Tracking Santa: the backstory

[Cross-posted with the Official Google Blog]

When I look back on four years of tracking Old St. Nick on Christmas Eve, I can't help but smile. The Santa tracker has really come a long way. I always thought NORAD's Santa Tracker was a great holiday tradition, but I felt like it could have been even better if people could visualize exactly where Santa was on Christmas Eve. So in 2004, shortly after Keyhole was acquired by Google, we followed Santa in the 'Keyhole Earth Viewer' — Google Earth's original name — and we called it the 'Keyhole Santa Radar.' The audience was relatively small since Keyhole was still a for-pay service at that point, and we hosted everything on a single machine shared with the Keyhole Community BBS server. We probably should have had 3 separate servers to host the Santa tracker - that first year, we had only a portion of a single machine. That night, about 25,000 people kept tabs on Santa and, needless to say, wreaked some havoc on our servers!

Over the next two years, our Santa-tracking efforts improved dramatically. By December 2005, Keyhole had become Google Earth and our audience had become much, much larger. Our 'Santa Radar' team also grew: we used greatly improved icons from Dennis Hwang, the Google Doodler, and set up 20 machines to serve the tracking information. My colleague Michael Ashbridge took over the software and more than 250,000 people tracked Santa on Google Earth that Christmas Eve. In 2006, Google acquired SketchUp, a 3D modeling software that enabled us to include models of Santa's North Pole workshop and sleigh. We also incorporated a tracking feed directly from NORAD's headquarters, and we were now displaying NORAD's information in Google Earth. That night, more than a million people tracked Santa.

In 2007, Google became NORAD's official Santa Tracking technology partner and hosted www.noradsanta.org. In addition to tracking Santa in Google Earth, we added a Google Maps tracker and integrated YouTube videos into the journey as well. Now, we had Santa on the map and on 'Santa Cam' arriving in several different locations around the world, with commentary in six different languages. The heavy traffic — several millions of users — put Google's infrastructure to the test, but with some heroic work by our system reliability engineers, the Santa Tracker worked continuously.

This year, Googler Bruno Bowden is in charge of the Santa software, and we have further upgraded our server capacity. We're hoping this version of the tracker will be the best yet. In addition to our Santa Cam footage, geo-located photos from Panoramio will be viewable in Google Maps for each of Santa's stops without a video. We've also included a few new ways to track Santa. With Google Maps for mobile, anyone can keep tabs on him from their mobile phones (just activate GMM and search for 'norad santa'). You can also receive updates from 'Bitz the Elf' on Twitter by following @noradsanta. And of course, be sure to visit www.noradsanta.org tomorrow morning at 6:00 am EST when Santa's journey begins.

Posted by Brian McClendon, Original Google Engineering Elf

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Snow conditions of Alpine skiing resorts in Google Earth

It is undeniable: winter has arrived here in Europe. Piles of snow line the roads, white roofs and snowmen call for your attention. I can't help but start thinking about skiing and snowboarding.

A very easy and visual way of checking the latest snowfalls in ski resorts in the Alp regions of Austria, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland is the new "Ski resorts in the Alps" layer in Google Earth. You can find it in the Gallery folder of the layers panel under "Travel and Tourism".

All information on the ski resorts are provided by bergfex who aggregates the data from the ski resorts to make sure that you get the latest data in this layer. The icons represent the average snow depth of that area; the whiter the icon, the more snow you can expect. Check back often, as these snow depth readings are updated four times a day.

Every balloons displays useful information such as the fresh snow depth from within the last 24 hours (on the mountain and also in the valley), the altitude of the skiing area, the length of the slopes, useful phone numbers, and much more!

Now use Google Earth to get the latest info and then get outside to enjoy the snow, the real stuff, on-site!




Posted by Carmen Erni, Google Earth Vector Team, Zurich

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Where does our oil come from?

[Cross-posted with the Google.org Blog]

There’s a great deal of talk about the high cost of oil and the billions of dollars that the US and other oil-importing nations spend each year to buy oil. As part of the Google.org Geo Challenge Grants Program, Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) has created a map of US oil imports by country since 1973. By clicking on the green light to play, you can see the countries supplying oil to the U.S. (either in terms of barrels or dollar value) and how our imports have changed over the last 35 years. The thicker the line in the map, the more oil produced or imported. While this map highlights data on United States oil imports, the picture is similar for every oil-importing country in the world.

The map highlights 5 eras of oil consumption, from the oil shocks of the 1970s to the price collapse in the 1980s to recent events including Hurricane Katrina and gas approaching $5 per gallon before retreating rapidly recently. (You can see these selections by clicking on the buttons below the map on the RMI website.) One interesting time period is from 1982 to 1985, when low prices caused oil imports from the Middle East to decline to very low levels.

The map also looks at potential oil from offshore drilling and exploration of the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The screenshot below illustrates the impact of off-shore drilling. With the map zoomed or ‘drilled’ 3-5 levels down and centered near Alabama (and the map pushpin that represents offshore), check out the very thin line that shows the potential peak production of 220,000 barrels per day. The lines represent estimates of production in 20-30 years, and even with this very long timeline, the amount of oil that could be generated from offshore drilling is miniscule compared to our oil needs today.

Both Google and RMI are working hard to help create a future where we are not reliant on daily imports of millions of barrels of oil that pollute our atmosphere and risk our national security.

Today, along with the Brookings Institution, RMI is hosting “The Oil Solutions Initiative” a summit to identify solutions to break America’s dependence on oil, with Google in attendance. In 2004, RMI’s Chief Scientist, Chairman and Co-founder Amory Lovins and a team of RMI collaborators drafted Winning the Oil Endgame (PDF of the book) - a roadmap for the United States to get completely off oil by 2050.

Google.org’s RechargeIT initiative is driving toward the commercialization of plug-in vehicles that can wean the US off gasoline. In our Clean Energy 2030 Plan we show that increasing conventional automobile mileage, deploying millions of plug-in hybrids and accelerating the turnover of the fleet would reduce oil consumption by 51% by 2030. That decrease would have an even larger effect on oil imports because we produce about one-third of our oil in the US. Google and RMI have worked together on a number of projects including RMI’s “Smart Garage” Charrette, a summit to identify the barriers and breakthroughs needed to electrify the U.S. auto fleet.

While oil prices have declined rapidly over the past five months, most people expect oil prices to remain high into the near future. When asked whether or not the drop in oil prices reduces the need to act, President-Elect Barack Obama responded that we go from “shock to trance” and as a result “never make any progress.”

If you are a non-profit with a great idea like this one, please consider applying for funding to develop your project. We are currently accepting applications for the December 22, 2008 deadline.

Posted by David Bercovich, Program Manager, Google.org

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Where in the world is ... (answers)

If yesterday's quiz left you a little stumped, here are the answers!

1) This is the largest in a chain of islands in the Tyrrhenia sea; and the legendary home of the sorceress Circe.
-- Isola Ponza, Italy 

2) Throughout 2008 this active stratovolcano has been sending plumes of ash and water vapor over a nearby town, a town that was evacuated in 1994 due to danger from the volcano

-- Tavurvur volcano, Papua New Guinea

3) Part of an island chain named by Captain Cook for the day on which he discovered them, forty-nine days after Easter Sunday.
-- Hamilton Island (part of Whitsunday Islands), Australia 

4) This is the crater of an extinct tuff-cone volcano, now used as a memorial cemetery.

 -- Punchbowl Crater, Punchbowl Memorial Cemetery, Hawaii, USA  

Updated Imagery:

Americas:
    - USA: Anchorage (AK), Santa Rosa (CA), Thousand Oaks (CA), Newberg (OR), Bee Cave (TX), El Paso (TX), part of South Dakota, Manhattan, Long Island
    - Mexico: Tijuana, Juarez, Aguascalientes, Queretaro, Cuernavaca, Puebla, 
    - Canada: Gibsons (BC)
    - Cuba: Havana
    - Haiti: Port-au-Prince
    - Guatemala: Guatemala City
    - Honduras: Tegucigalpa
    - French Guiana: Cayenne
    - Brazil: Brasilia, Sao Paulo
    - Uruguay: Montevideo

Europe, Middle East, & Africa:
   - Italy: Parma, Perugia, Foggia, Lucera, Viste Peschici, Isola Ponza, Isola d'Ischia
   - Hungary: Budapest
   - Romania: Bucharest
   - Ukraine: Kiev, Odessa
   - Bulgaria: Sofia
   - Montenegro: Podorica
   - Cyprus: Nicosia
   - Azerbaijan: Baku
   - Iran: Tabriz, Tehran, Mashhad
   - Turkmenistan: Ashgabat
   - Kuwait: Kuwait City
   - UAE: Abu Dhabi, Dubai
   - Saudi Arabia: Riyadh, Jeddah, Mecca
   - Yemen: Sana
   - Jordon: Amman
   - Morocco: Casablanca
   - Niger: Niamey
   - South Africa: Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban

Asia:
  - Pakistan: Islamabad
  - India: Ahmadabad, Chennai, Bangalore
  - China: Chongqing

Oceania:
   - New Zealand: Christchurch
   - Australia: Cairns, Gold Coast, Whitsunday Islands

New 2.5m base imagery for parts of: India, China, and Australia.

Posted by Mark Hessenflow, GIS Data Engineer

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Even more GPS trails in Google Earth

As holiday season approaches, are you planning a trip somewhere? If you are an outdoor person and would like to make hiking, biking, or even flying part of your fun, then make sure you check out the new EveryTrail layer before you go. The EveryTrail layer showcases GPS trails captured by outdoor adventurer with pictures taken along the trails. Download a trail by clicking on any picture in an EveryTrail balloon and start a virtual tour of your destination. If you prefer strolling around cities, there are plenty of trips in EveryTrail layer to help you discover best places to visit.

See this video to get an overview of the layer:

Here are a few of our favorite trails:

Kyoto - Visit Kiyomizudera, Ginkakuji, and Ryoanji Temples

Kalalau Trail, Kauai, Hawaii

Exploring Galapagos

Posted by Wei Luo and Pete Giencke, Google Earth Team

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A one-two-three on licensing your content to Google

[Cross-posted with the Content Central Blog]

With Google Maps and Google Earth, we strive to provide our users with the most comprehensive, accurate and compelling representation of the world. We believe that integrating the geospatial data produced by governments and other public sector organizations is vital to achieving these goals. The positive effects of governments using Google Maps and Earth to share their geospatial data are many, but this post isn't for our standard sales pitch. Rather, my purpose is to address a specific question that we hear over and over from organizations around the world: "What's the process for licensing our geospatial data to Google?"

Glad you asked.  There are three steps to licensing--or granting Google the legal rights--to publish your organization's geospatial data on our services:

Step 1: Tell us about your organization and the data you have to share.

The best way to tell us about you and your content is to fill out our contact form. The more details you provide the better, so that we can determine if your content is a fit with our services.

Step 2: Sign our content license agreement.

If your content is a fit, we will send you our content license agreement that you and your organization's legal authority can review and agree to accept.  It's with this agreement that you affirm that your organization has the necessary rights to provide the content to Google.  The agreement also defines what Google will and won't do with your content.

For governments, we offer a "government-friendly" version of this content license agreement that is tailored to the unique legal status of public sector organizations.  In some countries, we're able to provide this agreement in a "click-to-accept" format.  We send you an invitation by email to review this online document and you can just click to agree to the terms.  For other countries, we email you a conventional paper agreement.  In all cases, we strive to keep the process simple for your organization and Google, and to eliminate the need for negotiations over legal terms, so that we can quickly get to work integrating your geospatial data on our services.

Step 3: Provide the content to Google.

Once you've clicked or signed to accept the content license agreement, we will work with you to get your content transferred to us. Our preferred method for transferring geospatial data is to download the datasets from your FTP/HTTP(S) server.  Alternatively, you can send your data on DVD, or, for larger datasets, we can arrange to ship you a hard drive that you can send back to us at your convenience.

That's the whole process.  And when done right, it can happen very fast!

If you're interested in hearing more about how to add your geospatial data to Google Maps and Earth, listen to a recent Very Spatial podcast in which a couple members of our Content Partnerships team discuss Google's efforts to partner with governments around the world.

Posted by Michael E. Jones, Content Partnerships

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Your maps in your hands for the holidays

[cross-posted with the Google Mobile Blog]

Just in time for the holidays I'm proud to present to you My Maps Editor by Google, now available for download in Android Market! In just four months of my 20% time and with a little help from the 20% time of my coworkers this application has gone from an idea in my head to a full application ready for you, really demonstrating the ease and power of developing on Android.

With this application you can create, edit, share, and view personalized maps on your Android powered phone synchronized with the My Maps tab on Google Maps. Create a map on your desktop computer using Google Maps and then take it with you on the go and update it on location. My Maps Editor by Google supports full editing functionality for markers, lines, and shapes on maps, plus the ability to mark your location using GPS or attach a photo directly from your phone. Your maps are automatically synchronized with your My Maps on the web. Check out this tour of Google Mountain View that I just created on my phone:

There are plenty of ways to put this to good use during the holiday season:

• Plan out your holiday shopping. Create a map on your computer with markers for all of the stores you need to visit. Color code the markers according to importance, category, or sales. Then as you visit each store, change the icon to indicate that you've been there and list what items you were able to get in the description. If you find a store you didn't think of, you can quickly add a marker for it to help future planning.
• Make a map of holiday decorations and displays that you see. Every time you see an interesting holiday display, use the Mark My Location feature to create a marker, then edit the details and add a photo of the display right from the phone's camera. Share your map with your friends and family to show them the best holiday displays in your area. Just go to the maps list, tap and hold on your map, and select Share Map to share it right from your phone.
• Keep track of your travels. You can map out your travel plans and take them with you wherever you go. Add markers while you travel to mark interesting places, and take lots of pictures and attach them to the markers. Then when you get back, you can share the map with your friends and show everyone what your did on your vacation with a map and pictures to help them really visualize the trip.

The fun doesn't stop once the holidays are over. The possibilities are endless when your maps are in the palm of your hand (try making a map of running routes to keep yourself to your New Years resolution!). Don't take my word for it, go download My Maps Editor by Google from Android Market (currently available on the T-Mobile G1) and see for yourself!

Posted by Brian Cornell, Software Engineer

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Where in the world is...

1) This is the largest in a chain of islands in the Tyrrhenia sea and the legendary home of the sorceress Circe.

2) Throughout 2008 this active stratovolcano has been sending plumes of ash and water vapor over a nearby town, a town that was evacuated in 1994 due to danger from the volcano.

3) Part of an island chain named by Captain Cook for the day on which he discovered them, forty-nine days after Easter Sunday.

4) This is the crater of an extinct tuff-cone volcano, now used as a memorial cemetery.

Posted by Mark Hessenflow, GIS Data Engineer

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The gift of gadgets

The holidays always mean a lot of traveling for me -- traveling to the airport, to stores, to Grandma's house, and all over town.

Getting from Point A to Point B has always been easy on Google Maps. Simply click on "Get Directions" and you're on your way - whether by car, by foot or by public transit (in select cities). Now with our new directions gadget, you can bring driving and walking directions powered by Google Maps right to your website.

With the gadget, the days of manually typing and updating multiple blocks of text directions are over. By copying and pasting a single line of code, any website can offer customized door-to-door directions to their users. Users can then print directions with a single click. Did you know that you can now print directions with embedded maps and Street View images? This video shows you how.

This gadget is perfect for any webmaster wishing to direct users to a physical location - this means businesses both large and small. Some partners already using this gadget include major airports (Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport), universities (Stanford University), amusement parks (Legoland California), and restaurants (Emeril Lagasse's restaurants), to name just a few.

Below is a version of the gadget to play with that provides directions to Google's San Francisco office. If you would like to add this directions gadget to your site, visit our gadget creation page to quickly make your own!

PS: Providing directions from Google Maps is pretty flexible; in addition to run-of-the-mill addresses, you can give your site visitors directions to everything from a generic ZIP code to a specific set of lat-long coordinates for any of your locations.

Examples:
123 River St, Woods, MA
90210
42.06782,-71.756963

But with great power comes great responsibility. You might want your visitors to end up at your coordinates, but that doesn't mean they'll understand what a mess of numbers means when they see it in your list of addresses. The key is to give the address an alias, or a name that everyone will understand. You can do this by putting the alias in parentheses just after the address:

42.06782,-71.756963 (Grandma's House)

Add an alias to as many of your addresses as you like, or feel free to leave it off the easier ones; it doesn't hurt for your visitors to know where they're going. After all, you want them to remember how to come back for a second visit…

Posted by Julie Zhou, Product Marketing Manager

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Map making in new worlds

We are pleased to announce the launch of Google Map Maker, mapmaker.google.com, for 43 new countries and territories, including Argentina, Costa Rica, and Fiji. Map Maker now allows people to create complete maps for 164 countries across the world. As we expand the launch of Map Maker to more countries, we never forget that for any user it's all about the world they live in. Map Maker is all about making your local data rich, complete and vibrant. Just take a look at how our users transformed the map of Islamabad, Pakistan in this time lapse video.

We recently took a walk down the memory lane, looking at all the maps users have contributed; one road, one place, and one neighborhood at a time. But when looked at on the world canvas that we are all contributing to, the result is inspiring. Two of our engineers decided to share this excitement with you via this sketch which shows all the roads in Map Maker in one view. Notice that we have focused Map Maker on areas with the most pressing information needs, and this shows.

You can share this view with your friends or download it as a screensaver. As 2008 comes to an end, our dream is that with your help this time next year, this sketch will be too bright to use as a screen saver!

Posted by Lalitesh Katragadda, Software Engineer and Lior Ron, Product Manager

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Street View for Nokia S60 and Windows Mobile

We've got good news for Nokia S60 and Windows Mobile users -- now you can access Street View (including the amazing imagery released yesterday!) from your phone.  Since the Street View team has had a busy year launching imagery from across the world, we wanted to make it available on the phones that are popular in those countries. You can read more about this release on the Google Mobile Blog.

Posted by Ryan Pollock, Mobile Team

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Double the coverage, double the fun

The Street View team has been pretty busy lately, between the international launches and the re-design, but there's still more: today we're doubling the amount of coverage in the United States. This will bring Street View to some new cities, like Memphis, Birmingham, and Charleston (SC), and also to a few states for the first time, like Maine, West Virginia, North Dakota, and South Dakota. You can read more about this milestone and the big year Street View has had on the Official Google Blog. I'll leave you with a sampling of some of the sights now on display:

Devils Tower, Wyoming:

View Larger Map

Portland Head Lighthouse, Maine:

View Larger Map

Mississippi State Capitol:

View Larger Map

Pyramid Arena, Memphis:

View Larger Map

West Virginia State Capitol:

View Larger Map

Posted by Stephen Chau, Product Manager

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Mapping all the way...

My Christmas Eve countdown tells me I have just over two weeks to finish my holiday shopping (so maybe I should get started).  With holiday parties to attend, travel plans to finalize, and relatives coming to town, this time of year can be hectic.  We've put together a collection of Google Maps Holiday Solutions to help get you through the holidays with ease. Whether you're trying to avoid traffic jams, find the best restaurant in town to impress your in-laws, or track Santa's journey, visit http://maps.google.com/holidays to learn more. And if you're already a Google Maps whiz, share this page with friends and family who could benefit from the solutions!

Posted by Laura Melahn, Associate Product Marketing Manger

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KML in Research contest extended!

The KML in Research contest deadline has been extended to February 1st, 2009.  We're 

extending the entry period to give students and researchers an opportunity to finish up their projects during this busy time of year, and to give more people the chance to enter.  Those of you who have already entered can improve your submission and resubmit prior to the new deadline.

To get your brain warmed up, consider these entry ideas:

• Curriculum materials for students in: history, geology, Earth science, astronomy, political science, urban planning, etc
• Mash together different datasets using layers
• Visualize large datasets and allow users to explore collections
• Map data from a sensor network in real time using network links
• Use Google Charts API within Google Earth to easily plot figures dynamically
• Animate trends in demographics, economic models, or environmental changes using the Google Earth time slider
• Visualize models in an easy to share file format

The top entries in both the student and professional categories will win a prize pack that includes a Garmin GPS to help with future KML projects, an Apple iPod Touch to keep you from working too hard, and a Google Earth tote bag just for fun.

If you are working on representing data in KML check out the tools page and find ways to make your project easier and more dynamic.

For general help with KML and KML resources head to the code.google.com KML documentation page.

Posted by Ryan Falor, Systems Engineer

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Google Earth... in your browser... on your Mac!

[Cross-posted with the Google Geo Developers Blog]

A long time ago, at a conference not too far away, Google launched the Google Earth Browser Plugin, with the Google Earth API. At the time, we promised that we would bring it to the Mac, and now we have.

Today, we're excited to announce the release of the Google Earth Browser Plugin for Mac OS X 10.4+ (PowerPC and Intel). The Mac plugin is supported on Safari 3.1+ and Firefox 3.0+. The download link should now be available to all users from any Earth API-powered site. We also released a game, Puzzler, in honor of the new Mac plugin. It is, of course, playable on a PC as well. We think you'll like it. And as usual, it's open source, so you're free to adopt the code.

In addition to the Mac release, we've also upgraded the Windows version of the plugin. See the release notes for more details.

Posted by Mano Marks and Roman Nurik, Geo APIs team

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20 days, 9 hours...

With Thanksgiving dinner eaten and the calendar changed to December, it's officially the holiday season. And for the Geo team, that means it's time get ready to track Santa. Once again, Google has teamed up with NORAD to bring you the Santa Tracker, allowing you to follow Santa's path around the world with Google Earth and Google Maps. You can find all the details on the Official Google Blog.

Posted by Aaron Stein, Santa Tracker Team

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New Zealand, New Street View

The Street View team has been keeping quite busy lately, between adding new cities, debuting in new countries, and re-designing the layout. And today, there's yet another exciting launch: imagery of New Zealand. Whether you've been thinking of planning a trip to New Zealand, or wanting an opportunity to experience its cities, mountains, and beaches, you'll find plenty to explore. The imagery includes everything from major metropolitan areas like Auckland and Christchurch to the scenery of Lake Wakatipu; from the sub-tropical north to the mountainous south.

You can read more about this launch on the Google Australia Blog, so I'll use this opportunity to share some of my favorite images:

View Larger Map

Auckland Museum

View Larger Map

Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown

View Larger Map

Sky Tower, Auckland

Posted by Andrew Foster, Product Manager, Google Australia

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Happier travels through Street View with Pegman

Today we're happy to announce some big improvements to the Street View feature in Google Maps! Thanks to feedback from our users, we've now made Street View even better and easier to use.

For one thing, Pegman, our plucky mascot, is now close at hand wherever you go. He hangs out right on top of the zoom slider:


To enter Street View, drag Pegman to a street (or just keep zooming in all the way, and the lowest zoom level is now Street View imagery). Tip: if you hold Pegman over a location for a second, you'll see a preview of what it looks like. Which direction you're facing depends on which side of the street you drag to:


Also, we've revamped the layout of Street View to give you more room for looking at really big stuff like the Colosseum in Rome, or for zooming in to get a better look at small stuff like this space invader mosaic in Paris.

The minimap in the corner lets you see the surrounding area. To see Street View and the map at the same time, you can click on the icon at the top left of the minimap. Looking up driving directions? This split screen view is especially handy for previewing turns along the way, and each step will be listed at the top of the Street View image.

Want to learn more and see the new features in action? Check out this video, narrated by Pegman himself:

And since Pegman now has even more of a starring role while you're exploring Street View, we thought we'd take a moment to celebrate him with a parade of Pegman Easter eggs, sketches, and prototypes:

Posted by Stephane Lafon, Software Engineer & Andy Szybalski, User Experience Designer

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Some favorite Google Maps features now for iPhone

(Cross-posted from the Google Mobile Blog)

I waited in line on launch day to buy my first-generation iPhone, and ever since then it has never left my side. The best part is that it keeps getting more useful with every software upgrade Apple puts out. This time around, Apple has improved their version of Google Maps by putting even more Google features in your pocket.

The most eye-catching one is Street View: Apple's silky-smooth implementation makes it a joy to pan around the world. You might wonder why you'd want to look at panoramas of the world while you're already out in it, but I've found it handy for getting an idea of what to look for when going somewhere new. In somewhere like New York, it's also a great way to get your bearings when you pop out of a subway station in an unfamiliar part of town.

Speaking of subways, my favorite new feature is the addition of Google Transit and walking directions. In a time of congested roads and fluctuating gas prices, driving isn't always the best way to get from A to B, so why limit your options? Now when you get directions, you can switch between driving, walking, and public transportation directions (where available) with a single tap.

Google Maps has schedules for transportation systems in more than 100 cities worldwide, including New York, Tokyo, Montréal, Zürich, and Perth — and now it's easy to get that information on your iPhone. As more transportation agencies decide to share their schedule information, their routes will be available on the iPhone the instant they appear in Google Maps on the web.

Finally, in the latest version of Google Maps for iPhone, you can email information about a location to your friends, which can be a great help when coordinating a get-together.

To get these new Maps features on your iPhone, you'll need to update your phone's software through iTunes. I hope you'll find these new additions as useful as I have. And don't forget that even if you don't have an iPhone, Google Maps for mobile is available for many other kinds of phones, including BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian Series 60, and Android — visit www.google.com/gmm for more details.

Posted by Joe Hughes, Mobile Maps Software Engineer

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Tip of the week: airport codes in Google Maps

Thanksgiving is only a week away, which means that the holiday travel season is upon us. Booking plane tickets can be like alphabet soup: you're just trying to get from Los Angeles to Washington, DC, but your itinerary has you changing planes at CVG and landing at BWI. Where on earth are those airports? In Google Maps, you can simply enter the 3-letter airport code to find it on the map. This makes it much easier to figure out where exactly your journey will take you, and to get directions to or from an airport without having to find its address. 

Maybe I'll see you at SJC or DCA.

Posted by Elaine Filadelfo, Lat Long Blog Team

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360 degree panoramas in Google Earth

This week, we've started to feature another layer in the Google Earth Gallery, showing several thousand panoramic views provided by 360cities.net. This layer contains exciting 360 degree panoramas from a variety of great photographs taken all over the world!

Do you want to explore some beautiful spots in Central Park, or be impressed by the beautifully illuminated Kremlin at night as seen from the Red Square in Moscow?


These amazing panoramas from 360cities.net will provide you another way to browse user contributed pictures and information in addition to our Panoramio and Wikipedia layers.

Are you also an enthusiast taking panoramic views? It's not difficult to add your images as Photooverlays to Google Earth on your own. If you want to share them with others, just follow the links in the balloons of the 360cities.net layer that will take you to the website to join the 360cities.net community.

Posted by Philipp Hirtz, Engineering Manager, Google Earth

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A local focus: two new case studies

From the practical to the political, from the serious to the silly, developers of over 150,000 sites around the world continue to inspire us with their creative uses of the Google Maps API.

To celebrate this blossoming ecosystem, we've redesigned our Case Studies video site. Timed with this relaunch, we've got two new videos showcasing innovative API uses, this time for sites that help you make the most of where you live.

Yelp was an early and eager adopter of the Google Maps API. As their local reviews site has grown in size and geography, Yelp has aggressively built upon our platform with intuitive neighborhood maps, static maps that load quickly but quickly transition to powerful dynamic maps, and more. They've also been quick to support our newest API features such as Street View and Mobile. Check out the video!

We are also excited to profile Zipcar, which uses Google Maps to help its exploding userbase find cars available for hourly or daily rental in their neighborhood:

We've got five more case study videos at the newly redesigned site, so take a quick break and (re)inspire yourself!

Posted by Jesse Friedman, Associate Product Marketing Manager

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Access Google Maps wherever you are on the web

One of my favorite things to do while I'm on a business trip -- wherever I am -- is to find great coffee shops. Knowing I can relax with locals and get a strong cup of coffee helps get me through the jet lag and long days that usually accompany these trips. However, I'm usually busy doing all sorts of things on the web, like creating presentations, updating spreadsheets, or checking my flights.

To find a new destination for my coffee fix without having to leave the site I'm on, all I need to do is use the Google Maps gadget on the new Google Toolbar 5 (for Internet Explorer or Firefox). Every time I click on the "compass" icon on my Toolbar, a Google Maps window pops under it: inside the gadget I can search for "Seattle Cafe" and get listings of local coffee shops, along with reviews and driving directions. You can find more interesting gadgets to add to your Toolbar in our gallery.


Posted by Christos Apartoglou, Product Marketing Manager, Google Toolbar

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Happy Geography Awareness Week

Some of my earliest memories are of spreading National Geographic maps out on the floor of my living room, picking a faraway place on the planet, and imagining myself on a different continent. Fast forward a couple of decades to 2008, and National Geographic is still inspiring young people to explore our globe.

For the third year in a row, Google is delighted to work with My Wonderful World, a National Geographic-led campaign to give kids the power of global knowledge, on Geography Awareness Week. Beginning today, students and teachers alike can explore a range of geo-activities using Google Earth. Working together on projects like this, that encourage people to roll up their sleeves and explore the world, is what Google's Geo Education initiative is all about.

Did you know that the Lake Victoria water level is dropping, impacting the daily lives of 30 million Ugandans, Kenyans, and Tanzanians? Take a geo-tour of global hotspots to see how geography can help us understand critical issues facing the world today.

Did you know that dining in certain fast food joints in Japan can be a very elegant experience? Or that grocery shopping in Russia is often more of a negotiation than a transaction? With National Geographic's Glimpse, you can hear from young people living and working around the world and see their stories in Google Earth.

Visit the Google for Educators site to learn more about these initiatives and to start exploring today!

Posted by Nate Johnson, Virtual Exploring Enthusiast

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Announcing SketchUp 7

It's my pleasure to announce the launch of Google SketchUp 7. If you've been putting off getting familiar with Google Earth's 3D modeling "other half", now's the time to do something about it. After all, nothing makes a nicer holiday gift for your spouse than a 3D model of your dwelling or dream dwelling. Well, almost nothing.

So what's new in SketchUp 7? Lots of stuff, but here are some of the highlights I think you'll find most interesting (take a look at the SketchUp website for a complete rundown).

Some of the improvements we made to SketchUp 7 are especially useful for beginners. For example:

• Edges now split other edges where they cross, automatically. Modeling in SketchUp is more intuitive now.
• The inferencing system (SketchUp's colored points and guide lines that help you draw in 3D) is clearer and more consistent than ever.
• When you need help using a tool, click the "?" icon at the bottom of your modeling window; the Instructor panel pops up to give you more information.

We've added three things to SketchUp 7 that make building photo-textured models (like the ones you see in Google Earth) infinitely easier:

• Make Unique Texture crops your textures to the face you're editing; this makes them smaller and your models lighter. Google Earth likes small models.
• Combine Textures "stitches" together adjacent textures to reduce their numbers and further reduce your file size.
• Edit Texture lets you open textures directly in the image editor of your choice to fiddle with them. When you're done, the texture you edited updates in SketchUp automatically – no more re-applying a whole building facade just because you need to clone out a parking meter.
  

The Google 3D Warehouse is where models live online. It's an enormous, searchable repository of stuff from modelers all over the world. Recently, we introduced Google Docs-style sharing and collaboration: now you can upload a model and specify who gets to use it  – and what they can do with it. You can make it private, share it with a select group of invitees, or set it completely free. If you model a building and make it editable by anyone, there's a good chance it'll evolve over time. It's wiki editing for the 3D world.

As I mentioned above, there's tons of new stuff in SketchUp 7. Visit the website to learn all about it, and have fun.

Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Product Evangelist

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Santa Barbara fire map

A strong, fast-moving wildfire began last night in Santa Barbara, California and has already destroyed 100 homes and put many more at risk. Residents of the impacted and endangered areas urgently need information about the fire path, evacuated areas, road closures, and other important safety factors. A group in Santa Barbara quickly put together a My Map containing extensive information that can help keep residents informed and safe. If you are in the impacted area or would like to stay abreast of the situation, we hope you'll find this map valuable.

View Larger Map

Posted by Elaine Filadelfo, Lat Long Blog Team

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When in Rome...teach!

This week we introduced the new Ancient Rome 3D layer in Google Earth, a groundbreaking collection of 6,700 3D buildings modeled as leading scholars determined they stood in the year 320 A.D. 

While we hope that teachers are already pretty excited to incorporate Ancient Rome 3D into their lessons, we wanted to go a step further and issue an open challenge to educators to harness the power of this new tool in the classroom. Today, we're proud to announce the launch of the inaugural Google lesson plan contest for K-12 educators in the US, the Ancient Rome in 3D Curriculum Competition. Whether you teach art history to high school students or geometry to fifth graders, the new visual tool can spice up lessons old and new. From a comparative architectural study using the ancient 3D models and modern Street View imagery to a new LitTrip of Virgil's Aeneid, the only limit is your imagination!

From Caesar to Augustus, the Roman Forum to the Arch of Constantine, it's time to get those creative juices flowing. Register and upload your original curriculum at earth.google.com/romecontest by February 9th for the chance at fame, glory, and an awesome prize package! 

Posted by Anna Bishop, Google Earth Education Team

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Tip of the week: Know before you go

We've featured some of the most stunning pictures found in Street View on the blog, from the Colosseum in Rome to the Parthenon (well, a replica) in Nashville, but there are also countless practical uses of Street View. Here's one of them: use Street View to take some of the stress out of parking. 

When you're going into a city or to a new part of town, you probably don't want to waste time circling blocks to find areas where you can park. Here are some ways Street View can help:

• Take a look to see if there is street parking available at your destination.
• Try zooming in on signs to read restrictions. 
• Find out which areas require parallel parking and which don't, in case your skills are a bit rusty.
• Find designated motorcycle spaces. 
• Take a look around for parking lots. When you see parking lots, you can sometimes zoom in and read the rates so you can find the lot with the best deal. 
• Look for parking meters so you know if you need to bring a handful of quarters.
• If you're tying to avoid all this hassle by biking somewhere, look for bike racks. 

Google Maps may not be able tell you where you'll find a free space (unless you're in Santa Monica -- in which case we can!) but Street View should save you some time and hassle.

Posted by Elaine Filadelfo, Lat Long Blog Team

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Roman history comes to life in Google Earth

Were you someone who struggled to stay awake in ancient history class? If so, perhaps this was due to those uninspiring "artist renditions" in your textbook. Reading countless pages that described how a monument, building or city may have appeared at the time can be pretty difficult to imagine.

Well, today we introduced a new approach to learning about ancient history: the ability to go back in time and explore Rome as it existed in 320 AD -- in 3D!

All of this is possible through the new Ancient Rome 3D layer in Google Earth. To activate the layer, simply open the "Gallery" folder in the "Layers" panel and select "Ancient Rome 3D."

The new layer, produced by the University of Virginia's Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities (IATH) and based on its Rome Reborn model, contains over 6,700 3D buildings and 250 Google Earth placemarks that allow Google Earth users to explore and learn about this fascinating period of history.

This is the first time that we have incorporated an ancient city in Google Earth. Going back in time presented some new challenges, such as how to handle the ancient terrain which was clearly different than modern day. We needed to ensure that modern day imagery, terrain and buildings didn't interfere with the ancient Rome model so we opted for a simple overlay.

This exciting new layer also serves as the inspiration for the Google Ancient Rome 3D Curriculum Competition, a first-ever Google contest geared towards K-12 educators in the US. Whether your lesson plan involves teaching geometry through Roman architecture or re-imagining ancient history with this new visualization tool, there's fame and an awesome prize package waiting for you! The submission deadline is February 9th, so get those creative engines revved up soon!

So go ahead, fly down to the Roman Forum and experience what it may have felt like to stand on the Rostra of Augusta and make a political speech. Or, if you've fantasized about being a gladiator in the Colosseum, go for it. Simply fly there in Google Earth, enter through the ground level door and envision the crowds cheering you on! Take a look at this video to see what adventures await:



Omnes viae Romam ducunt (all roads lead to Rome).

Update @ 12:15 PM: Rome wasn't built in a day! The Ancient Rome 3D layer will be available soon. We're sorry for the delay, and we'll post here when it's live.

Update @ 6:15 PM: The layer is now live in Google Earth, in the Gallery folder of the Layers panel. When you zoom in on Rome you will see yellow Ancient Rome 3D icons. To load the terrain and buildings, click on any icon and then click the links at the bottom of the bubble.

Posted by Bruce Polderman, Product Manager, Google Earth

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