Google Maps just got a little bit smarter.
The Weather Channel Interactive, which owns weather.com, today announced a mapplet that makes weather information available on Google Maps.
Google also enlisted the Weather Channel to provide weather conditions, forecasts and radar to its Google Earth satellite-imaging service. The Weather Channel provides an overhead view of sky conditions, as well as a pop-up window with temperature, wind speed, pressure and other conditions for Google Earth.
On activating the mapplet, small, clickable bubbles appear, displaying the temperature in various parts of the region, just like on a local news broadcast. Clicking on the temperature link expands it into a balloon containing the weather information for that particular spot, such as humidity, wind speed and the UV index.
The expanded bubbles contain a 36-hour forecast, as well as links to hourly and 10-day outlooks on weather.com.
With the mapplet, users can build a customized weather layer on Google Maps, allowing them to view overlays of atmospheric conditions on any location within the lower 48 states.
A points-of-interest feature enables users to search weather conditions at ski resorts, golf courses and other destinations. In case of a severe weather alert at a point of interest, the bubble will show up in red with details about the alert.
During hurricane season, the mapplet will also offer a storm-tracking feature.
The Weather Channel mapplet is available in featured content section of the My Maps tab in Google Maps.
The Weather Channel is the largest asset of privately held Landmark Communications, a Norfolk, Va.-based media company that announced last week it was considering selling its businesses.
