Plan a Bike ride with Google Maps in cities across United States

TechCrunch is reporting that Google Maps will now include biking directions in the U.S. When you clicked on "Get Directions" on Google Maps, you would see "By Car, By Public Transit, Walking". Now Google has added "Bicycling" to directions.

When you select "Bicycling" for directions, the appearance of Google Maps changes as follows:

• Dark Green Lines represent Bicycle trails with no motor vehicles
• Light Green Lines represent streets with Bicycle Lanes
• Dashed Green lines represent other streets recommended for biking

In addition you can turn on Biking Layer in the MORE menu.

Check this video out for more details in this new feature on Google Maps:

Veterans Day 2008

(via wikipedia)
Several nations celebrate, in some way, the end of World War I, the ceasefire of which went into effect at 11:00am CET on this day in 1918.

• Veterans Day in the United States (called Armistice Day until 1952, when the name was changed, and the holiday was re-geared toward all military veterans)
• Armistice Day in New Zealand, France and Belgium
• Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth of Nations, including Australia and Canada.
• Poland - Independence Day (1918)

If you visit Google today this is what you will see:


In Washington DC, Veterans Day event is scheduled at Arlington Memorial Amphitheater.
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What is India Googling right now?

Couple of weeks back I created Google Maps Mashps (Live Mapping) of Google Hot Trends for both India and US. You can see in this mashup, where the searches are originating from. Google Hot Trends which is "today's top 100 fastest-rising search queries", is updated hourly. Unfortunately, there is not a whole lot of location information available for United States whereas for India there is much more location information available. Here is a screen shot from Google Hot Trends (India). For United States click here.

(Related: Google Trends Historical Data (India) (United States)).

A First - The 44th United States President's Birth Place not in lower 48 states

For the 1st Time in United States History a United States President's Birth place would not be in lower 48 states. Take a look at this Google Maps Mashup I had put together a while ago which shows birthplaces of United States President. All the markers are in lower 48 states. This will change on January 20th, 2009, with the 44th President being either born in Honolulu, Hawaii (Senator Barack Obama) or Coco Solo Naval Air Station, Panama Canal Zone (Senator John McCain)

Memorial Day Google Maps Mashups

National Cemeteries maintained by Veterans Affairs, National Park Service and Army

IRAQ War Casualties Count (both Dead and Wounded) by State

Women Casualties of IRAQ War

Traveling 48 States by road in 106 hours

3 Friends from Utah started out on a journey from Vermont and ended up 106 hours later at 4 Corners (Place where UTAH, ARIZONA, NEW MEXICO AND COLORADO meet).

What's so great about this journey is that they touched all of the lower 48 states on this trip. Take a look at the map below as to how they did it. I tried to recreate this in Google Maps by plotting directions from Brattleboro, Vermont to Four Corners. Using the click and drag feature I tried to modify the route on Google Maps. Unfortunately I could only get to Idaho and then maps.google.com would not let me modify the route any further. If anyone is successful in routing on Google Maps (Vermont to 4 corners and touching all 48 states) let me know.