Nokia Maps Suite Beta Debuts and other LBS News

Under the name of Nokia Maps Suite we have, in fact, packaged a series of tools that will help you experience adventures everyday: Nokia Maps, Nokia Drive and Nokia Public Transport are just the beginning. You are going to love all the apps included in the newest release of Nokia Maps Suite. Just point your browser to Nokia Beta Labs to download it now.

My sense is this a two fold effort: first to continue to rebrand mapping from NAVTEQ to Nokia Maps and second to collect what seem to be dozens of LBS apps into a single suite.

- Nokia Conversations Blog

[Waze is] introducing a hands-free way to activate and file reports with the iOS version of the software.

Waze, impatiently waiting for Apple to open up its Siri APIs to developers, has taken the unusual approach of using the iPhone's proximity sensor to activate a voice-controlled interface in its application. A simple wave of the hand will initiate voice-control, allowing drivers to quickly navigate, report traffic, and alert others to road hazards. The app uses Apple's native Siri speech recognition for addresses and local search queries, and will also disable text input while the car is in motion. Unlike Apple's Siri voice control, there's no reason a driver needs to touch the screen or push a button to interact with Waze.

- The Verge

Foursquare last week announced something new: a way to search for venues "where you are not." This is something Yelp and Google do not yet have.

- Co Design

Nokia 3D Maps Includes “Legitimate Utility”

Vlad Savov, at The Verge, argues the latest update of Nokia 3D Maps is not just pretty, but useful.

Nokia's web-based Maps 3D client has grown exponentially more useful today with the introduction of new search, directions, and social sharing options. You can now explore any of 25 cities around the world by items of interest, check out reviews of local businesses where available, and obtain walking or driving directions to any destination within the city limits. Routes can then be shared on Facebook, Twitter, or via the conveniently provided shortened URL, and the same can also be done with any locations on the map. The whole experience is accompanied by grand, sweeping animations that zoom you in and out of locations. Maps 3D was always a very pretty exhibition of the world's most popular cities, but now that it's added legitimate utility to its arsenal, we're only left to wonder when we'll see it as a native app on our Windows Phones.

- The Verge

Adwords Location Targeting Update and other Google Geo News

The location targeting interface for AdWords just got a makeover. Google announced that the changes include an easier way to find locations, and a new column that tells the reach (number of users) of Google properties. The location target limits have also been increased from 300 to 10,000, and a new Polygon targeting migration tool has been added. 

- SearchNewz

- Google AdWords Blog

Attention avid bikers and walking enthusiasts: You can now use your desktop to create a biking or walking itinerary using Custom Maps in Google Maps. You can choose to share these directions by allowing people to view your Custom Map and avoid the hassle of scribbling them down or printing them out. Additionally, you can access these stored directions from your phone with the Google Maps Android application. 

- Google Lat Long Blog

Google is getting more Yelp-like.

Google took further steps against Yelp today [Nov 14], adding features to the My Places tab on Google Maps. Businesses you've rated with Google Places are now highlighted on your maps, displaying your rating and showing other personalized recommendations based on places you've already shared. The highlights are available on the desktop and Google Maps for Android.

The article goes on to suggest that Google wants users to be all Google all the time.

- RWW

A Few New Geo APIs from Programmable Web

A few new APIs from the 61 recently added to Programmable Web. There are some other geo ones in the list, too.

Union County NC GIS API: Framework that allows spatial analysis to be performed on GIS data from Union County, North Carolina, through simple HTTP requests. Methods create and execute spatial queries against a PostGIS database (spatially enabled database). Analysis results depend entirely on user input and response format preference. Sample Community Mapper application uses these services almost exclusively to perform spatial analysis and return relevant results to users.

Vs30 map server API: Part of The National Seismic Hazard Mapping Project, this USGS map-based service supports online seismic analysis. Uses topographic slope as a proxy for average shear-velocity to estimate predictions of seismic site conditions across a region, including ground-motions following a global earthquake. Helps to predict earthquake hazards for a general location based on local conditions.

Alaska Satellite Facility API: The Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF) is one of eight Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAAC) which provide data to the NASA Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). ASF's DAAC is the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) Data Center specializing in SAR data collection, processing, archiving, and distribution. An API allows access to the SAR Data Center archive using POST and GET protocols.

Local Search Maps Geocoder API: The Geocode API is a web service that allows users to easily integrate their site or application with the Google Maps or Virtual Earth API's. It is built to function with JavaScript, allowing the user to geocode based on criteria such as street address, city, state, and zip code.

MapGL and other Google Geo News

Last week Google announced an update to Google Maps that makes it more 3D without a plug-in. The tech behind it is called WebGL and Google's implementation for Maps is called MapsGL. WebGL is supported by four of the five top browsers (versions of Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera are in, Internet Explorer is out). Using WebGL reveals 3D buildings on the otherwise 2D maps of Google Maps, shadows based on time of day and some more elegant transitions from one view to another.

So, what is WebGL? "WebGL is a new technology that brings hardware-accelerated 3D graphics to the browser without additional installed software." It's software that takes advantage of a the hardware's GPU, so you need both the a compatible browser and the right hardware to test it out. (I wrote about GPUs in Directions Magazine.) The library is managed by the Khronos (corrected TWICE per comments, was "Chronos," then Kronos but now correct!) Group (a standards organization) was released as version 1.0 this past March.

- Google Blog

Danny Sullivan reports that the new Siri voice automation on the new iPhone 4s disappoints in the Google Maps department. He could not, with voice, get to the details of a query as he would have liked.

- Search Engine Land

Google Maps breathren, other Google efforts, have been "fired" as of last week. The announcement prepares for the demise of Google Code Search, Google Buzz and Buzz API, iGoogle (I use that!), Jaiku and the University Research Program for Google Search.

- Crazy Engineers

Creating a map on Google Maps allowed the language technology group to add places and points of interests and even upload videos providing information on that location in Cherokee. Cherokee is one of the many languages that Google supports.