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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