Pimp your Google Map

Today I’m having my first visualization published at Helsingin Sanomat. A map of all the discharges in Helsinki during one night (21-22.12) showing reported crimes and accidents. Check it out:

Go to HS.fi.

It’s a pretty basic visualizations. I got a bunch of addresses that I geocoded using the Yahoos place finder API and projected on Google Maps. I’m a huge fan of a lot of the Google tools out there. Most notably the Docs platform, which step by step is phasing out my decency on MS Office (at least MS Word).

However, I have been quite sceptical towards Google Maps. Mostly because of its – in lack of a better word – ugliness. We’ve seen enough of that pale blue-green-yellow layout.

The good news is that Google has made it possible to easily style your maps using a simple online interface. In this example I’ve just inverted the lightness, added a pink hue and reduced the saturation of the water.

The options are endless. You can easily spend hours playing around with the different settings.

Not too many developers and designers seem to have found this tool yet, but my prediction for 2012 is that there will be a lot more styled Google Maps. And why not a portal with open map skins for anyone to use? I can’t find anything like that at the moment.