Working yet again with the Naval Research Lab, Google unveiled their first real-time weather layer to go with Google Maps. The weather feature will show current temperatures and conditions around the world. This makes the 11th layer one can implement while using maps, with traffic and transit being the most popular. Give it a try, won't you? more ›

Edging ever closer to omnipotence, the big G has added real-time transit data to Google Maps. If you've ever tried to catch a bus or BART train based on Google's arrival in the past you probably noticed that those times were based off of scheduled arrivals, which we all know is a big cosmic joke when you're talking about Muni and BART. To fix that, Google has partnered with transit agencies in transit-geek cities like San Francisco, Boston, Portland, San Diego, Madrid and Turin. more ›

by Andrew Dalton more ›

Say you've taken a bike ride out to Sutro Baths, lollygagged on the sands of Ocean Beach, and then brunched at the Cliff House. It's kind of cold out there, right? A bit too nippy, really. Screw this!, you grumble. You've had enough. It's high time you cracked open that trust fund to purchase the silver Mercedez SUV of your dreams. more ›

After receiving numerous complaints in Japan, "where personal privacy is highly valued," according to SF Business Times, Google will reshoot the country's street scenes. It seems that some of the shots in Japan, as in many other countries, looked over fence tops and into private residences. Google now plans to lower the camera, which is affixed to a car that helps capture said scenes, about 16 inches to help ensure less intrusive images. The Mountain View-based company did not say when, exactly, the new images will go live. In related news, Greece's Data Protection Authority (DPA) barred Google from snapping any more images "until the company provides additional privacy safeguards." more ›

Speaking at a Morgan Stanley Technology conference, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz fessed up to the following bit of commonsense. more ›

Your optimistic San Francisco Chronicle has decided that the best way for you to imagine how many murders take place in Oakland each year (and where) is to plot them out on a Google map mashup. more ›

LA-based comedy troupe The Vacationeers fears Google Maps Street View Big Brother-ness. And ever since we saw a shot of our bedroom window on it, featuring our awful interior decor, so do we. more ›

Image: BeyondChron more ›

Ritual Coffee Roasters' two locations are only about three miles apart. Not so bad on a bike, right? Well, what if you're biking with 130 pounds of coffee? Yeah, a little tougher. This Saturday, popular cafe Ritual Roasters, in conjunction with Bikes to Rwanda, is having a wacky, multi-tiered charity event that involves bike-race betting, film-watching, a raffle, and the consumption of both of our favorite beverages: booze and coffee. more ›

The Chronicle called Ed Jew's office today, and his legislative aide Barbara Meskunas said he wasn't in because he was sleeping. Jet lag, you know. more ›

Re: commotion at New Montgomery and Mission earlier today more ›

Have you checked out the latest hack to Google Maps? Somehow they've added street views, which lets you take a look at an intersection (say, 16th and Mission) from a street-level camera. You can get a street view of almost any intersection in the city, which is kinda freaky. more ›

We got two interesting web sites/Google Maps to let everyone know about. more ›

Okay, we got a tip about this a while ago in our inbox, and while it's totally f**king awesome, were remiss in posting on it. As some of you may know, Google has actually been pretty open about letting people play around with their new Google Maps. First off, Paul Rademacher created a tool for browsing Craigslist housing listings via Google Maps -- you can even sort by price-range! So hott! more ›