Want to see what your home would look like if it were demolished by a tropical storm? Or if your city turned into a ruined post-apocalyptic outpost? You can do this and more virtual destruction using a few Google Maps tricks. Here are five good ones, courtesy of Keir Clarke from Google Maps Mania.
1. Perfect Storms
To promote the last season of Perfect Storms the History Channel created this interactive that allows you to virtually destroy your house in a fire storm.
The app uses a combination of Google Maps and Street View to show the likely effects of a perfect storm on your own home and neighbourhood.
2). Under the Dome
If you’ve read Stephen King’s Under the Dome then you may already imagined what it would be like to have your town encased in a giant dome. To celebrate their TV version of King’s novel CBS has released a promotional website that includes an application that allows you to check to see if you also live under the dome.
To use the app you just need to enter your address. A Google Map then pans across the dome (because it appears that we all do indeed live under the dome). The app then cuts to a Street View scene of your home as it appears inside the dome.
3. After Earth Decay
After the Decay is a Google Map that allows you to observe how the world will look one thousand years after humans have left the planet. Using a time-line slider tool you can view satellite images of the Earth over the next thousand years and observe continental drift in action as South America crashes into Africa.
In Street View mode you can view future images of famous locations around the world and witness the collapse of the Eiffel Tower and the erosion of the White House and other globally important buildings and monuments.
4. Chaos in Your Town
Robots from the year 2029 have been sent back in time to destroy you and your home!
Yes — the robots are here to get YOU!
Chaos in Your Town lets you create a blockbuster robot film featuring your very own street and house. Using Google Maps Street View as the background to the scenes Chaos in Your Town creates an incredible Flash based movie that shows robots walking down your street, targeting your house and blowing it to kingdom come.
5. Home Sweet Zombie
Here is yet another promotional Street View animation campaign – this time involving zombies. Confused.com, the UK’s most popular price comparison service, has launched a video creation application called Home Sweet Zombie
If you enter your address into Home Sweet Zombie then the application creates an animated video that shows zombies taking over your street using Google Maps Street View. Once you have created your own personalised video you can share it with friends via Twitter and Facebook.
Keir Clarke runs Google Maps Mania, an unofficial blog that has been reviewing the amazing maps created with Google Maps since its release in 2005. This article was republished with permission.