Google Street View is coming to Tallinn

According to Delfi and some other media (Link 1, Link 2, Link 3), Google cars have been spotted on a parking lot near Peterburi tee.



If everything goes fine, Tallinn should get Street View somewhere between 2011 and 2012. I have to say I am a bit surprised that they are starting to take panoramas now and not in the summer. I really hope that they could use Street View bikes in the Old Town.

P.S. Riga already has a non-Google Street View - www.1188.lv

Panoramio Photos Update

Uploaded more photos to Panoramio.




Map view:

Arcades in Tallinn - Part 2

It seems that the only arcades left in Tallinn are in Ida-keskus.

Photos were taken on 2 August 2010.


                          The Last Blade 2                                  Aero Fighters 2



    Waku Waku 7                      Ninja Commando               Super Sidekicks



              Soul Edge Ver.II


Map of places that had arcades in the past is in the part 1.

Nuclear Blast on Google Maps

Here's how a nuclear blast would look like in Tallinn. You can really see the difference between Little Boy and Tsar Bomba...

Little Boy (USA, 1945,   15 Kilotons)


Tsar Bomba (USSR, 1961,  50 000 Kilotons)


Links:
Ground Zero
Ground Zero II (better version)

Panoramio Photos Update

I am starting to upload 2009 photos to Panoramio.




Map view:

Map of Tallinn (1942)

Only information I have about this map, is that it was supposedly created in 1942.



Full map with Zoom.it


Click on map pieces to download the original version:

Satellite imagery - Part 2

Update from the part 1.

Bing
After closely looking at Bing and Google Maps imagery of Tallinn, I noticed that they are the same, just have different filters:




They were both created using 2008 Apr 21 and Jun 01 DigitalGlobe imagery. Bing looks a bit better in cities, but worse in an area with a lot of trees.

There is also now Bing Maps Silverlight (compare with old Bing Maps) wich lets you look at fake bird’s eye views (somewhat similar to Earth view in Google Maps, but with les control).


Yahoo! Maps
between 2003 and 2004 Apr??? - not in Google Earth Historical Imagery!

Yandex maps
2006 May 07 - same as Google Earth Historical Imagery, but has different filters.

Flash Earth
Uses imagery from Bing Maps and Yahoo! Maps. Link

DigitalGlobe
latest - 2010 May 03 - this will probably be the next default satellite image in Google Maps, because it's the first image since June 2008, which wasn't made in winter and doesn't have too many clouds.


It was created with WorldView-2 (resolution 46cm-52cm)
2008 Apr 21 and Jun 01 images were created with QuickBird (resolution 61cm)

GeoEye
from 2004 Apr 09 to 2009 Sep 20 - 23 images for maximum 25% cloud cover (area search results).
Images were created with Ikonos-2, OrbView-3 and GeoEye-1.


Estonian Land Board (Maa-amet)
Maaamet latest imagery of Tallinn was shoot on 03 May 2009.

Maa-amet uses aerial photography, so image quality is higher then on Google Maps.

Used Equipment: aerial camera Leica ADS40.

Maa-amet's airplane Cessna Grand Caravan 208B
(PDF Report - in Estonian).


How Maa-amet creates aerial photography
(PDF Report - in Estonian)


List of services using Maa-amet imagery of Tallinn:
maaamet.ee (slow, but has more options and highest zoom)
eomap.ee (fast)
kaart.delfi.ee (new engine - now fast)
kaart.tallinn.ee (slow)
kaart.postimees.ee (fast - eomap based)
register.metsad.ee (slow - old delfi based)

Maa-amet Historical Imagery

Date	Resolution
2009 May 03	25 cm
2008 Apr 25	16 cm
2007 May 17	40 cm
2006 Aug 23	25 cm
2002 May 11	40 cm
1995	100 cm

Comparison between resolutions

Towns and villages near Tallinn

Towns and villages near Tallinn:


View towns and villages near Tallinn in Google Maps        KML Link

Administrative districts of Tallinn

Created a map of Tallinn's administrative districts.



View Tallinn Districts in Google Maps        KML Link

How BP Oil Spill would look near Estonia

IfItWasMyHome.com via Google Maps Mania

Panoramio Photos Update

Finally took the time to name all my 2008 Panoramio photos:



Here are all Tallinn photos on one map (using PhotoViewer by ☆Tomoaki Ueda☆):



View in PhotoViewer

Google Maps has moved Tallinn base imagery

It's not really news, since it probably happened at least a month ago, but Google Maps has moved Tallinn base imagery ca. 7 meters northeast from it's original position. Here are some examples using Panoramio:




Not a problem for Panoramio, since image thumbnails are pretty big. Wikimapia, on the other hand, is based on precision. It will take a lot of time to fix it.

Strelbickijs Map of Tallinn (1871)

This map of Tallinn was part of Special Map of European Russia created by Ivan Afanasevich Strelbickij between 1865 and 1871. Befor 1918 Tallinn was called Reval (rus: Ревель). Map was printed in 1917.



Full map with Zoom.it


Click on the map to download the original version:

Panoramio Widget ( HTML templates )

On May 10th Panoramio launched Panoramio Widget API. It can be used through HTML templates and through JavaScript API. There are 4 HTML templates: Photo, Slideshow, List and Photo list (basicly Photo and List widgets combined). You can reade more on templates here.

Source code view
<iframe src="http://www.panoramio.com/wapi/template/photo_list.html?tag=harbour&width=500&height=500&list_size=8&position=bottom&bgcolor=%23d3d3d3" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0" height="500" scrolling="no" width="500> </iframe>

Widget view (Photo list widget)


You can use 3 options for photo viewing (cannot be used together): user, tag and set (all photos). The tag option is allowed to use only one tag per widget. The other problem with tag option is that it shows only photos from different places, for example, if you use tag Paris, only one photo will be from Paris, France.

Source code view
<iframe style="float: left; margin: 10px;" src="http://www.panoramio.com/wapi/template/list.html?tag=Paris&width=350&height=200&rows=3&columns=4&orientation=horizontal" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0" height="200" scrolling="no" width="350"> </iframe>

Widget view (List widget, tag Paris)


Widget view (List widget, tag Pirita)


There are obviously more photos tagged with Pirita.

HTML templates are only useful if you want to show all your photos or random photos with tags like: sun, sea, forest. Sadly it is impossible to show particular photos or photos from specific places.

Webcam

Controllable webcam from www.overall.ee


Click on Read More to see the webcam:

What happens if sea level will rise?

Sea level rise of 14 m

via flood.firetree.net

Sea level rise of 30 m

via Neogeo.lv

Unsurprisingly Lasnamäe and Nõmme are safe. Upper Town of the Vanalinn should also be safe, since it's 50 meters above sea level (people who made those maps probably did't know that).

Panaramio Tools

Tools by Andre Speek

Recent Upload Browser for Panoramio. Link

Random Gallery Viewer. Link

Thumbnail post creator. Link

Photo Viewers

PhotoViewer Version 2.17 by ☆Tomoaki Ueda☆. Link

My Panoramio Photo Version 0.46E by junk0128. Link

View Counters

p-track by mrg-design. Link

PhotoSheetPano by Pierre Dablon. Link

PhotoTrack by Ryan Calhoun. Link (doesn't work any more)

Arcades in Tallinn

I decided to make a map of all arcades in Tallinn. First non Soviet arcade appeared after the fall of the Soviet Union (my guess they were brought from Helsinki). My map includes only arcdes that I remember (and know of). Most of them are not there anymore, so no, you can't play Carrier Air Wing in Kaubamaja.




View in Google Maps      KML Link

It seems that the most common arcade machine was Neo Geo, but I could be wrong. If anyone remembers any arcades that I didn't mention, please comment ( I'am sure I saw Captain Commando somewhere).

Old Photos of Tallinn

Here are some old photos of Tallinn

Mere puiestee in 1987

Location on Google Maps

Narva maantee in 1987

Location on Google Maps

The same place in 1987 and 2009 (it wasn't made from the same hight)

Link to a higher resolution

Viru Hotel in 1985

Location on Google Maps

Pärnu maantee in 1987 (January)

Location on Google Maps