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Map of the Week: Airbnb for Android

Paul Saxman — Fri, 31 May 2013 16:48:00 +0000

M(app) of the Week: Airbnb for Android

Why we like it: In addition to getting a visual and functional refresh and Google Wallet integration, the Airbnb app for Android now includes some advanced map marker features, such as custom marker images and marker clustering. The Airbnb team added these features to their app using the Google Maps Android API v2.

When searching for a place to stay, each location is displayed on a map with a marker indicating its price per night. Using custom marker images to show additional information on the map helps users make decisions based on multiple, important variables (e.g. price and location) more rapidly. With the Maps API, you can create custom markers from bitmaps that you dynamically draw or load over the wire, or from static assets that you package with your application.

The Airbnb app also uses the Projection class to determine which markers would visually overlap, and replaces them with a single cluster marker that shows how many places it represents. Marker clustering allows developers to control the visual complexity of the map and improve app performance by reducing the number of makers that are displayed simultaneously. As the user interacts with the map, the marker clustering dynamically changes, which is a great experience for exploring the information displayed on the map.

Marker clustering is also a excellent technique for capturing a third important piece of information about places, which is density. In the above map of San Francisco, you can see that there are a number of Airbnb places listed in the Mission and Noe Valley neighborhoods, which might indicate that these are interesting places to visit and explore (they are!).

If you want to read more about the technical and visual enhancements that the Airbnb team made to their Android app, be sure to visit their Nerd Blog!

Posted by Paul Saxman, Maps Developer Relations Team

Fab Friday is Festive

Paul Saxman — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 23:09:00 +0000

[Mano Marks is away for the holidays, so this week Paul Saxman shares the highlights of the week in this Fab Friday post.]

On Tuesday, a team of Google engineers launched the Google Santa Tracker site along with a Chrome extension and an Android app. You can visit the site now to play Santa approved games and hunt for some other fun experiences, but be sure to check out the site and Android app on Christmas Eve to track Santa with Google Maps and Google Earth.

The Google Santa Tracker site is pure HTML5 and uses the Google Maps JavaScript API. The Android app uses the recently released Google Maps Android API v2, so be sure to try out Santa tracking in vector-based 3D!

Late last week, I joined Ankur Kotwal and Tony Chan on their ADL+ show to discuss how to get started with the Google Maps Android API v2. We covered the basics of how to get a Google Maps API key, configuring an app’s manifest, controlling the map camera, and using markers and info windows. The slides for the show, which include plenty of code snippets, were posted separately.

If you’re craving even more code, support for the Google Maps Android API v2 was recently added to the the open source My Tracks app for Android. My Tracks uses many of the key features of the API, including markers, camera events, and polylines. If you’re interested in the new API, the MyTracksMapFragment class is a great place to start browsing the code.

Also in the news, Red de Juderías de España has built a website for exploring more than 500 Jewish heritage landmarks in Spain. The interactive map on the site uses the Google Maps JS API and includes custom map styling, overlays, and Street View panoramas. The site is a great inspiration to learn more about Spain’s Jewish history, and for building websites with beautiful interactive maps.

Posted by Paul Saxman, Google Maps Developer Advocate and Adjunct Santa Helper

Map of the Week: Skyvi

Paul Saxman — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 01:46:00 +0000

Map of the Week: Skyvi
Why we like it: Skyvi uses the Google Places API to help users find nearby points of interest while on the go. Users simply speak their request into their Android phone while Skyvi is running to get voice guided, turn-by-turn directions from the Google Maps for Android app.

[Editor’s note: For this week’s “Map of the Week” post, we’ve asked Sarah Montgomery of Blue Tornado to write a guest blog post about how her team used the Google Maps APIs to create Skyvi. - Paul Saxman]

Skyvi is a fast voice application for Android that lets you perform various tasks by voice input alone! Whether you want to find somewhere to eat or update your social network status, you can get things done by speaking to your phone.

Users can voice a command to find a point of interest such as 'find an Italian restaurant' or 'where can I get a haircut'. Skyvi then retrieves the user’s current GPS coordinates from the Android platform and queries the Google Places API with the search keywords and coordinates. The Google Places API returns a list of locations for the user to select from. Upon choosing a location, Skyvi uses an Android Intent to pass the GPS coordinates to Google Maps Navigation, which then directs the user along the route.

As a result, users are able to discover a point of interest and get seamlessly navigated there just by speaking commands. We are excited that, by incorporating the Google Places API into our app, our users no longer need to handle their phones or GPS devices while they drive.

It was quick and easy to integrate the Google Places API into our app, taking only a couple of hours. Google Maps saved us from investing in base map data, and the API allows us to suggest relevant search results based on Google's data, which is already used by millions of people.

Posted by Paul Saxman, Google Maps Developer Relations Team

Google Places API Developer Challenge submissions deadline extended

Paul Saxman — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 19:23:00 +0000

Since launching the the Google Places API Developer Challenge in August, developers around the world have been busy collaborating with major municipalities to create applications that address the most pressing needs in our communities. Based on feedback from developers, who want more time to create really impactful apps, we’ve decided to extend the deadline for the challenge through the end of November 2012.

The challenge invites developers to create apps that improve their communities or governments by using the Google Places API and its database of places and tools to create innovative applications.

With a global database of more than 95 million places powering Google Maps, the Google Places API enables you to search for information about a broad range of places around the world. We also provide links to more than 30,000 interesting data sets on the Google Places API Challenge site at http://developers.google.com/places/challenge.

Check out this video to learn more about the objectives of the challenge.

Submissions are pouring in and we look forward to seeing all of the great applications that are submitted by November 30, 2012. Public voting, as well as official judging by our panel of experts in civic innovation and application development, will begin in December 2012. Awards for both People’s Choice and Judge’s Choice will be announced in January 2013. Developers of the winning applications will enjoy an immersive VIP experience at Google I/O 2013, along with other prizes. We look forward to seeing what happens when the Google Places API meets inspired developers!
Posted by Rob Gray, Global Marketing Manager, Google Maps and Earth (Enterprise)
Rob Gray leads the marketing team for Google Maps and Earth Enterprise, which includes products such as the Google Maps API, Google Maps Engine, Google Maps Coordinate and Google Earth Pro. Rob has been working in the technology industry for over 15 years in a variety of roles across marketing sales and product management.

Google Places Autocomplete Now Includes Queries

Paul Saxman — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 05:48:00 +0000

Since we launched the Place Autocomplete feature of the Google Places API, we’ve been excited to see a number of developers use it to make entering addresses into HTML forms quick and easy for users. Today, we aim to delight developers and their users even more by releasing Query Autocomplete, which includes popular queries alongside place and address predictions, and Javascript Autocomplete Data Services, which allows you to style and mix in your own predictions while using the Google Maps JavaScript API.

Query Autocomplete

Google Places Query Autocomplete is a new feature available as part of both the Google Places API and the Google Maps JS API Places Library. This feature has the same type-ahead-search behavior of the original Place Autocomplete, but just like the Google Maps search field, it returns places, addresses, and popular queries, such as “italian restaurants” or “swimming pool.”

Autocomplete Data Services

In the Places Library of the Google Maps JS API, we first offered Place Autocomplete as a drop-down widget that’s bound to an input element. We wanted to give developers more flexibility, so both Place Autocomplete and Query Autocomplete now have data services that return predictions in a JSON collection. With this collection, you have complete control over your text inputting and autocomplete experience while using the Google Maps JS API.

This control allows for mixing in your own predictions, such as the user’s home location or her favorite restaurant, or styling predictions to better match your application. In the demo below, we used the data service to give our predictions some rotating Google-themed colors.

Our Autocomplete services do not need to be used in conjunction with a map, but it does require a “powered by Google” logo to appear under the text field if a map isn’t shown.

The Google Places API autocomplete services are here as part of our goal to make location-based textual input an effortless experience. Give them a try and let us know what you think!

Posted by Paul Saxman, Google Maps Developer Advocate

P.S. Submissions for the Places API Developer Challenge are now open. Build an app to help your community and for a chance to win tickets for Google I/O!

Map of the Week: runtastic PRO

Paul Saxman — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 19:10:00 +0000

Map of the Week: runtastic PRO
Why we like it: runtastic is using Google Earth to show a user 3D Earth View video playback of every run or GPS activity they track with runtastic PRO for Android. In addition to retracing a route, runtastic displays the time, pace, elevation, places of interest, and more. Users can also choose to review their activities with three zoom levels and three playback speeds.
[Editor’s note: For this week’s “Map of the Week” post, we’ve asked Stephan Brunner, Head of Android Development at runtastic, to write a guest blog post about what his team used to create runtastic Earth View - Paul Saxman]
Whether you’re running your first half marathon, biking across the Golden Gate Bridge, or hiking in Nepal, runtastic’s Google Earth playback feature allows you to hold on to the memory and imagery of your activity.
How do we make this happen? The runtastic app captures GPS coordinate data and transforms it into a KML file, and then starts the Google Earth app with an Android Intent, passing a reference to the file in the Intent URI. The Google Earth app loads the track and takes it from there.

The <gx:Track> and <gx:Tour> extension to KML are the perfect tools for making the new 3D experience happen. The element contains the entire GPS data recorded by the runtastic app, and defines the camera animations, overhead view and angle. The Google Earth app matches the elements of both lists using the time-span information from each list element. The result is a smooth animation of the track being painted based on the data from a run, which makes the user feel like they’re flying along it!

With this great new 3D Earth View, we think that there is no reason to stay on the couch. Get out there and record some amazing activities!

Posted by Paul Saxman, Google Maps API Developer Relations Team