Solving a Common Problem: Mapping 50,000 Points at Once

The new V3 version of the Google Maps API has just released a feature that lets developers plot up to 50,000 interactive points on a map at once, and the ability to turn those points into a heatmap on the fly. It's a remarkable feature for an already impressive product.

Google Geo Developers Blog: Map your data with the Maps API and Fusion Tables

We are looking to integrate this into some of our datasets for you to visualize crime, health ratings, property values, and more in our maps. Some of our maps contain millions of points, so this won't apply to those, but we can use a subset of our data, for example, the most recent 50,000 crimes, to show at once. We'll be putting this on Metro Mapper and our parent site, Your Mapper.

Google Shows Historic Traffic on Maps

Google just added the ability to look at typical traffic on a particular day and time, in addition to live traffic. It's really an incredible feature. You can zoom into the city you want to look at, then choose any day of the week, and any time from 5am to 9pm to see what the historic traffic pattern has been.

Here's an animated image I put together that shows the traffic around Louisville for a typical Wednesday:

It's like magic!

Looks like traffic delays start around 6:30am, clear up, then there are issues from lunch till about 6:30pm, at which point it clears up. Try it out for yourself!

New Feature: Streamlined Local Search

Now at the bottom left of every map there is a new improved local search box. You can type in a term or business name and you will see the closest 10 results directly on the map you are viewing. So if you search for 'security' after doing a crime search, you'd see the nearest companies that can help you out!

New Feature: Local Search Results on Maps

Built into each map is the new ability to search for anything you want (pizza, hardware, bars, groceries) and have the closest 10 results appear along with your Metro Mapper results! The search and results are an overlay on the map, so you won't loose what you are looking at. Then you can browse the results, see more, and even get driving directions.


Look for at at the bottom left each map.