Tuesday, January 15, 2013

What's on the Otherside of the Earth?


Darren's Side Projects have very quickly become a regular feature on Google Maps Mania. This week Darren has created an interesting Antipode Map.

Antipode Maps are not new. Zefrank's If the Earth Were a Sandwich was an early experiment with the Google Maps API. Both Zefrank's and Darren's apps let the user locate their position on one map and discover what is on the other side of the Earth on another map.

What is more interesting for me is that the Antipode Map includes two Google Maps in each map div. Each map actually contains another upside down Google Map, whose visibility can be controlled by an opacity slider control.

Darren himself admits that the effect of two map layers in one "gets a little overwhelming", but it is an interesting experiment which could possibly be used for other effects. For example, if the second map wasn't upside down, you could possibly use a second styled map to allow the user to adjust the look of a Google Map with a slider control.

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