A Source Of Inspiration » maps

BBC Dimensions maps your perspective

Armando Alves — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 14:15:16 +0000

Is your city area larger than the Oil spill? Or are the WWII enemy lines a short walk around the block? These are some of the answers that Berg London and the BBC try to find on their new project BBC Dimensions, at HowBigReally.com.

BBC Dimensions takes important places, events and things, and overlays them onto a map of where you are. The prototype frames our view of the world and events according to our neighborhood perspective, an effective tool to inform audiences that are usually dettached from the scale of events taking place elsewhere.

From the Apollo 11 moon landing on your block to the ancient Colossus of Rhodes, there’s plenty new perspectives to explore.

Source: Berg London

Nation of Go

Armando Alves — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 09:29:38 +0000

These days we had our share of new social web services, with Mashable or Techcrunch feeding us daily with some new shiny object. Nonetheless, some brands venture into this competitive territory and create their own experiences, particular when there’s one dedicated set of consumers who share a common passion.

Such is the case with Nation of Go, a Google Maps mashup sponsored by BF Goodrich, which you can get a short video overview:

There’s also a free mobile app to track drives, trails and racetracks and automatically upload them to one’s profile, with support for geo-tagged photos.
I’m a sucker for branded content and applications, and though suspicious of branded social networks (it’s like having a private talk on a crowded bar), this one from BFG really impressed me. Shame it’s only for North America.

Source: Creativity Online

Google Maps City Center

Armando Alves — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 21:13:10 +0000

This should probably be one of my silliest posts, but since serendipity doesn’t come that often, i might as well share it. So here it goes:

If you’re looking for a city, where does Google Maps take you by default?

Running a couple of queries brought some interesting results:
(zoom in to street level, for better view)

Lisbon, Portugal

This was actually what took me down the rabbit hole, as it’s a long stretch to consider Praça do Comercio as Lisbon’s city center.

New York

Times Square is a a pretty good choice, Downtown Manhatan would do fine also.

Paris, France

Right next to the city hall. I was expecting Eiffel Tower or Arc de Triomphe.

San Francisco

Van Ness Ave w/ Market St‎. What were you expecting now? Alcatraz?

London, UK

Another strange choice, next to the Parliament Square.

Rome, Italy

The placemark sits right in front of Il Vittoriano, on Piazza Veneza. No Colloseum for you.

Madrid, Spain

Puerta del Sol is a pretty busy city square, but celebrations usually take place at Plaza Cibeles.

Mountain View, California

And of course, Mountain View, placed next to Google’s corporate headquarters.

This seemingly useless trivia is actually important, as businesses get ranked in Local Search according to their proximity to the city center. If you’re an hotel, entertainment or tourism related service, you’d better start caring how Google Maps sets their city placemarks.

So, is your city center the same as the one suggested by Google Maps?