转载：Google Maps功能扩展的几个例子

原文：http://home.donews.com/donews/article/8/80079.html

自从Google涉足网络地图的竞技场后，许多开发者也借助于Google所提供的工具和应用程序接口，创建自己的应用程序。我们可以看到很多看上去与Google map感觉非常相似的界面，包括图标和黄页等这种类型的信息框。如果大家留心的话，也许可以感受到Google地图搜索引擎似乎发生不少的改变。开发者利用Google Map API向大家提供简单而有效的网络服务，嵌入了大量的在线地图和网络服务，还可以整合来自于其他数据库的数据。接下来我们将详细地向大家一些对Google maps进行扩展的经典例子。

　　1、FoundCity.Net - http://www.foundcity.net/

　　This nifty resource is billed as an urban bookmarking tool.... ya, that's what I thought at first too! The concept is perhaps a bit odd, however, when you consider some of the vertical apps or extensions you could build on this API then you have to admit that its pretty clever. Registered site users can add their bookmarks to the site, complete with related info and a photo as well. Example, one of the categories is urban street art. Site users then register/add items of art that they find to be of interest. Making this even more cool, users can search for tags using a cell phone. Foundcity is currently only supporting the city of New York.
        I think a great port of this app would be for use in the "Best of" awards that many city's now conduct. Imagine viewing all the "best of" winners for any city. Show me where to find the best bloody mary in town or best pizza. At the time of writing there were 661 tags in the database.
        The reg. process was very simple, add a username/PW pair, upload a photo and set my home page. Now I need to create some "tags". Since I'm not actually in New York (the site is setup only for New York at this time) I'm doing a test by adding the Hello Deli to the database. I click create new tag and associate it with a description and the address: 213 West 53rd Street. I now have my list of map bookmarks started. See my map below:

 这个极好的资源就是“城市书签”工具，也许我的评价有点夸张，但是当你回顾一下那些基于API的扩展应用，就会承认它的确非常地灵活和方便。该网站的注册用户可以将他们自己的bookmarks加到网页上，包括相关的信息和图片。举一个例子，其中有一个类别是“城市街道艺术”：站点用户可以加载和保存他们所感兴趣的艺术项目。更酷的是，用户可以用一个电话就可以查询他们所要的bookmarks。但是Foundcity目前只提供纽约市的网络地图服务。
    这个应用程序一个最大的争议之处就是哪些项目应该被记录到数据库中，也就是说哪些行为会被用户们授予“最好的”评价。设想一下什么会是一个城市的“最好的”事物，是镇子上最好的血玛莉酒还是最好的皮萨？不过到现在为止，这个数据库里已经有661条记录了。
    使用这个程序也非常地简单，注册一个用户名和密码，下载一个图片，设置自己的主页。现在我需要创建一些书签，因为我并不在纽约（目前为止站点只支持纽约区的服务），所以只是象征性地加一个Hello Deli到数据库中。点击创建新书签的选项，并加入一些描述和地址：213 West 53rd Street。现在我就有自己的地图书签列表了。见下图：

 So now what? Well, the database is small but consider this. If I happened to be in New York and this database was full of interesting items, I could easily query the database from my cell phone. All I need to do is send an email from my mobile to nyc@foundcity.net with a tag name of "deli"... pretty cool!

    接下来要做什么呢？现在我的数据库还比较小，但是想象一下，如果我正好在纽约，那么这个数据库将会有很多的选项。我可以非常方便地通过电话来访问数据库。我可以非常方便地通过电话来访问数据库。我所要做的就是从手机发送一份电子邮件，写上所要查询的bookmarks名称“deli”，发送到@foundcity.net就可以了，酷吧！

　　2、HousingMaps.com - http://www.housingmaps.com/

　　This resource enables users of the popular Craigslist database to visualize and map the results of their search for available housing and rental properties. FYI, Craigslist is a very well known, San Francisco-based directory of classified ads. Using the Google Map API, users can search and map rental housing by city and price range. In our example we've queried results for vacancies in San Francisco less than $2,000. Users can extend the scope of their search by locating listings for sale, rooms to rent, and sublets. The list of cities is constantly growing with Providence, Toronto, and Montreal being recently added. See also http://www.craigslist.org/

　　这个资源可以让用户访问目前非常流行的Craigslist数据库，搜索租房和供房信息，并以地图的形式显示查询结果。Craigslist是旧金山非常有名的一个分类广告目录数据库。使用Google Map API，用户们可以搜索和地图显示以城市和价格排列的租赁住房信息。在这个例子中，我查询了价位在1500-2000美元的租房信息，用户可以通过选择包括出售、租房和转租列表来进一步限定他们的搜索范围。更多城市的租房信息已经逐渐被录入到这个数据库中，最近普罗维登斯，多伦多和蒙特利尔这三个城市的信息也被加载了。网址：http://www.craigslist.org/

　　3、GoogleTraffic.com - http://supergreg.hopto.org/google-traffic.com/

　　This one has a different look and feel and delivers data accessed from traffic.com as well as weather information from worldweather.org. The map delivers useful, real-time traffic information. Particularly useful are the construction icons that show visitors where they can expect delays and road closures. The sample map shown below shows a screen-cap from data for Detroit. MI. Details of the road closure as well as a useful time stamp are provided in the balloon.

    这个网站看上去给人一种不太一样的感觉，它所使用的是来源于traffic.com的交通信息以及worldweather.org的天气信息。地图为用户提供实时有用的交通信息。尤其是，它可以让访问者们看到在到达预定目的地途中，会在哪些地方遇到道路关闭和交通堵塞。下面显示是来源于底特律数据库的一张查询结果图。

　　4、Need a Wallpaper? http://gmerge.2ni.net/index.php

　　The developer of the Google traffic maps hack has also created a nifty tool to tile/merge satellite imagery from the Google Maps database. Using a python script, the application generates a file that merges images from the specified region. Users can optionally set the output image size and zoom level. As a sample, I specified Seattle, WA in 640x480 res. with a zoom level of 8. See the resulting image below.

        Google 交通地图的开发者还创造了一个非常棒的工具，可以融合来自Google地图数据库的卫星图像。使用一个命令，就可以申请产生被指定地区的融合图像。用户可以任意选择生成的图象的尺寸和缩放程度。例如，下图显示的就是我选定的西雅图地区的卫星图像，它在窗口所显示的大小是640*480的，缩放程度设定为8。

　　5、CheapGas Maps - http://www.ahding.com/cheapgas/

　　One of the more popular Google hacks of late is this one querying the gassbuddy.com database. Like the name implies, users can easily see where they can get the best deal on gas. The database provides a map of service station locations, reveals the current price, and a time stamp. The list of cities is getting pretty extensive and I was very impressed to actually see some Canadian cities listed as well. The map below show the results for Vancouver. More information about the site's development can be found at http://www.ahding.com/wordpress/index.php/2005/04/google-map-hacks-gas-movie/ See also http://www.gasbuddy.com/

    一个最近更为流行的Google hacks就是这个可以访问gassbuddy.com数据库的网站。用户可以很方便的知道他们在哪里可以得到最好而又最实惠的汽油。该数据库的地图不仅可以提供加油站位置的，还显示汽油现在的市场价格和一个印时戳。这个数据库中所涉及的城市已经非常广泛了，包括一些加拿大的城市。下面的这张地图所显示的就是温哥华地区的查询结果。你可以从下面的网址得到更多的信息。（摘自：3sNews）