Golly Gee, look who's 3...

Posted by Mike Pegg, Product Marketing Manager

We're pretty excited about all of these birthdays that have been happening lately.  The Google Outreach program just celebrated its first birthday, and Google Maps Street View is happy to also be going one year strong.   

We're also pleased as punch to wish our pride and joy for geoweb developers everywhere, the Google Maps API, a happy third birthday.  It was June 29th, 2005, but it seems like only yesterday that we were marvelling at what context the Gmaps Pedometer was giving us for our running routes or walk to work.  Who can forget how many great real estate auctions we were finding with 2RealEstateAuctions? Since then the API has been helping businesses like Ace Hardware map its store locations, and Trulia plot houses for sale.  Thanks, Google Maps API, for making all of these great mashups and tools possible! 

To mark the occasion we've created a timeline mashup of the Google Maps Mania blog, as well as the former Google Maps API Blog (now the Google Geo Developers Blog) to take you on a geolocated journey from June of 2005 to present.  It will show you all of the fantastic things that people from all corners of the world have done with the Google Maps API.  Stay tuned for a post over on the Geo Developers Blog which will help you to visualize time-based data on maps.  

Read More

Mapping the Northern California wildfires

Posted by Matt Manolides, GIS Specialist

There have been many wildfires raging in Northern California in recent weeks, and with more dry weather and potential thunderstorms in the forecast, things are looking quite dangerous. According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, there are currently 12,521 firefighters battling hundreds of fires which have scorched nearly 160,000 acres. To help citizens stay safe, the department has made an excellent My Map, plotting out the locations of all the fire, allowing anyone interested to find out where the danger zones are, which is extremely useful for everyone from residents to campers.

View Larger Map

Additionally, we have imagery courtesy of MODIS Rapid Response Project at NASA/GSFC available as a KML overlay, which you can download and display in Google Earth.

Read More

Happy First Birthday to Google Earth Outreach

Posted by Tanya Keen, Google Earth Outreach

Today marks the first birthday of the US launch of the Google Earth Outreach program. The program began as a 20% project by Googlers Rebecca Moore and Jenifer Austin Foulkes, who shared a vision of using technology like Google Earth to make the world a better place. In response to demand from non-profit organizations who wanted help using Google Earth and Maps to tell their story, their side project grew into a formal program. The Outreach website launched with teaching tutorials, a Google Earth Pro license grant program and a showcase gallery featuring great Google Earth layers created by people from around the world, and a new folder in the Google Earth layers panel called "Global Awareness" was created. From taking viewers on a virtual tour to taking them along on an expedition with a geoblog, groups have used Google Earth layers to share their compelling work in a geospatial context.

In the past year, we've more than doubled the number of layers in the Global Awareness folder, made the program available in seven languages, trained partners in nine countries, made it easier to create content in Google Earth with Spreadsheet Mapper 2.0 and launched a new version of our site. Public benefit groups around the world have been busy creating phenomenal maps and posting them to our Showcase Gallery. Grants of Google Earth Pro have been issued to over 450 charitable organizations. Organizations are seeing the benefits of using mapping technology for public awareness and seeing the resulting impact in measurable terms. It's amazing to see what's transpired in just one year.

Below you'll find a video highlighting some of the great content from the past year, and today we've added the Rosetta Project/Long Now Foundation's KML, which allows you to explore information about endangered languages in Africa and the Americas. Take a look and join us in celebrating our first birthday!

Read More

Notes from the classroom: Exploring literary spaces via Google Earth

Posted by Jerome Burg, Retired English Teacher and creator of GoogleLitTrips.com

As I head to the Googleplex this week to speak with this year’s group of tech-savvy educators at the Google Teacher Academy, I wanted to share a bit about how I’ve found Google Earth useful for teaching literature.

Much of the world's greatest literature incorporates a literal journey as a metaphor representing universal experiences we share with the characters as we travel through our own life’s journeys. The Odyssey, Candide, and The Grapes of Wrath immediately come to my mind.

Focusing on the real settings within these stories can often engage students in new ways that significantly enhance their empathy for the fictional characters and their various trials. Literature students have often been asked to mentally chart the characters' progress, but Google Earth can make this significantly more realistic and personal for them.

Compare these representations of Flagstaff, Arizona, a key location in John Steinbeck’s classic The Grapes of Wrath. With the imagery and 3D capabilities afforded by Google Earth, teachers and students no longer have to abstractly conceptualize the setting of a story. Instead, they now can experience a story's setting almost realistically, as if seeing it through the eyes of the characters. Students can achieve a special understanding of what it was like for the Joad family to gaze upon Flagstaff during their westward journey.


Both through my website and the enthusiastic messages I receive from teachers around the world, I’ve learned how clearly Google Earth helps students engage in the predicaments of the characters and develop empathy for their trials and tribulations; imagine being able to view the desolate terrain of the New Mexico desert in which the Joads’ car breaks down. One of the best parts about this virtual journey is that students literally get excited when they “see” the connections between the literature they're reading and their own lives and the world as they know it.

Read More

Making your mark on the world

Posted by Lalitesh Katragadda, Software Engineer and Sanjay Jain, Product Manager

Have you ever wondered why some parts of the world don't have great maps and thought how nice it would be if they did? Building a map is an exceedingly complex process, and it is a challenge to reach all parts of the world. Today we unveiled Google Map Maker, a new product that allows users to contribute and edit Maps data for regions around the world.

Google Map Maker is a significant step in our ongoing efforts to engage Google Maps users and equip them with an easy-to-use tool to build high quality maps of their neighborhoods, cities and countries. Map Maker allows you and your peers to add, edit and moderate most features you see on maps including roads, lakes, parks, points of interest, businesses, cities and localities. You will be able to trace many of these features using satellite images; as you trace, maps are immediately updated.

As of today, you can build maps in the countries of Cyprus, Iceland, Pakistan, Vietnam and the Caribbean nations of: Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Grenada, Jamaica, Netherlands Antilles, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago. The existing mapping data for these countries could benefit tremendously from local knowledge and expertise that you and other map makers posses, and we're excited to see how you put that to use.

This product is a labor of love by many engineers based in Bangalore who have a desire to see the world mapped. Take a look at the before and after images from the Mapplet created to support relief efforts in Myanmar that we shared with you -- it was created with Map Maker!

Read More

Map of Wisconsin road closures

Posted by Timothy Vik, WisDOT State Traffic Operations Center

Due to the rain and flooding in Wisconsin, we at the Wisconsin Department of Transportation's State Traffic Operations Center and Emergency Operation Center have utilized Google Maps to create a My Map to display up-to-date road closures due to flooding. The map has been viewed over 1.4 million times. Visitors to the map have left more than 300 comments providing additional information about road closures and flooding, allowing the map to have the most comprehensive information possible.

View Larger Map

Read More

The Presidential Showcase

Posted by Brittany Bohnet, Google Maps Special Projects

If you've been following politics (or our blog) closely this year, you may have seen some Google Maps mashups from the Iowa Caucus, Super Tuesday, and the US state primaries--including an extra special primary map in Pennsylvania. We've recently discovered several other elections map mashups on the web that are just as interesting and we couldn't help but share.

In order to better showcase these maps to you, we've created a Google Maps Elections Gallery that will serve as a collection of the best political maps mashups during the US campaign season. Here's a sneak peek at what's inside:

• Primary Results: Take a look back in time as you view the final outcome of the United States primaries. Check results down to the county level and measure how close the final votes were between democratic candidates Clinton and Obama.

• Fundrace: The Huffington Post brings you a map that tracks campaign donors by party, candidate, and location. Already have the Earth API plug-in installed? Try switching on the Earth mode for an even richer experience!

• Twitter: Use the Twitter map to discover what people around the world are saying about the US elections.

• Obama's Journey/McCain's Journey: Follow Obama and McCain's lives, as written by Wikipedia. Whose will lead to the White House?

• Search Queries: Can search queries predict the elections? View the most popular candidate queries around the United States and discover historical trends up to six months back.

• Campaign Trail: A one-stop shop that showcases each candidate's next campaign stop.

Whether you're a citizen journalist, online news producer, or just love staying on top of the political news, you now have the opportunity to further engage yourself (and your readers) with the 2008 elections by adding any of these maps to your site.

To get the embeddable code for these maps, click the "Embed this map" link on any of the gallery pages. You will be taken to a new page where you can customize the size, title, and border of the map. Once you are happy with the parameters you've set, click on the "Get the Code" button and simply copy/paste the source code into the HTML of your website -- it's as simple as that.

Are you a developer? Browse through our getting started guide to view a list of free open source political content on the web. Use this content to come up with an elections mashup of your own. Once you're finished building, let us help you show it off to the world by submitting your map back to us at elections@google.com.

Read More

Getting in the driver's seat

Posted by Mickey Kataria, Product Manager

If you're eager to go on a summer road trip but gas prices have you a little hesitant, the 2D Driving Simulator is for you. Developed using the Google Maps API for Flash that we recently unveiled, it lets you test your (virtual) driving skills at the high speeds of the Autobahn or see how you fare on the other side of the road in London.

You can also read what the simulator's creator, Katsuomi Kobayashi, has to say about it over on the Geo Developers blog. Drive safely!

Read More

Street View turns 1, keeps on growing

Posted by Jiajun Zhu, Software Engineer

To celebrate Street View's one year birthday, I am very happy to announce we are bringing Street View to 37 (you heard me - 37!) new areas and we have expanded coverage in 15 of our existing areas. All in all, this effectively doubles our coverage. The new cities include:

• MA: Springfield
• NY: Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse
• NJ: Newark
• VA: Virginia Beach
• NC: Charlotte, Winston-Salem
• SC: Columbia, Greenville
• GA: Atlanta
• FL: Boca Raton, Cape Coral, Ft. Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Sarasota, West Palm Beach
• AL: Huntsville
• MS: Jackson
• TN: Knoxville
• KY: Lexington, Louisville
• OH: Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo
• MI: Ann Arbor
• MO: St. Louis
• KS: Topeka
• NE: Lincoln
• OK: Oklahoma City, Tulsa
• NV: Reno
• CA: Bakersfield, Fresno, Sacramento, Stockton

Now you can stroll under the iconic Reno Arch:

View Larger Map

Along with showing you some great metropolitan areas, I'm especially excited that we're also bringing you 10 new parks and recreational areas:

• Everglades National Park (Florida)
  
• Florida Keys
• Grand Teton National Park (Wyoming)
  
• Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming/Montana)
  
• Rocky Mountain National Park (Colorado)
  
• Joshua Tree National Park (California)
  
• Death Valley National Park (California)
• Lassen Volcanic National Park (California)
  
• Sequoia National Park (California)
• Lake Tahoe (California/Nevada)
  

Now you can see the boiling springs in Yellowstone National Park from a very safe distance:

View Larger Map

And last but not least, Street View coverage has expanded in 15 of our current areas: Boise, Boston, Kansas City, Miami, Nashville, New York City, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Richmond, San Diego, San Francisco, Tampa, and Tucson.

We've also been spending the past year working very hard to improve Street View image quality. In this push, we removed some of our oldest images, so say goodbye to odd coloring and funky geometric artifacts. The new images have better color and more consistent lighting.

Let's revisit San Francisco City Hall:

View Larger Map

And the skyscrapers of Chicago:

View Larger Map

Now you can look up in all our images. But what goes up must come down, so with this release you can also look down as well. The roof of our car and the 'black hole' really aren't all that interesting -- now when you pan down the car is magically gone and you can see straight to the ground in most of our images!

And finally, in the spirit of getting better with age, the face blurring technology we began testing in Manhattan has been deployed for all of our imagery. Remember that all these new Street View images are simultaneously available in Google Earth and through Google Maps API.

Read More

Bringing Richer Data to a Local Search Near You

Posted by Tammy Stern, Software Engineer

When I search for a business, I often want more information than just the address and phone number: I want to know what people are saying about it and what it looks like. Many results in Google Maps have had this information for some time now, but it's always been a couple of clicks away. Now richer data automatically appears in the left panel.


When I travel from the Google NYC office to visit the Mountain View office, I can get a quick overview of the hotels near Mountain View just by scanning the left-hand panel. I can see a picture of the hotel and read a snippet from a review, and I'm just one click away from voicing my own opinion by clicking the "Write a Review" link.

This improved browsability makes for all sorts of interesting queries. For example, I can browse the real estate market by doing a real estate in Chelsea, NYC search. (When I compare those results to the results for real estate in Mountain View, CA, I think that maybe I should consider moving to the Google Mountain View office instead of just visiting!) Or I can read about the locations that people have dubbed as their "favorite restaurant" by doing a favorite restaurant in NYC search.

So, the next time you find yourself looking for books in Cambridge, MA, paneer near London, tourist attractions in Brazil, schools in Nairobi, or Elvis in Memphis, be sure to Google Map it for an overview of reviews and images. Once you narrow down your choice to one or two options, there's still the "more info" link which takes you to an info-window with more reviews, more images, related webpages, and basic information about the business, including hours, pricing, and the official website. So go ahead and local search your hearts away!

Have a business? Go to the Google Maps Local Business Center to add your business information and photos.

Read More

Cities in 3D Program spreads to Europe

Posted by Ed Parsons, Geospatial Technologist

Back in March we announced the Google Cities in 3D Program, which invites local governments to share their 3D data with the public by adding a model of their city to Google Earth. The good news is that we are now extending this program with localised websites to encourage governments in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and The Netherlands to share their data with us. The Cities in 3D Program provides local governments, community groups, and educational institutions with tools and information for uploading their data to Google Earth.

We have developed tools to make it as easy as possible for local governments to share information with their citizens, who will be able to view and explore the their local environment in a very realistic way. Travelers will be able to understand what it is like to visit a city, providing a "sense of place" not possible with conventional 2D maps.

One city that has already taken advantage of the program is Westport, Ireland where they produced a 3D city model to promote their town as a world class tourist destination and business location and to help preserve its heritage.

The Cities in 3D Program launching in Europe extends our efforts to engage with content providers, especially government agencies, to help them make the information they produce more accessible and useful. Take a look at the video below to learn more about the power of 3D or explore some great existing 3D cities here.

Read More

Follow your team around the European Championship

Posted by Raphael Leiteritz, Product Manager, Google Zurich

To help football fans celebrate the European Championships 2008, you can now use Google Transit and Google Earth to navigate around the tournament in Austria and Switzerland.

Using Google Transit, fans will be able to use Google Maps to plan their tournament travels - from finding tramway stops and the nearest bus stop, to finding departure/arrival times. To find your way from one match to the next simply click on the 'Get Directions' link within the Stadium details in the European Championship Fan Map.


We have coverage for all participating cities including Innsbruck, Wien, Salzburg, Klagenfurt, Basel, Bern, Geneve, Zurich. Data for Google Transit is provided by SBB and VBZ in Switzerland and by ÖBB in Austria.

These are the latest additions to the Google Maps transit trip-planning service, which already includes more than 50 cities in the U.S., Europe, and Canada.

We've also added all eight stadiums hosting the games to the "3D Buildings" layer of Google Earth. Click on any of the buildings for information about the stadium, including the matches scheduled to be held there. The info bubbles associated with each stadium also link to the 23 Days website which contains other tools that are essential for fans.

Read More

Get bus and train directions on the go

Posted by Joe Hughes, Software Engineer

(Cross posted from the Google Mobile Blog)

Ever since Google Maps added public transportation directions for San Francisco, it's been a lot easier for me to figure out which buses and trains will get me where I'm going around town, and today's gas prices take less of a toll on my wallet. Even so, I've often found myself wishing that I had an easy way to get transit directions while I'm out and about.

Enter the new version of Google Maps for mobile. This version (2.2) allows you to get transit directions in all the same places as the web version of Google Maps, including Chicago, the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, Vancouver, and over 40 other cities in North America.

This version of Google Maps for mobile even has a few tricks not yet available on the desktop version of Google Maps. For instance, you can find the last transit trips of the day (to figure out how late you can stay at the party) and more easily browse through earlier or later trips. The My Location feature, available on most phones, also makes it easier to set the start point of your journey.

To see how the transit feature of Google Maps for mobile works, take a look at this quick video walkthrough with my co-worker Ryan:

This version of Google Maps for mobile also includes a bunch of other goodies, like faster searching on BlackBerry devices and star ratings for businesses. It's currently available for BlackBerry devices and many other Java-based phones. To download it to your phone visit http://www.google.com/gmm from your phone's web browser or on the desktop.

We're working to bring public transit directions to Google Maps on other devices, so stay tuned!

Read More

A virtual visit to where dreams come true

Posted by Bruce Polderman, Product Manager (and aspiring Mouseketeer)

If you've used Google Earth to explore possible family vacation destinations, then we have a treat for you: Disney has introduced a new layer for Google Earth that allows you to explore the company's popular Orlando attractions including Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. The new layer can be accessed in either the "Preview" or "Gallery" folders of Google Earth, or by selecting one of the 3D buildings in the resort.

It shouldn't be a surprise that Disney pushed the user experience of both 3D models and KML to new heights. For example, the KML layer that showcases each park incorporates both video and Flash animations. Open the balloon for Cinderella Castle and you'll be waving a magic wand and spreading pixie dust just by moving your mouse.

Further, it wasn't enough to model the nearly 5000 structures within the park, so Disney included significant amounts of real-world objects such as a monorail, picnic tables, benches, streetlights, signs, and trees. LOTS of trees. As in thousands of them!

All this effort results in an incredibly rich 3D experience - something that just can't be matched with a traditional web site. If Disney's goal is to capture imaginations, then I think they've hit it out of the park. The image quality and level of detail in the 3D models is fantastic - you can even read the menus in some outdoor restaurants!

Parents of Mickey-loving kids be warned: this new layer is sure to result in a change to your summer vacation plans!

Read More

Ready for your summer vacation?

Ritee Rouf, Product Marketing Manager

When we received an invitation to attend a friend's wedding in Hawaii, my husband and I couldn't think of a better way to spend our summer vacation. I started my research and quickly realized what a hassle it can be to make travel plans. When you're traveling with kids, spontaneity is not really on the top of your list; you want to plan as much as possible ahead of time. So I started searching on Google Maps, found a hotel close to the beach, and even had the chance to scope out some family-friendly restaurants. I also discovered some interesting travel My Maps that others had created to share stories, photos, and videos from their own trips.

To make travel planning easier for everyone, we have put together some simple travel tips for you at http://maps.google.com/tripplanning including a "how to" video tutorial.

And if you're still trying to find that perfect vacation spot, you can explore photos, videos, and popular searches about a particular place on Google Maps, or turn on the Panoramio photo layer to see what destination catches your eye. Bon voyage!

Read More

Have a "look around" with Panoramio

Henrik Stewenius, Software Engineer, Google Zurich

Have you ever looked at a photo and wondered what was beyond its edges - just what was left of that castle or what the facade of Notre Dame looks like from close up? We certainly have, which is why I'm happy to tell you about a new feature we've just introduced for Panoramio, Google's site for sharing geo-tagged photos.

Panoramio enables photographers to geo-locate, store and organize their photographs and to view those images in their geographic context. You may already have seen photos from the Panoramio layer while zooming around in Google Earth or Google Maps (just click the "more" button), but have you visited the Panoramio website? Now, when browsing photos on the site you can explore multiple images of a particular location in a more seamless way.

For select photos on www.panoramio.com, you'll find a new link below the photo:

When you click it, a pop-up will appear that looks like this:

When you mouse over an image, you'll see polygonal frames appear. Each of these frames represents a photo of the same location taken from a different angle or perspective. Just click on the frame to view that photo, and continue exploring. You can also click the thumbnails on the right-hand panel.

Follow the "Look around" link from this photo of Notre Dame in Paris or St Basil's Cathedral in Moscow to see them from all different angles. Take a look at these beautiful photos of the Astrological Clock in Prague.

We're experimenting with this new feature, so you won't find the "look around" link for all of the over 5 million photos shared in Panoramio. For now you'll find it primarily on photos of popular tourist attractions, but, as with our other tools and services, we plan to keep tinkering with it, so keep an eye out for new developments.

Read More

Hot off the press: News from Australia in Google Earth

Posted by: Richard Suhr, Head Enterprise for Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia

For those who have enjoyed the Google News layer and the New York Times layer in Google Earth there's now another way for you to stay on top of the world's news. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) today announced the launch of ABC Earth, which will feature live stories and archived content in a Google Earth layer. Read more about it on the Google Australia Blog.

It's another great reason to fly over to Australia in Google Earth - if you haven't already, that is.

Read More