Revamping the Photo Layer in Google Maps

Posted by Jonah Jones, User Experience Designer, Google Maps Team

Here at Google, we love the experience of browsing photos on a map, and today it just got a lot easier. We have launched an update to the design of the Photo layer in Google Maps to provide you with a better experience when browsing your favourite places:

There are three main improvements in this latest update:

Firstly, we have made improvements to the density of the photos on the map, making it easier to see clusters of photos in popular locations. On the screenshot above, you can now well see that there are a lot more photos taken on the coast than there are inland.

Secondly, we’ve made the small thumbnails partially transparent, making it easier to see the underlying map, and helping you to stay oriented. On the screenshot above, the city and neighbourhood labels are now more legible.

Finally, we are showing more information when you hover over a photo. Now, you can see a large thumbnail and the title of each image, so you can get a fast preview of what any photo looks like.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on the new layer, so feel free to leave us your comments in the Panoramio forum.

Touring Europe with Ovi Maps

First of all I had to share a place from my home city Craiova, Romania in Ovi Maps, a place that brought both ecstasy and despair to the people of this city. I live nearby the biggest city stadium, the Ion Oblemenco stadium, which is home of the Universitatea Craiova football club.

You can see it here on Ovi Maps: The Ion Oblemenco Stadium
The U(short for Universitatea) Craiova club is legendary in Romania, being the first Romanian team to ever reach an UEFA Cup semifinal. The team that achieved this performance was called Craiova Maxima. This performance was never followed by the next generations. Now U Craiova plays in the second Romanian league hoping to go back to the fist league next year.


Ion Oblemenco Stadium in the evening


So, to go further, since I am a football fan, and never quite had the chance to leave the country, I decided to visit Barcelona and the Camp Nou Stadium, the home of FC Barcelona. It was not it in the Ovi Maps 3D landmarks, but after some searching I found it, and it is gorgeous.

Here it is, as seen on Ovi Maps:



Camp Nou Stadium

Next, I decided to make a quick stop in Milano in Italy to check out the San Siro Stadium, or Giuseppe Meazza, as it is known today, home of Internazionale Milano and A.C. Milan football clubs. I looked a bit for this one too, but here it is:


Giuseppe Meazza(San Siro) Stadium

Well, enough with the stadiums, let's see some historical sights. For that we go to London. First of all, let's see the place that was on fire a while ago with the wedding of price William and Kate Middleton, the Westminister Abbey. This is the place were all the kings and queens of England have their weddings. It's an important milestone England's history, both old and modern.


Westminister Abbey

Since I was in London I decided to "drop by" the guys from WOMWorld located on Windmill Street near the Piccadilly Circus.






1000Heads/WOMWorld London Office

Nice to finally see where all those Nokia goodies have been coming from.

Thank you Ovi Maps!

Maps for a Land I've Never Seen...

The official map over at ConantheBarbarianIn3D.com encapsulates exactly what my problem with the film is.  And, to echo what I said over at CMB:

Let’s imagine Warner Brothers do something like this for The Hobbit: a stylized map showing all the regions in the film. Someone who knows nothing of Middle earth might see a cosy little village with doors in the hills; a stately town hidden in the mountains; high peaks shrouded in mist; a dark forest housing a hidden city and a black fortress; a grim mountain circled by a dragon; a city standing on a lake. A Tolkien fan, however, wouldn’t even need map markers to know what they were looking at – Hobbiton in the Shire; Rivendell; the Misty Mountains; Mirkwood, the Wood-elves’ realm and Dol Goldur; the Lonely Mountain and Smaug; Laketown.

A Conan fan doesn’t have that pleasure looking at this map. If I didn’t already know about the locations, I probably couldn’t even hazard a guess as to what the dark fortress, Greek-looking city, Middle-Eastern-looking city and coastal fort could be. I’ve even seen comments on the internet thinking the dark fortress, Middle-Eastern city and desert is Stygia, the Greek-Influenced Monastery and forest is Aquilonia, and the pirate ship is somewhere out on the Western Ocean in Tortage. Even considering that the broad location of the film is set on the “savage coast” of Turan, it’s parts of Turan we haven’t seen in any of the stories.

So the idea that the filmmakers have spent all this time and money making a completely new world when they already have 80 years’ worth of legend to draw from is… well, it is what it is, is all.

Then I imagined what a map of actual Conan stories would be like.  Conan the Barbarian: Black Colossus would have Kuthchemes, Khoraja, Aphaka, Altaku, Shamla Pass, maybe Eruk and Akbatana.  Conan the Barbarian: Queen of the Black Coast would have Messantia, the Black Coast, the Zarkheba River, the City of the Winged One, possibly adding Abombi, the Stygian Coast and Khemi.  Conan the Barbarian: The People of the Black Circle would have Ayodhya, Peshkauri, Ghor, Zhaibar Pass, the Gurashah Valley, Mount Yimsha.  King Conan: The Hour of the Dragon would feature Belverus, Tarantia, the Valkia, Poitain, Valbroso's castle, Messantia, Khemi, the Valley of Lions.

Wouldn't that be cool?

Short Nokia history told by Nokia Maps

Well, I thought I'd make use of the Nokia Maps 3D once again, because I really enjoyed it the first time around back when it was branded Ovi Maps.

This time I thought I'd share a little Nokia history, seen trough the Nokia Maps 3D.

In 1865 a mining engineer called Fredrik Idestam established groundwood pulp mill in the town of Tampere, Finland, and started manufacturing paper.


Tampere, Finland

In 1868 Idestam built another mill near the town Nokia, 15km west of Tampere, by the Nokianvirta river. In 1871, with the help of his good friend Leo Mechelin, Idestam renamed and transformed his firm into a share company known since then as Nokia Company.


Nokia, Finland

The company went through a series of transformations that included manufacturing of rubber boots, galoshes, electronics business, tires and footwear.

In 1970 Nokia became more involved in telecommunications, and the production of network equipment was separated into a company called Telefenno, jointly owned by Nokia and by another company owned by the Finnish state. In 1987, the state sold all shares to Nokia, and in 1992 the name of the company was changed to Nokia Telecommunications.

In 1992 the first GSM phone was launched by Nokia, the 1011. The model was named after it's launch date November 10th.

Nokia eventually build new headquarters in the town of Espoo, Finland near Helsinki, known as the Nokia House.


Nokia House, Espoo, Finland

Since February 2011, Nokia announced a partnership with Microsoft and the new Nokia CEO Stephen Elop started to think about moving people to Silicon Valley. A natural move for the world's biggest phone manufacturer. So the new USA Nokia headquarters are located in Sunnyvale, CA, USA.


Nokia, Sunnyvale, CA, USA

The company also have a research center in Palo Alto, CA, USA and another one near the Berkeley University.


Nokia Research Center, Palo Alto, CA, USA

Innovation is something Nokia clearly does not lack, so opening up new research centers in the heart of Silicon Valley can only be beneficial for the Finnish giant.

Almost 19 years passed since the launch of the Nokia 1011, and the Nokia N9 and it's WP7 brothers can breathe new life into the Finnish company, maybe just in time to celebrate 19 years from the launch of the first Nokia GSM phone. Wouldn't it be nice to have the SeaRay on November 10th 2011? It would mark a new beginning for Nokia.

Faux-Medieval Fantasy Maps

I came across this at the Robert E. Howard Forums.  It is fantastic.

I know it must seem like I say this all the time, but how cool would a map like this be for the Hyborian Age?  Flags, faction symbols, cities, monsters, ships, warriors, all that jazz.  The golden lion of Aquilonia, the scarlet dragon of Nemedia, Grey apes lurking in the mountains of the Vilayet, sabretooths haunting the Pictish Wilderness, Atali and the Frost Giants in the far north, , the many distinctive cities and ruins of the Black Kingdoms, the Tigress gliding down the Black Coast.  There could be little hints of the stories: Numalia would have the famous bowl, Khorshemish the Scarlet Citadel, Zamora a certain tower, and so forth.

A cartoony style would be fun, but I think taking after the Book of Kells' illuminations would be especially appropriate.  Nemedian Chronicles, wot wot.