The Google Empire/Web-based Mapping and GIS online Monica Stephens

Google’s mission: good or bad? "Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful... a significant amount of information can be found in mapping the world, by gaining a better understanding of the world in general," -Stephen Chau, Product Manager, Google Maps

What is Web-based mapping? Web-based maps are interactive maps that often contain high-resolution base maps of imagery or streets, tasks or analytics like drive time calculators or place finders, and other data overlays. Users can combine their own contents with web-based maps to make “mashups” (2006) Application Programming Interface (API)—gives programmers the tools of Google Maps for individual purposes

Arizona Daily Star Crime Map For real estate:

Positives and Negatives Positives Real time Portable Easy interface Open source/Free Accessible hardware & software Negatives Urban vs. Rural Limited functionality Accuracy/Reliability Page Rank & Filtering Privacy Black Holes Digitization problems are amplified by reuse of the same data Example of real time:

Accuracy—Fort Huachuca

Reliability

Page Rank and filtering

Privacy Issues Example: e=embed&layer=c&cbll= , &cbp=12,21.48,,0,7.47&ie= UTF8&panoid=5-oYpZSfE0- KBQvmF3OUjQ&ll= , &spn=0, &z=19 e=embed&layer=c&cbll= , &cbp=12,21.48,,0,7.47&ie= UTF8&panoid=5-oYpZSfE0- KBQvmF3OUjQ&ll= , &spn=0, &z=19

US vs. China “Tiananmen” Images (Zook and Graham, 2007)

What next? Web-based maps can be integrated with 3-D imagery, photos, text, and building footprints (for selected cities). 2007—Google My Maps was introduced allowing users to add maps and tools created by others to create personalized, annotated maps. Integrate maps, satelite imagery, text, photos and videos Make your own MyMaps: Xw Xw

416A produced Google Maps Dive bars in Tucson sa=0&msid= afd57b04 4f33d1d2&ll= , &spn= , &z=12 Tourism in Globe Arizona sa=0&msid= b0fdd61d 9b21ed64&z=10 Traditional Costumes for Mexican Folk Dance uJZvAtwe228G0Bg&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid= b105988faac47a3e&ll= , &spn= , &z=4 sa=0&msid= afd57b04 4f33d1d2&ll= , &spn= , &z=12 sa=0&msid= b0fdd61d 9b21ed64&z=10 uJZvAtwe228G0Bg&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid= b105988faac47a3e&ll= , &spn= , &z=4

“NeoGeography” vs. GIS Web-based maps attracted users with no GIS experience Great for data editing, data delivery and display Will these online mapping services replace GIS? Does not have capabilities for data analysis Can not perform spatial interpolation Can not use GIS for modeling Analysis functionality is limited Where is data/information stored? Cloud-Computing

Applications of IP-mapping The Virtual “Bible Belt” relative number of mentions of the word “church” in placemarks uploaded to Google. Google Flu Trends Uses aggregated Google search data to estimate flu activity in your state up to two weeks faster than traditional systems (

Subway map of web trends