quickie demo of how to use the Google Static Maps API and Python to serialize and visualize USGS earthquakes data http://www.compciv.org/guides/python/how-tos/creating-proper-url-query-strings/

google-map-usgs-data-better.py

# slightly more Pythonic, cleaner version
from csv import DictReader
import requests
import webbrowser
USGS_URL = 'http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/feed/v1.0/summary/significant_month.csv'
GMAPS_URL = 'https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap'
# get the USGS data, create a list of lines
lines = requests.get(USGS_URL).text.splitlines()

# get the latitude/longitude pairs
coordinate_pairs = ["%s,%s" % (q['latitude'], q['longitude']) for q in DictReader(lines)]

# this is another way of serializing the URL
preq = requests.PreparedRequest()
preq.prepare_url(GMAPS_URL, {'size':'800x500', 'markers': coordinate_pairs})
webbrowser.open(preq.url)

google-map-usgs-earthquakes.py

# quick and ugly version, esp. if you forgot how to do a list comprehension
import csv
import requests
from urllib.parse import urlencode
import webbrowser
# find a list of feeds at:
# http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/feed/v1.0/csv.php
usgs_url = 'http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/feed/v1.0/summary/significant_month.csv'
resp = requests.get(usgs_url)
lines = resp.text.splitlines()
earthquakes = csv.DictReader(lines)
coordinate_pairs = []
for quake in earthquakes:
    coordinate_pairs.append(quake['latitude'] + ',' + quake['longitude'])    
# create URL according to Google Static Maps API specs
endpoint_url = 'https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap'
query_string = urlencode(
                {'size': '800x500', 'markers': coordinate_pairs}, 
                doseq=True)
url = endpoint_url + '?' + query_string
webbrowser.open(url)

theresult.md

Here's what a sample result looks like:

  https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/staticmap?size=800x500&markers=-6.6214%2C154.7073&markers=22.9387%2C120.5928&markers=54.007%2C158.5064&markers=39.3%2C-74.3&markers=35.6519%2C-3.6755&markers=59.6047%2C-153.3405&markers=18.8414%2C-106.9536&markers=41.9519%2C142.7205&markers=3.8769%2C126.8708

Great work, used last year. Keep it up!