Without a doubt Google Maps has opened new windows to our world and enabled us to look at ourselves a little differently. The ingenuity of 3^rd party developers using the Google Maps API has created a dazzling array of apps and tools that range from the brilliant to the bizarre. Here are 30 of the coolest waiting for you to check them out.

Cool Uses of Google Maps API

The Wilderness Downtown
Fantastic and revolutionary, Arcade Fire's new music video The Wilderness Downtown enables web users to enter their childhood address to have Google Map images of the area appear within director Chris Milk's film, creating instant nostalgia.

Tweeted Trips
Simply by tweeting, Twitter users can generate a map of their journey, whether it is a vacation, road trip or cycle tour, enabling family and friends to chart their progress.

Zombie Outbreak Simulator
Now available as an iPhone app, Zombie Outbreak Simulator places you in peril within a Google Map of your area overrun by marauding zombies. Kill the zombies to save your neighbours, except of course the one who won't give your ball back.

Disney's Giant Steps
One the kids will love, this Google Maps based app lets you extend an invitation to beloved Disney character Goofy, who runs right up your street to the door of your house.

MapsTD
This highly addictive tower defence game involves placing defence towers to stop invading attackers from overrunning a world generated using 8-bit map tiles and the Google Maps API.

Plane Finder
Plane Finder is a rather ingenious real-time plane tracking tool that presents a clear view of the congested skies. It now also features cloud and weather layer viewing options.

Phresheez
The smartphone app for skiers, cyclists, runners and hikers who not only want to chart their runs and routes on Google Maps, but have beautifully generated animations of them created to impress their friends.

Old Maps Online
Cartography and history enthusiasts around the globe can now get access to historical maps published online by libraries, seeing the world through the eyes of those who came before us.

Streetviolence.org
Launched by UK charity Witness Confident, Streetviolence.org is an interactive map allowing victims of muggings and assaults in London to pinpoint where the crime took place, alerting people to risky areas and enabling possible witnesses to come forward with information.

CNN iReport Map
More and more news stories and footage are being sent in by citizens. The CNN iReport Map identifies where stories came from, what has occurred and enables people to share information about the events.

Floating Shiny Knot
Choosing a chrome or glass finish, the viewer is treated to a wonderfully reflective shiny knot hovering through a Street View map, distorting the world around it in its mercury-like mirror.

Resource Intensity of Cities
Focused solely on cities, this tool lets you hone in on any area of America's cities to find out where over population is running rife.

Leafly
Yes, this is real. Leafly enables people to find the finest marijuana dispensaries and strains available. The tool Cheech and Chong wished they had in their heyday, it's all for medicinal purposes, of course.

Weather Hopper
Nothing can wreck a vacation like poor weather. However, use this Google Map app and you will be prepared for all conditions as it gives a weather history for every inputted region imaginable.

KESM Brain Atlas
Completely taking anything location related out of the equation, the boffins of Texas A&M University's Brain Networks Laboratory instead used the Maps interface to capture brain scans of mice, in incredible detail. Who'd-a-thunk-it!

Startup Weekend Events
In today's economic climate budding entrepreneurs need all the help they can get. This innovative tool identifies weekend events where businesspeople can discuss their startups and seek advice.

Show Us Your Earth Hour 2012
The World Wildlife Fund has created a Google Map use enabling eco-friendly people around the globe to share pics and vids of the action they took to celebrate Earth Hour. A green way to Google.

Mapping Wikipedia
Tracemedia and the Oxford Internet Institute have teamed up to create the Mapping Wikipedia project, indicating the source of all geotagged Wikipedia articles on an interactive map.

Save the Rain
There are many environmentally friendly Google Map tools, revealing the laudable ethical stance of many developers. Save the Rain helps homeowners work out how much rainwater can be reaped from their roof.

CEO – Heatmap
Another superb example of Google Maps being used to help combat climate change is the national CEO – Heatmap created by the UK's Department for Energy and Climate Change, which helps people develop low carbon heat projects for their buildings.

AllTrails
More than 45,000 hiking, skiing, biking and snowboarding trails have already been mapped out using the innovative AllTrails tool. Join the thriving community of 200,000+ members to share your daring routes and runs.

London Typographica
Graphic design geeks will go mad for this awesome iPhone app enabling people to make a photographic record of publicly available typography adorning the streets of the big smoke.

Moet Rose
Wanting to show your other half an epic display of your undying love, but don't quite have the resources or effort to do it? That's where this nifty little tool from Moet comes in handy. Using Street View, you can simply pick any location in the world and tag it up with slushy gold tags and squiggles.

State of Chaos
Whether you're an avid fan of Michael Bay, or you just hate the place you live; watch your place of residence get blown to smithereens in this thrilling, no holds barred joyride of a customized action flick.

First Peoples Language Map of British Columbia
Discover and learn about the first languages ever spoken by all 203 First Nation communities of British Columbia, as well as how many people still communicate in the native tongue.

Minefold
Minecraft continues to be an amazingly popular game. Minefold not only provides 10 hours a month free through their on demand servers, they also enable players to make an interactive Google Map of their Minecraft world.

Global Conservation Maps
This tool uses the Google Maps API to show us how much is left of our worlds resources as a way to illustrate where the world should be focusing its efforts in preserving the environment.

We Tell Stories: "The 21 Steps" by Charles Cumming
An example of innovative digital fiction using Google Maps, this first of six stories sees Charles Cumming rewrite John Buchan's The 39 Steps. Check out the other great stories.

Earthquakes in the Last Week
Utilizing the data from Google's news, blog and video search options, this tool does pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. See where earthquakes have cropped up in the last week, anywhere in the world.

Map of the Dead
At last, a Google Map detailing how to survive a zombie apocalypse (it's on its way). Indicating zombie danger zones circling your abode, this fun tool helps you keep your brains. Out of my way!

Meograph
While it's still in beta, Meograph is essentially a four-dimensional storytelling experience that integrates videos, photos and imagery with Google Earth and Street View. It will be a great tool for learning about news and historical events, and, eventually, will offer the ability for everyone to indulge in pure narcissism by creating their own Meographs. Expected to open up for registration by this summer.

Fin

It’s impressive just how customizable the Google Maps API really is, especially in relation to KESM’s brain mapping example. While the Maps API can be a great tool for creating an interactive viral marketing campaign, it’s real benefit is evident in the education sector, as well as its use for non-profit purposes; especially in environmental issues.

If you’ve come across any other ingenious uses of the Maps API on your travels then please share them in the comments section.

(rb)

We live in a world, in a society, where it’s almost impossible to go a day or a couple of hours or even a few of minutes without trying to be sold something. Sometimes an opportunity to purchase can present itself subtly; perhaps a friend has a product you like or perhaps you drove past a billboard on the interstate. Sometimes the opportunity to purchase presents itself directly in the form of a salesperson, or even a blatant advertisement of some sort urging you to buy.

Most times, advertisements are the way in which we are given opportunities to, at the very least, learn about a product. Whether it’s a commercial or a billboard or a radio spot, advertisements are everywhere. The inconsistency in advertisements comes in the way in which they are presented, for example, are they humorous or serious, or in this case, what is the art direction?

Today, we are going to look at some print advertisements that use an artistic approach to selling their product. Sometimes print advertisements use glamour shots, or even great photo manipulations to convey a point, but this time we just want to showcase some of the artistic advertisements whose main focus is on conveying their point very creatively.

Selling Art

Bayer Nazol: Smells of the World, Countryside
The best advertisements are those that over exaggerate a bit. Here, this wonderful illustration let’s us believe that if we buy and use this product we can pretty much smell everything. The hand drawn, simplistic direction makes this fun.

Top Digital: Paradise
This audio company used some illustrations to show how they use sounds and such to create their paradise. The illustrator uses some crazy designs and shapes to create the finished product.

BWF Badminton
The focus for this ad is basically the motion and energy created by badminton. Quite frankly, many don’t believe this sport to be that exhilarating or exciting, but this advertisement tries to show otherwise. This is an extremely creative ad.

Cocaine: Amy
Though a bit of a controversial piece, this ad did a great job illustrating someone who can be argued to be an icon.

Yellow Pages: Coffee
Art isn’t just about what you can draw or paint, but it’s also the way in which you compose. This collage of sorts visualizes a coffee cup and saucer. A very interesting piece.

La Curacao Store: Orange and Carrot
The folks in charge of these ads decided they wanted to use art straight up by mixing the colors of the fruits and vegetables used in certain blends they have tried. This one focuses on oranges and a carrot smoothies.

Gilera Creation
Well, this one is obviously all about the art, with one of the most famous pieces of art represented in the background. The team here makes it seem as if the motorcycle is a piece of art (note: the paint splashes and brush and palette) to be put up against the greats.

Gotte Optician: Tie Guy
While not sure if these shapes were actually cut out or if this is some great shading, the illustration here as well as the imagined process gets all the focus.

Invaders Pest Control: Disintegrate, Mosquito
This is an extremely simple, yet effective piece that uses another illustration to convey their point.

Jornal O Povo: Hendrix
This ad shows another illustration of a huge musical icon, drawn and with a seemingly thought provoking question to go along with it. The only visual focus, really, is the actual illustration.

La Salle
There’s a lot of things going on in this advertisements and a lot of things to be said, but each is conveyed creatively with a mixture of illustrations and pictures. The ad is for a school of the arts, so why not use art to convey their message?

Magazine Luiza: Coffee Machine Sale
With a bit of a humorous look, this is another illustrated piece that helps convey a little bit of fun. It’s simple, it’s easy to get and the art is pretty good too.

Marmaluzi Baby Food: Frozen Meat
The illustration and composition here are amazing. The idea was obviously to look a bit like a comic book cover or movie poster and they did such a great job. It’s very different for an ad, especially one for baby food.

Mikro Club
It’s easy to think, when you’re advertising a night club to just have pictures of the club and work around that. This club decided to take a very artistic and creative approach to the idea, which actually strikes up a bit of interest.

Nescafe: Sailor
Sometimes when you want to get a message across, the best way to do it is with no frills and fluff. This simple, nice illustration does just that.

Purrel Hand
Hand sanitizer is meant to kill the germs found on your hand. This ad illustrates many of the things we touch that have the germs on them. Some of these are eye openers and nevertheless, this is a wonderfully executed illustration.

UNICEF: School Bullying
The idea here is that bullying is not a game, especially for the one that is being bullied. The art director here chose to parallel that idea with a game of pinball via a super amazing illustration.

Spoleto Restaurants: Food Fantasy, Little Red Riding Hood
Though this has a nice fun and childlike illustration, this advertisement does have a very serious message. Nonetheless, the texture and the execution of it all are very inspiring.

The Times of India
Again, this creative ad isn’t about how great of a drawing or painting is put in place, but how the actual focus is prepared. This seems to be a bunch of newspapers gathered to look much like a finger print.

The Ultra Asian, 1
This massive illustration attempts to create a large piece dedicated to asian culture. There is no one focus, but the task was carried out creatively and beautifully.

Vogele Shoes: Box Models, Skater
This shoe company is about making a creative difference with affordable shoes. How can you not like it?

La Fabbrica di Nichi
Many graphic designers and illustrators put a good amount of emphasis on typography as an art. Here we have an advertisement that uses some decent typography to get their point across.

Caos Sustainability: 7 Billions, 2
In an attempt to display a bunch of scientific (and sometimes boring) information, this agency decided to try a little creativity for their art direction. It’s as if they took a picture of a couple faucets and made a kaleidoscope–it’s a bit busy but attractive.

Koolfoam Mattress: Lullaby Baby
There are a lot of ways someone can visualize a baby sleeping on a soft mattress. This agency decided to take an artistic and illustrative route.

The Pepsi Slavic Epopee, Kubicek
There are times when companies try to take something extremely iconic and make it conform to their idea of their company. This go round, Pepsi decided they wanted to reinvent the Slavic Epopee –and the illustrator did an amazing job.

Perfecthalf.com: Common Place, Her
This is an extremely different and creative approach to an advertisement. Advertising what would seem to be a dating service, they show their uncommon approach through this uncommon ad.

Angels in my Kitchen Bakery & Confectionery: Santa’s Gift
Guess Santa got tired of someone stealing his treats? This extremely artistic and creative advertisement seems to believe as such.

Scrabble
Some people really believe that there is an art to playing word games such as Scrabble. This advertisement tries to make that clear, not just by presenting the words that can come out of the letters, but through the artistic execution of this ad.

Faber-Castell: The Scream
As previously mentioned, some agencies love to take something that’s recognizable and use it for the sake of the company they are selling for. This time the agency is trying to sell art supplies by using some of the most famous art works seen–by creatively recreating them.

Conclusion

Now that you have gotten through this showcase, and seen the many ways that art is used to sell products or services through print advertising campaigns, we want to hear from you. What did you think about this collection, or what type of print advertisements do you prefer? Are their any great iconic print campaigns you feel should have made the list?

(rb)