Tutorial - enabling Google Ads on every post of your Google blog

Ever wonder how do I get google ads to appear not only on my blog (blogger) template but within every post that I make? No problem. Using the steps similar to adding to your template, simply click on template / Page Elements Tab then Click Edit. The scroll down and click the box that reads "show ads between posts" then select a size (note: the large rectangle looks bad as it will appear below every post that is listed on your blog home page. Voila.. quite simple really. Keep in mind that this will only work if you have a Google AdSense account associated with your Blogger login.

Wind on the water mashups

Thanks to John over at LizardTech for sharing this cool mashup of interest to those needing wind.. maybe you surf, windsurf ,fly kytes or maybe kyteboard... the application so far has been developed for the Pac NW (Washington and B.C, Canada) and California users and shows hot recreational spots where wind is an important factor. Click on a station location and retrieve real-time wind-speed data, barometric pressure, Web cameras, and forecasts.. nice! See:
Washington - http://www.windonthewater.com/washington.htm
California - http://www.windonthewater.com/california.htm

LiveLook serves up Webcam locations via Google Maps - a great mashup!

Erik over at LiveLook has share details of a very cool mashup that they've developed.. enter LiveLook. This application uses the Google Maps API to mashup and present the location of webcams that are near you. By default it locates you (I assume based on IP) although you can optionally specify a region by city name etc... Check it out at http://livelook.com/

Google Maps adds coverage to 54 countries - Asia gets 3x more data

Reports from the Google Maps team confirm that the online map service has just added additional data covering 54 countries including a 3-fold increase in coverage for Asia and Mexico city now covered. The list of newly acquired data include: Afghanistan, Aruba, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belize, Bermuda, Brunei Darussalam, Bhutan, Bolivia, Cambodia, Chile, Columbia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Fiji, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Kuwait, Laos, Lebanon, Mexico, Myanmar (Burma), Mongolia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Timor-Leste, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen. According to Dave Barth, Google Product Manager... "this is just the beginning..." - see the lat/long blog for details - http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2007/09/more-of-world-for-you-to-explore.html

Putting a Google Map on your site / Blog is a snap

Google has so many fantastic tools but its hard to keep them all straight. One great score is the ability to easily embed a map search onto your web page. One way is to use the Google Map Search Wizard - use this app to easily and quickly put a Searchable Map on Your Web Page.
Embed a searchable Google Map on your web page and let your users find places around you. Customize how the map should be displayed, and this wizard will write the code for you. See
Here to add a map to your blog or website. The sample map below shows you the Googleplex on a map. The code is quite lengthy but its generated using a very simple to use wizard.

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The anti-nuke Google mashup from Action West

An interesting Google maps mashup at http://www.stopnewnukes.org/ from the team at Peace Action West - this one maps all the nuclear facilities in the country (do we really want to be sharing all this info and making it so readily available?) and then provides additional info as well as a link to sign a petition to stop the facility. Obviously this resource caters to the anti-nukes crowd but you see they are we're going with it. A nice UI and clever app for this organization - please note: I'm simply sharing info about the map mashup and don't endorse the anti-site or nuclear facilities in any way - I'll just stay neutral here! This takes me back to my poli-sci days and I have to admit that I'm likely from the camp where the best defense is a good offence!

Tutorial - Create a Google MyMap, add your flickr photos from a Mapplet, then embed

As of this week, adding a Google map, or even better, your Google "MyMaps", to your webpage is a snap (pardon the pun). You know how simple it is to embed a youTube video into your blog? Well, it's that simple. Here's a short tutorial to show you how simple it actually is. We'll create a custom google MyMap, add a Mapplet, embed some photos from our flickr account, save the map, and embed it within a website (in this article)... no problemmo! To finish I'll offer up a couple of photo geotagging tools for those of you with GPS-enabled cell phones and a tool for mannual geotagging for those with no access to GPS. If you enjoy Google maps, flickr, and geotagging photos then this tutorial is for you.

A photo tip - embed your flickr slideshow into your blog in seconds

Wow, just stumbled onto an awesomem flickr slideshow tool... you know that I'm a flickr fanatic, however, I didn't know about this app so I hope you enjoy as much as I do... this one will be really handy so be sure to bookmark this post! FlickrSlidr allows users to easily and quickly embed a flickr slideshow into your website(or blog). Alter the size, the flickr set to display, and then mess with the speed. See below for a slideshow of my 2007 ESRI User Conference photos.. enjoy!

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Embed your Google map (MyMap) into your blog, or website with youtube-ish ease

Another cool tidbit today out of the Google camp is embeddable maps in your blog.. think embed a youtube video into your blog and you'll know what I mean. Google has made it way simple to now embed your custom google maps (MyMaps) into your website. Simply open a map, click the "link to this page" link (upper right), copy the code, then embed into your map! Screenshot of this is below and the actual embedded map is provided at the bottom.. way cool.. thanks Google Maps team!

Embedding your gogole map is now a breeze, with youTube embed-like functionality!

See my Google MyMap below! Note: I've altered the default size

View Larger Map

Real Time traffic in Google earth

We've had traffic updates available in Google maps for some time, however, the Google Lat/Long blog has informed us that real-time traffic reports are now available for viewing in Google Earth.. nice! Simply enable teh traffic layer and view updates... pretty simple.

Wirecast software (podcasting) + Ogle Earth = Google Earth TV

Cool stuff from Stefan over at Ogle Earth as he's put together a very clever demo of some wow technology. Using software from Wirecast, his notebook, a green sheet, and Google Earth he's put together Google Earth TV. It's a bit rusty (don't give up your day job to become a news caster Stefan ;0) but you get the point of the type of thing "anyone" can accomplish using the right tools...nice stuff! Video provided via YouTube.

What's your favorite Google earth app?

What's the coolest, strangest, most interesting, most innovative or most useful thing that you like to do with Google Earth? Many of us regularly use G. Earth to track hurricanes, sightsee, check out National Geographic magazine, shop for real estate, or ??? I'm interested in hearing about what you'd must have Google Earth utility or tool is. Please share a small description and a website and/or KML link... I'll be summarizing some of the findings and sharing with readers. Respond with a comment or simply blast your submission to googlefun@gisuser.com - what's one of my favorite things to do in Google Earth? Well, I like to check out the recent earthquakes recorded by the USGS (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/catalogs/eqs7day-age.kmz) its also cool to explore the Arctic. On a related note, I also am a fan of shopping on craigslist so the allurstuff app is way cool for an interesting gmaps mashup! Once again, send your submission to googlefun@gisuser.com

Topographic map layers for Google Earth (KML)

The following links provide topographic map overlays for several countries

• Canadian topographic series and Canadian Geographic Names
• United States topographic map series and aerial photographs
• New Zealand topographic series
• US Topo maps (source of KML - GEarth Blog)
  

Follow Hurricanes Dean and Erin with Google earth

Hats off to Frank Taylor over at the Google Earth Blog once againn... Frank has provided a very handy utility for those of you (like me) who enjoy watching and chasing storms and weather related information. Using this habdy utility (http://www.gearthblog.com/kmfiles/gebweather.kmz) within Google Earth you'll have access to al the latest severe weather related data that you can ever need. Access real-time stream guage data, satellite imagery, web cameras, predicted tracks, lightning strikes, cloud cover, and much more. As we enter another hurricane season and follow the paths of hurricane Erin,m Dean and others this will no doubt be a very popular toolset. Kudos Frank and thanks!

The Windsor, CO Police Speed Trap Google map mashup!

Yesterday I wish I would have had access to some known police hangouts via Google maps.. heck, there likely is a mashup out there that does this (there's one for everything else). After 25 years of clean driving I managed to get pulled over doing 40 in a 30 zone (I know, big freaking deal!) To help in my rehabilitation I've added a Police Speed Trap zone to MyMaps and maybe it will save some other unlucky sucker from falling into the same "trap" that I did. FYI, have you checked out the icons that are now at your fingertips in Google maps lately? Its a breeze to share a map like this with others, taking about one minute to create. Now if all of Windsor can pitch in and help map the rest of the traps we'll have a really useful resource ;0)

Loads of cool icons are now available for placing on your MyMap