If you've ever wanted to drive the Autobahn in Germany, tool around London in an 18-wheeler or do doughnuts in the Googleplex parking lot, the Geoquake 2D driving simulator will help you out. The simulator uses Google Maps for its driving courses.
You can choose to drive through Tokyo Station, London, Las Vegas and several other locations. You don't even have to be a very good driver, since the 2D format allows you to just drive all over everything - quite handy when you keep forgetting which side of the road you should be on in London.
I had the best luck in Tokyo Station. In other locations I had frequent instances of driving over a plain gray screen as the frames per second weren't keeping up. That could be from my old computer or slow internet connection though, and not an issue for those of you with better connections.
It's certainly not a slick video game by any means but it is kind of cool to see what is possible in the future. Grand Theft Auto in your own neighborhood perhaps?
OK, here's the situation, my parents went away on a week's vacation...oops, scratch that. Here's the real situation: you and your friend want to meet up for lunch, coffee, etc...but the only restaurants you know are right near you, and the only restaurants they know are right near them. The solution to this quandary? Mezzoman.
With Mezzoman, you enter in your address, your friend's address, select the search critera (e.g. Pizzeria, American food, coffee shop, Chinese food), hit Go, and you will be given a list of results near the midpoint of the two locations.
What new devilry is this?
No devilry, just Google. The site uses Google Maps along with local business directories to find the two locations, calculate the midpoint, and provide you with a few dining options in that area.
One obvious disadvantage: Mezzoman plots the midpoint geographically, or "as the crow flies." In other words, it doesn't take into account traffic, construction, or any related difficulties one party might have getting to the suggested location. But at the very least, Mezzoman gives you a good starting point for your hangout hunt.
We checked out these add-ons for helping your find yourself, (no, not that way) and they do a good job of helping you get where you want to go. Well, at least they get you the directions and well, the rest is really up to you. Get Directions from Google Maps - save yourself opening a new window. Just highlight any address on a webpage you're viewing and right click. Select from the pop-up menu "Locate on Google Map" which then launches Google Maps in a separate tab with the address selected.
Map This - does the same as "Get Directions from Google Maps," plus you can set your home location in the preferences and get driving directions from your "home."
GD Directions - finds directions on Yahoo and Google maps based on your selected text and your home address. You can manage various home addresses and get directions from one of your home addresses to the selected address by right clicking on the selected address. Loki - uses Wi-Fi positioning system to pinpoint your location and turns your Wi-Fi enabled laptop into a virtual GPS device. Also, integrates that location into your Internet search, browsing and communications. You can even pinpoint your exact location on a map and share that location with others via Email or SMS Requires Windows XP and Wi-Fi. Note: Not for Mac OS X. (Sigh). Mini-Map Sidebar - One word: Wow. We saved the best for last. Great sidebar where you can drag and drop addresses or locations you find on web pages and they will be automatically located, and added to your saved address list. The sidebar is launched from the toolbar icon, a status bar icon and the view sidebar menu. The extension also comes with a main browser Map Tab for viewing a larger map and this is accessed from the status bar or by highlighting an address, and selecting 'Map Tab: Locate Address...' in the right click context menu. Below are a few of the extension features available:
Map an Address: Drag and drop addresses or links to show on map, which is added to the address list (hold shift when you drag to just display a temporary marker). Manually add an address. Build up a list of locally stored addresses.
geoDiscovery: The extension will automatically discover geoURL's and in-line geotags and populate the geoDiscovery list as you browse. Alerts you to the discovery via a status bar image.
Tagzania.com: View tagzania.com/near and post address list entry to tagzania.
Google Earth: View an address list entry in Google Earth.
Loc.alize.us: View loc.alize.us flickr photos based on an address list entry.
Googlesightseeing.com: Drag and drop googlesightseeing links to view the image of interest.
Okay, if you're directionally challenged, you still might get lost, but at least you'll have all these map resources at your fingertips. You may want to consider a voice guidance system on a GPS unit, which is not fail proof either, but at least you have the comfort of a virtual back seat driver with you wherever you go.
The web has often been used to make a point (The Onion anyone?). But rarely has it been used as effectively as with the Predatory Lending Association.
This site has it all: Loan calculators, discussion boards, racial profiling tools, and a Google maps based "poor finder" that makes suggestions for where you should open up your next PayDay loan store. The site is extremely sarcastic and attempts to illustrate the cold, calculating, and corrupt business practices of predatory lenders, many of which exist simply to let people with lower incomes hock their next pay check and take the money to the Casino.
For those who aren't in the USA, PayDay loan stores offer short term loans with enormous fees based on your previous pay stub. They let you get your check early, but they'll charge you 10-30% to do it.
The site encourages people to sign up for their mailing list so they can notify you of future projects and whether or not PayDay lenders attempt to hack the site and take it down.
Have a friend that's coming in for a landing and want to see exactly where they are at the moment? Or if you just like watching planes, check out the GMaps Flight Tracker. This Google Mapsmashup tracks the status of inbound flights scheduled to land in Atlanta, Boston, New York's JFK, LA, Miami and San Francisco. Pick your city, and a list of the arriving flights are displayed. Click or mouse over the airline flight number of plane icon and the altitude, speed and heading coordinates are displayed as well as flight trail waypoints so you can check out the travel path.
The inbound flight schedule refreshes every 40 seconds so flight statuses are ensured to be at their most accurate. Data is provided from fboweb.com and based on the position reports for each aircraft once per minute, and sometimes once every 20 seconds in high traffic areas. Want to check things out in 3d? Download the GE kml file and check out past flights and height profiles in Google Earth.
Google has been providing Google Maps-based public transit directions for a few years now. If you happen to live in Portland, San Diego, Pittsburgh, or a handful of other cities, that is.
But Bloomberg is reporting that Google Transit is about to add directions for the largest public transportation system in the country: New York City.
Earlier this year, Google added subway stop information to New York City maps. But there was no way to get directions from one stop to another. According to Bloomberg, Google is working with New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority and New Jersey Transit to develop the trip planner.
No word on how long you'll have to wait to get your New York subway directions from Google. In the meantime, you might want to check out HopStop, which recently launched a mobile version of its trip planner. Unlike Google, which currently has routes for smaller cities, Hopstop covers New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington D.C.
