shown, but can not see the “extra” like photos, videos or annotations as Wikipedia is available via a standard web browser on a PC.
Identify yourself
My Location function allows to locate you on the map. If your mobile phone has a GPS, Google Maps uses satellite tracking to position yourself in a few meters. In its absence, location, less precise, is by triangulation using the relay antennas of the GSM network. Once located, you can get information on businesses, services or points of interest nearby through the Search button, type eg pizza to show those close to you. Finally, Google Latitude is an additional application of geolocation for download that allows real time, to locate you and your loved ones on a map. It must, however, that everyone has a Google Account, a compatible mobile phone and the application Latitude.
Find your way
Furthermore, it is possible to establish fairly detailed driving directions. On some smartphones (iPhone, BlackBerry …) you can calculate walking routes and in certain cities of the world, make your journey by public transport by posting the same times of departure and arrival. These high-end mobile phones can also access the mode to display Google Street View pictures and real move inside views.
Tags: Downloads, Google, Google Earth, Google Latitude, Google Maps, Google Street View, Softwares, Web
