Friday Geonews: a Murder in Google Earth?, OpenStreetMap in Bing Maps, ESRI New Basemap, and more

10 Mar 2010 - Slashgeo

Here's your weekly dose of geonews in batch mode.

On the Google front,you can now refine Google searches by location, with the "Nearby" tool in the Search Options panel.Google also announced thewinners of their StreetView trike contest.There's alsoAthens in 3D. If you wonder how crazy it can get, here's an entry namedsolving a murder with Google Earth. There's alsonew imagery in Google Earth, including Chile. Here's an entry onheat maps with Google Fusion Tables.

On the Microsoft's front, here's a two-parts article onIntegrating OpenStreetMapin Bing Maps. Bing Maps alsojust released their biggest imagery update ever, 6.7 million square kilometers.

On the ESRI front, we mentionedlast weekthe podcast about ESRI's position on open source, viaGGNBI learned about the newESRI page about their position on open source software. TheArcGIS API For JavaScript 1.6 Now Available. And ESRI also announcedtheir new World Topographic base map (screenshots included).

On the FOSS4G front, here's how tocreate contour lines in QGIS.There's also anew Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) mailing list.

In other news, several geoblogs mentioned thatPlatial is turning offtheir services.APB offers an entry namedGIS Used to Help Decrease Stroke, Heart Disease, and Cardiovascular Risk 25%.There's also an entry aboutlarge shapefiles on small screens using a drawable spatial index.Engadget does a head-to-headcomparison of three GPS smartphone navigation systems: Google Navigation, Ovi Maps, and VZ Navigator. TMR also points tothe testing of the SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger.

In the maps category, viaMapperz, I learned aboutProtectedPlanet, the latest initiative of the World Database on Protected Areas.Here's a namedWhich Burger Chains Dominate the U.S. Landscape?Here's another map,linking the affordability of housing and transportation in the U.S.

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