Mapping

Google your BMW

Or maybe BMW your Google? At BMW's ConnectedDrive exhibit at the 2007 Frankfurt auto show, the company showed off the first ever implementation of Google local search in a car. You can enter any search term in your BMW's navigation system, and it will find any Google matches for local businesses either within the vicinity of your car or another location you choose. It amounts to having a points-of-interest database searchable by keyword that always gets updated.

Or, if you're not the hands-on type, you can just use an entry in the navigation system to call BMW'… Read more

MySpace to get popular Facebook travel app

Soon you can brag about your travels to your fellow MySpace friends as well as your height, weight and looks.

Where I've Been aka WIB, an application for sharing a map on places you've visited, lived in or want to visit, will now be available for MySpace users, the company plans to announce Friday.

The mapping application allows users to color-code the world by where they have visited or lived and where they would like to go. The U.S. is broken out by states while the rest of the world is broken out by country.

The Chicago-based … Read more

Cool Easter egg: Google Earth's flight simulator

This is so cool: Google Earth ( download) has a slightly hidden flight simulator. Press Ctrl-Alt-A (on a PC) to bring it up the first time. After that, Ctrl-A or a selection from the "Tools" menu activates it.

It's no Microsoft Flight Simulator in terms of controls, flyability, or features (no sound, no weather, no autopilot, only two aircraft choices... I could go on), but since the Google flight simulator has access to Google Earth's streaming database, the visuals are awesome. In most areas, it looks fantastic when your plane is more than about 2,000 feet … Read more

Google, Yahoo to direct your Mercedes

Mercedes-Benz USA has an answer to complaints that car navigation directions don't measure up to those from sites like Yahoo, Google and Ask.

The automaker has partnered with Google and Yahoo to allow users to send customized Google Maps and Yahoo Local Maps directly from a computer or Web-enabled cell phone to their car computer.

A new "Send to Car" icon that will appear on both companies' mapping sites will allow you to send customized directions, maps, addresses and points of interest to your Mercedes' GPS navigation system.

Once you get in your car, pushing the "… Read more

Watch the Presidential crawl at leisure with Map the Candidates

The presidential crawl back and forth across the country is less of a race and more of a marathon. At this point, there are a lot of candidates on both sides, and likewise an onslaught of news coverage. To help keep track of it all, there's a new site, aptly named Map the Candidates, which does just that. It's a Google maps mashup of where candidates are, and what they're doing in the form of news feeds and video clips.

Each candidate gets an icon to match their campaign branding, and various map markers around the country … Read more

Rentometer: Find out if you're getting hosed on rent

Rentometer is a useful mashup, one that's part scientific, and another pure speculation. The idea is simple: just plug in your ZIP code, the size of your dwelling, and how much you're paying, and Rentometer will cross-check your price with local property listings pulled in from parent company iiProperty. Results show up on two screens, one that's a little bit like a speedometer, and another that's simply a Google Map with nearby property listings.

This is a great service if you're apartment hunting, since you can see if the price is higher or lower than … Read more

A brief guide to the heavens on your PC: Google Earth and more

Google just launched a new version of Google Earth (news, download) from which you gaze up from the surface of the planet, not just down on it. It's a good way to see which stars and planets are over your home, right now. You can also check out a rich database of Hubble Space Telescope images that is overlaid on the celestial map.

The new Google Earth has a lot of additional education and reference material linked to it, pulled in from the Net as needed. The program is a great way to learn about the night sky. It … Read more

Google now zaps faces, license plates on Map Street View

Google has gotten a lot of flack from privacy advocates for photographing faces and license plate numbers and displaying them on the Street View in Google Maps. Originally, the company said only people who identified themselves could ask the company to remove their image.

But Google has quietly changed that policy, partly in response to criticism, and now anyone can alert the company and have an image of a license plate or a recognizable face removed, not just the owner of the face or car, says Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience at Google.

"It'… Read more

Google Maps easy embed feature goes live

That handy new no-nonsense embedding feature for Google Maps has gone live today. Clicking the "link to this page" option on the top right of any map will give you quick and dirty embed code to place into any blog or Web site that supports it. There's also an advanced option set to tweak the size from small, medium, large, or custom like I've done with the one embedded below. Instead of using Adobe Flash, Google employs an iframe to simply load the page within the page.

This is a far easier solution than tracking down … Read more