Modulator

Census Data on Google Maps

Have you ever wondered why someone would spend the time to create something with no apparent reward? Well, this new site, gCensus.com, which overlays US Census data on Google Maps was fall out from a college class:

Specifically, the course focused on scientific data collected in such fields as fluid dynamics, physics, and weather. The class was small, about a dozen people, and this allowed the class to be somewhat informal in nature. We read two or three published research papers per week and discussed the papers in round table discussions during class meetings.

One of the assigments we were given was open-ended. The assigment was to "do something interesting with a large data set". I looked around at possible datasets and came across the census data. At approximately ten gigabytes, I thought it qualified as a large data. At the same time, spring 2005, Google had just released its map technology. I thought the two were a perfect match and gCensus is the result.

Philip at Google Blogoscoped hints that the author may be at risk of Google closing him down. Is anyone aware of Google shutting down any other sites using overlays on Google Maps?

Modulator previously noted chicagocrime.org which overlays Google Maps with Chicago crime statistics.

Via The Presurfer.

Posted by Steve on June 14, 2005