Google Maps Platform: May 2012

Join us at Random Hacks of Kindness this weekend

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

By Christiaan Adams, Developer Advocate, Google.org Crisis Response Team

Cross-posted with the Google.org Blog

On June 2nd and 3rd, volunteers around the world are coming together for the Random Hacks of Kindness Global Hackathon. Born in 2009, Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) is the brainchild of a partnership among Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, HP, NASA and the World Bank. The RHoK international community is over 4000 strong, encompassing not only computer programmers but also engineers, designers, web experts, project managers and other tech-savvy do-gooders, as well as subject matter experts in areas as diverse as disaster risk management, climate change, water, health care and human rights. This group of unlikely collaborators works together to define challenges facing humanity in local communities all around the world, and then to rapidly prototype solutions during an intensive weekend of round-the-clock work.

Fueled by plenty of coffee and a strong desire to make a difference in the world, "hackers for humanity" working alongside subject matter experts have created innovative solutions to pressing problems in their communities.

A team at RHoK in Trento, Italy designed a mobile application that connects charities distributing food to needy populations with restaurants and businesses with excess food to donate.

A team at RHoK Philadelphia designed a web platform enabling homeless service providers to easily identify empty beds and open soup kitchens for Philadelphia and New Jersey homeless populations.

A team at RHoK Washington D.C. designed a tool to visualize complex landslide risk algorithms, making the information accessible to local mayors and urban planners making building decisions.

A team at RHoK Sydney created a crowdsourcing tool to allow Australian citizens to rapidly report and respond to bushfires.

In the two short years since its inception, RHoK communities have sprung up in close to 50 cities around the world, with the support of over 180 diverse partner organizations, from government and academia, to the non-profit and private sectors.

RHoK Global in June 2012 will be taking place simultaneously in 21+ cities globally, from Seattle to Santo Domingo, from Philadelphia to Prague. Googlers will be attending the events in San Francisco, Prague, and other locations, and we hope you can join us.

Be a part of this global movement to make the world a better place through the innovative use of technology. Register at www.rhok.org/events and come out to hack for humanity in a city near you on June 2nd and 3rd, 2012!

Christiaan Adams is a developer advocate with the Google Earth Outreach Team and Google.org’s Crisis Response Team, where he helps nonprofits and disaster response organizations to use online mapping tools. When he’s not at work, he likes to go hiking or mountain biking, using Google Maps, of course.

Posted by Scott Knaster, Editor

Events support in the Google Places API

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Google Places APIGoogle Developers YouTube channelEvents in the Places APIPlaces API Searchcommunity of Places API developersPosted by Thor Mitchell, Product Manager, Google Places API

Map of the Week: Airbnb

Monday, May 21, 2012

Map of the Week:AirbnbWhy we like it:Google Street ViewAirbnb

Posted by Carlos Cuesta, Google Maps API Product Marketing Manager

Fab Friday Goes South

Friday, May 18, 2012

We have a couple of events in the next two weeks. Andrés Ferraté and I will be at the SMI Developer Day 2012 in Buenos Aires on the 23rd and Mundo Geo in São Paulo on the 30th of May. This will be my first trip to Argentina, so I’m very excited, and hope that we’ll see y’all there.

If you’re new to the Google Maps API, or know someone who is, this new screencast by Chris Broadfoot is a great way to start:

And finally, on Tuesday, Josh Livni from my team held office hours with Peter Birch, the Product Manager for Google Earth. They talked about the latest cool features in Google Earth and answered questions. Here’s the video from the event:

Posted by Mano Marks, Google Maps Developer Relations Team

Map of the Week: Made in NY Digital Map

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Map of the Week:Made in NYWhy we like it:Styled MapsMarker Clusterer libraryhis pledge to learn code in 2012Internet Week New YorkMade in New YorkMarker ClustererStyled Map

Made in New York

Made in New YorkPosted by Carlos Cuesta, Google Maps API Product Marketing Manager

Google Places API search refinements, as requested by you

Monday, May 14, 2012

Google Places APIKeyword searchWhen searching for business it’s often the case that you have very fine grained requirements. You don’t just want a restaurant, you want a Mexican restaurant. You don’t just want a clothes shop, you want a vintage clothes shop. You don’t just a want a bar, you want a bar that offers live music.

The Google Places API offers filtering over 100 different types, including restaurant, clothing_store, and bar. As rich as this type scheme is, it can not cover the infinite range of fine grained requirements that you or your users might have.

For these situations the Places API now offers keyword search, which searches places based on an arbitrary text string. Results are matched against all the information that Google has about a business, including country specific categories, cuisine, and Google review content.

Keyword searches can also be combined with type filters. For example, you could add a type filter of ‘bar’ to a keyword search for ‘wine’ to ensure your search results include only drinking establishments, and not wine merchants.Rank by distanceBy default, the Google Places API orders the search results it returns using the same ranking algorithm as Google Maps, which prioritises places that are popular or prominent. This is great for local discovery and check-in apps, as these are the places likely to be the most interesting or relevant. However for certain types of search, such as gas stations or atms, the closest result is usually preferable.

To help with these use case the Places API can now rank results strictly by distance. In order to rank results by distance you must use some form of query or filter on the search. This can be a name filter, a type filter, or a keyword search. When results are ranked by distance it is not necessary to provide a search radius as the Places API will try to return the 20 closest results within reasonable distance.Places API web serviceplaces library of the JavaScript Maps API v3Maps API Issue Trackeryou can find us on Stack OverflowPosted by Thor Mitchell, Product Manager, Google Places API

Fab Friday is Happy

Friday, May 11, 2012

We’ve had two different Google Maps API office hours events since I last posted here. Last week week, Marcelo Camelo and Paul Saxman hosted office hours focused on the Google Places API:

Then this week, Chris Broadfoot and Luke Mahe hosted a no-holds-barred, ask questions about anything office hours, Sydney style:

But why is Fab Friday happy this week? Because we ran across mappiness, which maps where people have reported being happy on Twitter in the last week. Why we’re happy is that they’ve developed a creative solution to the too-many-markers problem. People often use clustering to solve that problem, particularly using the MarkerClusterer library of the Google Maps API Utility Library. Instead, mappiness has developed a spider-like visualization similar to what Google Earth uses.

They’ve open sourced the library, so if you want to use that same visualization, you can.

Posted by Mano Marks, Google Maps Developer Relations Team

Faster address entry with Google Places Autocomplete

Thursday, May 10, 2012

much better way...Google Places APIplaces library of the Google Maps API v3Autocomplete.getPlace()Places API Details serviceBut there’s more...Country restrictsWe understand that many web sites know that all of their users are located in a single country. For example if a U.S. based online retailer ships only to U.S. addresses, there is no need for Autocomplete to offer completions for addresses outside of the U.S. We have therefore launched country filtering, which allows you to constrain the completions to a specific country.City and region type filtersWe also recognise that many applications prompt users to enter a location that is not as fine grained as an exact street address. I you are booking a hotel or browsing for real estate you are often prompted to enter the city or zipcode you are interested in. To address this need we have introduced additional type filters that allow you to limit completions to only cities, or to only coarse grained features such as zipcodes, states, and countries.Place Searchesplaces library of the Google Maps API v3Google Places API web serviceavailable herePosted by Thor Mitchell, Product Manager, Google Maps API

Map of the Week: University of Washington Campus Map

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Map of the Week:University of Washington Campus MapWhy we like it:Google Directions APIUniversity of Washington500 buildings and over 20 million gross square feet of space