Posts tagged “Google Maps

New Latitude Leaderboard adds points to check-ins

Posted on February 21st, 2012

  When I checked in to work this morning as I usually do I was surprised to discover a new Leaderboard feature had been introduced with the latest update of Google Maps with Navigation for Android. With each Google Latitude check-in you make, you earn points which are tallied to give you a total score for the week. Your score is then compared to others in your Google+ circles. The person with the most points leads the leaderboard. It would seem most of my friends on Google+ don’t check in too often! Early reporting on the ninja release are likening it to Foursquare, which I suppose in some ways it is (points and leaders). Of course Foursquare has a much more sophisticated incentive structure…

Google Street View has depth

Posted on February 16th, 2012

Google has been taking Google Maps Street View off the beaten (foot)path for awhile now. While you’ve been able to see famous destinations, art galleries and UNESCO World Heritage sites as well as famous parks, ski slopes, university campuses and even inside some businesses in 360°, Google Japan has taken Street View to a depth it’s never been before (pun intended!) with the inclusion of a cave and a mine. A project I am sure will be of interest to Geoff Manaugh at BLDGBLOG. Now you can see inside the Akiyoshi-do limestone cavern and the Okubo-mabu mine on Google Maps (embedded below respectively). Makes you wonder where is next for Street View? ↷   Google Street View Takes You Inside Ancient Japanese Caves [VIDEO] Sam Laird on Mashable, 15 February…

BIT ON THE SIDE Emergency alert information now on Google Maps

Posted on January 27th, 2012

The Google Crisis Response team at Google.org, Google’s philanthropic arm, has released a public alerts service that plots government emergency alerts information onto their Public Alerts website and onto Google Maps.