NEW - geographical information available for free online

There has been a large increase in the amount of geographical data released for free online recently. I thought I would bring this together here. If anyone knows of any more sources of free, good quality geographical information, let me know in the comments and I'll add them to the list.

Firstly, yesterday Google launched its Google Earth Engine at the International Climate Change Conference in Cancun. It provides access to satellite imagery and data. More information is available on the Google Blog.

Second, the Ordinance Survey has released access to many of it's data via the OS OpenData service. From here you can view or download maps of the UK or use the API to create your own web applications.

The Ordinance Survey data has been used by Edina to create additional resources.

• Use the Digimap OpenStream to use the data in conjunction with other mapping and online services.
• Use the Unlock service to convert postcodes and grid references to coordinates, locate place names and extract place names from text.
• Use ShareGeo to search and share geospacial datasets with other UK Higher Education institutions.