It’s obvious to anyone in the geospatial industry that Google Maps brought a wind of fresh air. They were not the first ones (e.g. OGC’s WMS standard exists since 1999) and MapQuest was popular at the time, but Google successfully increased global access to interactive maps thanks to Google Maps and Google Earth. Google Maps turned 10 years old and ...

Supergeo, the leading GIS software and solution provider, released the newest version of SuperGIS Server 3.2 to help enterprises share diverse geospatial data effortlessly. The latest SuperGIS Server 3.2 is optimized for developers, administrators, and front-side users. For Administrators The built-in SuperGIS Server Manager now provides a new interface to manage all the built applications. Administrators can better manage SuperGIS Server ...

Anonymous submission: ZDNet reports that a Google spokesperson confirmed Maps Engine support will end on January 29. From the Google statement quoted in the article: “To help our Maps for Work customers continue to get the highest impact from our products, in we’ll focus on helping customers deliver location information via our Maps APIs and shift away from ...

Here’s the recent geonews in batch mode. On the open source / open data front: The new OL3-Cesium library, integrating OpenLayers 3 and Cesium together for smooth switching between 2D and 3D A new book on the open source GDAL/OGR library, “Geospatial Power Tools” by Tyler Mitchell Not directly geospatial but for 3D, Tao3D: a New Open-Source Programming Language For ...

Here’s the recent Google-related geonews in batch mode. From official sources: Launched in, there’s a new Google My Maps available, Make your own way with the new My Maps, along with a My Maps Android app. This version allows users to “add images, descriptions, custom icons, and place details along the way” and user maps can be added to Google’s ...

Starting to catch up the numerous geonews of the past weeks covering our Summer break. Here’s the recent Google-related geonews. From official sources: A new ‘explore’ feature, Spend more time exploring with Google Maps 36 new University campuses in Street View, Take a college road trip with Street View From the official Google Geo Developers Blog, Recap of Google Maps ...

Catching up this month’s geonews after launching our new site yesterday, here’s the first in a series of ‘batch mode’ posts, this one focusing on Google-related geonews. From official sources: The Google I/O conference, here’s the official entry about Maps at I/O’14 with a list of geo-related sessions Football/Soccer? See the stadiums with Get a front row seat to ...

Here's the recent geonews in batch mode.

From the open source and open data front:

• Rezoning permits are #1, Open Data Summit Top 10 Most Wanted Municipal Datasets
• New open source tool, batyr: On-demand synchronization of vector data to a PostGIS database
• QGIS improvements the QGIS Field calculator is dead. Long live the Field calculator bar
• Something many end up doing, and here's a guide to do it, A guide to the rasterization of vector coverages in PostGIS
• An extension in development to make OpenLayers more powerful, CAD-like Feature Construction with the OpenLayers Editor
• Open data is everywhere, and any time! OpenHistoricalMap is a project designed to store and display map data throughout the history of the world
• GeoAwesome asks Should navigation companies move to OpenStreetMap like Telenav?
• Is a new website newsworthy? The new GeoServer website is certainly a nice improvement
• Getting closer to version 1.0, here's another summary of GeoGit - Distributed geospatial data versioning based on Git
• Geoff also shares a summary on the state of Canada's open geospatial data initiative
• On the American side, the NED DEM dataset will be replaced by 3DEP - 3D Elevation Program, offering always higher spatial resolution

From the Google front:

• Google provides an update on transit directions in Google Maps, including all transit routes in Great Britain and host cities in Brazil, real-time updates for Vancouver and Chicago, and more, also mentioning that transit is available in "64 countries and more than 15,000 towns and cities worldwide"
• At the beginning of the month, new Google Map apps added several new features, including Uber integration and an offline button for iOS
• The GEB shares Tips to make Google Earth appear more realistic and the screenshot is convincing and here's How the Google Earth cache works
• If you don't already know what those geometric structures are on the sea floor, Did Google Earth discover an underwater alien base?
• Want to understand El Nino? Everything about the El Nino Zone in Google Earth
• We told you about Project Tango already, Slashdot discusses Google Rumored To Be Making 3D-Scanning Tablets
• One article I missed published last month, in forestry, Google Earth Engine Brings Big Data to Environmental Activism
• And yes, here's the list of locations for this month's new Google Earth imagery

In the everything-else category:

• GeoJSON now an official media type registered with the IANA (IANA on Wikipedia)
• Over the Spatial Law site, an entry named White House Big Data and Privacy Report: Wake Up Call for Geospatial Community?
• At the research stage, ‘Quantum Compass’: Navigation technology that might replace GPS, this is also discussed over Slashdot
• Numbers to say it's worth, contribution of Geospatial Industry to Irish Economy in: E69.3m
• Interesting to see what is considered the Big 5 of geospatial: future cities, open geospatial, BIM, big data and policy, it's a series of events planned for next Fall
• Another free online course, Simon Fraser Professor Introduces GIS MOOC
• A short reminder of the potential of Augmented Reality and Geospatial Technology
• It's happening, Volvo Testing Autonomous Cars On Public Roads
• Privacy, US Police Departments Using Car Tracking Database Sworn To Secrecy
• But there's useful uses to tracking? Robbery Suspect Tracked By GPS and Killed
• Creating 'Swarm', Foursquare Splits To Take On Yelp
• Deeply into remote sensing? A new eNewsletter from the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society
• The Proba-V mini-satellite, Views of Earth From Europe’s New Plant-Mapping Minisatellite
• I remember discussions about this 12 years ago, Canada might get its hyperspectral spaceborne mission, related press release
• Real-time tracking map of whales around Hawaii

In the maps category:

• Nice moon remote sensing, Help NASA Choose the Most Beautiful Lunar Image
• Less nice is ESA's Cryosat Mission Sees Antarctic Ice Losses Double
• Not useful, but there's something I like about the Worlds Capitals Voronoi map and why not, a Voronoi map of the world divided by airports
• A map according to languages, named by The Economist as The world according to Putin
• One of my favorite topics, Interactive map shows global economical inequality
• Let's end with funny maps, Slicing Europe with 20 stereotypes

Geospatial technologies evolve quickly, here's a fresh comparison of web mapping API and libraries, Testing web map APIs - Google vs OpenLayers vs Leaflet.

From the conclusion: "Google, for example, can easily insert adverts into its maps without us knowing. Leaflet and OpenLayers, being open source, cannot. That said, if your aim is just to get attractive 'off the shelf' maps up quickly, Google Maps is a good option. OpenLayers is mature and big and works well with servers. Leaflet, as the new kid on the block is the most exciting for me and encapsulates many of the benefits of open source software in general: speed of development, flexibility, efficiency. [...] Lightness considered, for me that would mean Leaflet for many applications, but watch this space for the final version of OpenLayers3 (due very soon) and perhaps even better web mapping options."

Most of our readers were already aware of the new Google Maps interface available in beta for quite some time already, as of yesterday, the new Google Maps is there for everybody.

The highlights according to the announcement:

• Make smarter decisions. Simply search for “coffee” in your neighborhood, and you’ll be able to see results and snippets right on the map. [...] 
• Get where you're going, faster. [...]  And with the new real-time traffic reports  and Street View previews, you’ll become a commuting ninja.
• See the world from every angle. [...]   The new “carousel” at the bottom of the map makes all this imagery easy to access, so you can explore the world with a click.

Here's the 2-minutes video presenting the new Google Maps. It's a significant improvement over the version we're used to.