Mash Your Own Geodata: Google Adds More Custom Mapping Features
Now Google users can create custom map mashups built from other people’s mashups.
The company has rolled together two of its user-generated mapping products — MyMaps and Mapplets — to give Google Maps users the ability to create custom maps using dynamic data. Users can add data points like location-based photo searches from Picasa and gas prices from GasBuddy to their custom maps.
Search Google’s library of user-created mashups, plot them on a custom map, and layer different sets on data on top of one another to create new combinations. These multi-level maps can be saved and revisited when you log in to your Google account. Any components using dynamic data will update as new data rolls in.
To give it a shot, click on the MyMaps tab in Google Maps, then click on "Add Content" to start adding layers.
I created my own custom map in just a few minutes. I’m in the market for a new home in a bike-friendly city, so I ran a search for real estate listings in the $1.5 million range and layered it on top of a map from Google Trends showing the frequency of the search term "bikes" in different locations. The result is a map showing me houses for sale in my price range (OK, so I’m dreaming a little) and how the residents in those places feel about bicycles. If you study the screenshot above, it looks like Seattle and Portland are my best bets — total shocker there.
As Google Maps product manager Thai Tran writes on the Lat/Long blog, over 4 million custom maps have been generated with Google’s MyMaps tool since it launched in April. Mapplets, the dynamic component mashes the Google Gadgets API with the Google Maps API, was launched in May. Since then, hundreds of developers have created custom, single data source map mashups. More are rolling in every day, and by giving the ability for users to re-purpose this dynamic content for their own uses, Google’s going to foster even more interesting results.
