Visualizing greenhouse gas emissions

Even for experts and scientists, analysing data on emissions and climate change can seem like a rising sea of numbers. The United Nations Climate Change Secretariat (UNFCCC) in collaboration with several Googlers has created a map that visualizes greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions generated by a number of industrialized countries.

The aim of this map is to give scientists, decision-makers, media and the general public a new way to navigate data collected since 1990. We hope that this can provide a valuable tool for understanding climate change leading into the upcoming negotiation of a new climate change agreement in Copenhagen at the end of this year.

The greenhouse gas map allows you to gradually move from a very high-level view (e.g. the changes in emissions between 1990-2006 in the screenshot above) to a detailed analysis down to country level. You can also visualize any combination of emission categories (e.g. energy, industrial processes etc.), greenhouse gas type (e.g. CO2, CH4, etc.), and year (or the change from base year to 2006), via drop-down menus.

For instance, a visualisation of the aggregate greenhouse gas emissions from energy sources of European countries in 2006 looks like this:

Hovering your mouse over a country marker shows total emission values for that country, and clicking on the country itself brings up a detailed analysis based on the settings for the global map (see example below for Germany).

You can notice some interesting trends from this data. As time goes by, emissions for each sector can go up or down for many reasons - for example, changes in efficiency, or use of different energy sources. One of the sectors, LULUCF ("land use, land-use changes, and forestry"), is not like the others - it can have negative emissions or, as they say, can act as a 'sink'. LULUCF helps to account for the carbon that's stored in trees, plants and soil: greenhouse gases could be released when forests are burned or cut down, or captured when existing forests grow or new forests are set.

We, along with UNFCCC, hope that the map will underscore the importance of global climate agreements that aim to decrease greenhouse gas emissions. You can read more on the UNFCCC website.

Update (8/5/09): Note that Sweden's emissions in the LULUCF sector are overstated in the UNFCCC database underlying the GHG map. The database currently contains the latest submissions of all Annex I countries up to September 2008. Sweden has submitted revised data in February 2009. The database for the GHG map is scheduled to be updated with the revised data in October 2009. All the latest country submissions can be found here. And finally, many thanks to Jonah Jones for help designing the user interface.

Posted by Benjamin Kott, Green Business Operations (London) and Simon Ilyushchenko, Site Reliability Engineer (Mountain View)

Welcome to Boston: the MBTA on Google Maps

For my thirteenth birthday, one of my aunts gave me a gift I won't soon forget: a day in Boston. I grew up north of the city and, as a child, often visited the Museum of Science, Newbury Street, the Swan Boats, and elsewhere with my family, but my aunt's gift acknowledged the maturity and meaning associated with becoming a teenager. On a Saturday morning, she drove my cousin and me to Alewife Station and handed us MBTA tokens (there were no Charlie Cards at the time).

From that point on, I must have spent time nearly every weekend heading into Boston, riding the Commuter Rail from my hometown of Andover to North Station. In high school, the T carried me to concerts in Central Square and Kenmore Square. When I studied at Boston University, the Green Line ran through our main corridor, and again and again the trolleys, subways, and buses transported me around town. Like any regular public-transit commuter, I witnessed delays, congestion, and post-snowfall on-board slushiness, but the overall benefits of public transportation far outweighed any of those grumblings. To this day, whenever I'm home, after morning coffee with my dad, I take the MBTA into the Google Boston office in Kendall Square.

Now, all those routes that I -- and millions of other riders -- have traveled over the years can be planned with Google Maps. Today at South Station, we accompanied the Massachussetts Bay Transportation Authority to announce the availability of the MBTA's commuter rail, subway, bus, and ferry schedules through Google Transit, joining nearly all major U.S. transit agencies and more than 400 cities around the world in making their transit data available.

For locals and visitors alike, Google Transit makes it easier to search and discover public transportation options that get them into, around, and out of Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, Quincy, Somerville, and the surrounding areas -- or to travel to and from other MBTA-linked cities like Brockton, Gloucester, Lowell, Providence, and Worcester.

One of the great benefits of Google Transit is that it helps people discover the availability of public transit by showing a MBTA itinerary as an alternative to driving directions in Google Maps. But when you know that public transit is your first choice, you can also head to maps.google.com/transit for a complete trip planner, accessible both from your web browser and your mobile phone. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Don't worry about parking (and parking costs) when going to a Red Sox game at Fenway Park
• Consider taking public transport to and from Logan International Airport
• Navigate your way to one of Boston's municipal courts when summoned for jury duty
• Spend a summer afternoon, when the weather invites, at Carson Beach, Revere Beach, or Singing Beach
• If you're one of the many students moving to Massachusetts for college in the fall, test the best transit routes in advance so you'll feel like a local expert upon arrival
• Scope out 360-degree street-level views of the bus and subway stops in advance of your trip, using Street View

Google Transit also connects the MBTA's services with other local agencies already on Google Transit, like Lexington Lexpress, the MetroWest Regional Transity Authority, and Rhode Island Public Transit Authority, so it's easier to know where and when these services connect.

The Transit team here at Google appreciates all those who have been part of bringing public transit data to Google Maps in the region, such as the high-school student who worked to get the Lexpress on board, the "Put the MBTA on Google Transit!!!" Facebook group, and of course the team at the MBTA involved in making this happen. We all have our memories of coming and going, and I'm certain there are people of all ages in and around Boston who realize there's a city waiting for them to explore. Visit maps.google.com/boston to get started.

Posted by Sean Carlson, Global Communications & Public Affairs

Zoom photo navigation in Street View

One of the missions of the Street View team is to help users navigate the world's geographically located photos. We have just launched Street View Smart Navigation which provides 3D navigation between Street View panoramas. We have also recently added the option to browse user-contributed photos that match Street View images. Now we're bringing these concepts together to make it easier to explore photos through Street View.

For example, our Street View car has captured a nice shot of Big Ben:

View Larger Map

However, our Panoramio users have uploaded an impressive variety of shots of Big Ben taken from different angles, at different times of day, and zoomed into different regions. To link all these images into Street View, we are launching a new feature that lets you navigate between similar user-contributed photos, which is especially useful when one photo is a zoomed-in region of another. Perhaps the best way to explain a photo feature is to show you some images -- take a look at the following sequence:

When an image is first shown in the photo viewer, a small set of the zoom polygons are shown indicating that there are close-up photos available to explore:
Subsequently, moving the mouse around in the window highlights the best polygon near the mouse location. Similar to the smart navigation feature, double clicking on the shaded rectangle jumps you to the corresponding photo. After one or more jumps, the back button appears next to the photo title to give you the option to move back through the selected sequence of photos. We've put together a quick demo video so you can see it in action before trying for yourself:

We hope that this new feature will allow you to explore a large diversity of photos in an entertaining and intuitive way!

Posted by Daniel Filip, Computer Vision Tech Lead, Google Zürich

Lots of layers in Google Maps for mobile 3.2

Many of the features in Google Maps involve adding layers of information to your map: the 'More' button (like Wikipedia and Transit), Traffic, My Maps and search layers (little red dots onyour map).

We're now adding lots of this same functionality to your

mobile phone. With Google Maps for mobile 3.2 for Symbian S60 & Windows Mobile phones (and soon on other platforms too!) you can now access and interact with this content by tapping "Layers" in your main menu.

One of my favorite things about this new version is that I can log into Google Maps for mobile with my Google Account and see the My Maps I've created on Google Maps (like my favorite spots in London) and then line that information up against other layers -- like where my friends are currently with Latitude. Fun!

Check out the Google Mobile Blog to learn more.

Posted by Mat Balez, Product Manager, Mobile

Just keep searching

Have you ever wished you could see multiple searches in Google Maps, or search for directions and see businesses along the route all at the same time? Now, you can!

Suppose you would like to drive the famous Road to Hana while you are on vacation on Maui. You search for directions to Hana from where you are staying in Wailea. Since it's a long drive, you also search for gas stations, so you know where you can fuel up on the way, and supermarkets, so you can pick up snacks for the trip. After the second search, you'll notice a blue bar at the bottom of the left panel. Click on it to expand the widget, which allows you to turn on both searches as well as your route to Hana. The markers are color-coded, so you can tell which search is which.

A quick glance at the map shows that there are quite a few grocery stores along the way and that one of your last chances to fill your gas tank is in Paia. You can even load up a My Map of points of interest along the way.

Consider another scenario, where you want to meet a friend for dinner on your way to downtown San Francisco. You search for transit directions from where you are on 24th and Valencia to Downtown SF, and then search for two of your favorite restaurants, Bar Jules and Walzwerk. Clicking on the blue bar at the bottom of the left panel reveals both searches for the restaurants as well as your route downtown. You can click on the checkboxes to turn each search on and off.

It looks like Walzwerk is closer to your path, so you decide to tell your friend to meet you there. And if she isn't completely sold on the convenience of your plan, you can tell her that they have fantastic spätzle and German pilsner.

Posted by Nhu Vuong, Software Engineer

SketchUp goes to the Moon

[Cross-posted from the SketchUp Blog]

With the launch of Moon in Google Earth today, you can now explore our nearest celestial neighbor from within Google Earth. Beginning in 1959, we began to send probes and landers to the lunar surface, and most of them remain there to this day.

Many of these objects have been modeled in Google SketchUp, and are based on drawings, photographs, and dimensions. One model that has a prolific presence on the Moon comes from Google 3D Warehouse model contributor, Pagan. This user modeled theApollo Lunar Module and it is featured at each of the Apollo mission landing sites, as well as in the guided tours.

To view these models in Google Earth, first switch to Moon via the planetary drop-down menu at the top of the screen.


Next, expand the "Moon Gallery" in the left Layers panel.


From here you can virtually visit a variety of artifacts, spacecrafts, and mission landing sites by double-clicking on any of the models listed. Here are some examples of what you can find:

Lunar Rover

Lunokhod 1 and Luna 17

Apollo 11 Landing Site

You can also view these models in SketchUp by downloading them from our Moon Objects collection in the Google 3D Warehouse. Happy exploring!

Posted by Nicole Drobeck and Mason Thrall, 3D Data Specialists

Fly yourself to the moon

On July 20, 1969, two human beings landed on the moon for the first time. Forty years later, that accomplishment still stands as an unmatched moment in the history of human exploration. It was a truly wondrous event that captured imaginations worldwide -- nearly a billion people (one quarter of the Earth's population at the time) followed it moment-by-moment on live TV or radio, around the globe.

Today, on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, Google is proud to announce the release of Moon in Google Earth, bringing you one step closer to understanding the experience of standing on the moon. It brings the Apollo stories out of the history books, recreating them in an immersive and interactive 3D environment.

To see for yourself, all you need is Google Earth 5.0 (if you already have it, no upgrade is required). Just click the planet button on the top toolbar of Google Earth, and choose Moon. You'll be flown to the Moon, at which point you have all the same usual Google Earth controls -- drag your mouse on the globe to fly around, and use the Layers panel in the lower-left corner to discover content. Double-click any Layers item to fly to it.


Each of the Apollo landing missions is chronicled in detail through pictures and stories. We've even embedded video footage from Spacecraft Films that covers the most well-known moments on the surface. There are also immersive lunar surface panoramas, composed of photos taken by the astronauts themselves, presented for the first time in a 3D "Street View" style interface:

The Human Artifacts layer contains locations and trivia on every robotic spacecraft that's ever landed on or crashed into the moon. Those that did land successfully are represented by 3D models, such as Luna 9 from the USSR:

You can turn on the Historical Maps layer to see maps that NASA itself used in the Apollo missions. Or just fly around and explore the 3D terrain:

If you get lost, that's no problem... just pull up the Guided Tours layer. There you'll find author Andrew Chaikin (A Man on the Moon) and Apollo 11 astronaut and author Buzz Aldrin (Magnificent Desolation) co-narrating an immersive fly-through tour of the Apollo 11 landing site. Harrison H. Schmitt, Apollo 17 astronaut and Fusion Technology Institute faculty member, is also on hand to describe his experience as the only geologist to have walked on the Moon.

The tours are like a movie, but better... when you pause, you can actually look around with the camera! See the Google Earth User Guide for more info.

Moon in Google Earth was made possible by Google's Space Act Agreement, which allowed NASA Ames researchers to help us develop much of its content. We're also grateful to JAXA, Japan's space agency, for donating a global terrain dataset of the Moon.

We hope that you enjoy Moon in Google Earth. Explore it today, in observation of the 40th anniversary of one of humanity's finest moments.

Posted by Michael Weiss-Malik, Product Manager, Moon in Google Earth

Turn the page, travel the world

Last year we had a post about authors using Google Maps to tell stories, and pondered whether that was foreshadowing other examples to come. Now author John Higham has taken that to the next level by incorporating Google Earth into his book as a way to illustrate his (literal) journey. 360 Degrees Longitude – One Family’s Journey Around The World tells the story of John's year-long trip across the globe with his wife and children, and he's created a KML to serve as an interactive narrative that puts the family's adventures in visual & geographic context. As John explains it, "while we were traveling around the world time and time again I felt awe at the difference between the perception of reading about a place and experiencing it in the flesh. When I wrote the book, I wanted the reader to have as much of a sense of 'being there' as possible. Using Google Earth was the answer."

At the beginning of the book, the readers are directed to the Google Earth layer, which John considers a 'travel companion'. The KML includes photos, videos, and additional tales to accompany each chapter in the book. You can read more about John's use of Google Earth or find the KML file in the Google Earth gallery.

Posted by Elaine Filadelfo, Lat Long Blog Team

You're invited...

This Monday we'll be making a special announcement about Google Earth at the Newseum in Washington DC. The event will last from 11am to 12:30pm and will feature Google speakers, special guests, and product demos.

The Newseum is open to the public and ticket information can be found here. If you can make it, it would be great to see you there.

We're looking forward to it - hope to see you Monday!

Posted by Aaron Stein, Lat Long Blog Team

Introducing a collection of favorite places from around the world

[Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog]
We on the Google Maps team are committed to organizing all the local places and businesses that can be found online, from a design shop in New York City, to an architectural bookstore in San Francisco, to a cabaret in London. To show you the range of all this interesting local information, we've teamed up with local experts around the world to share some of their favorite places.

Culinary expert and chef Alice Waters has shared her favorite places for organic and sustainable food in San Francisco and the Bay Area, including places like Blue Bottle Cafe, whose coffee Alice serves at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, and Bi-Rite Creamery, where you can find salted caramel ice cream.

Iwona Blazwick, director of the Whitechapel Gallery in London, has shared her favorite places to experience art in London, from the Tate Modern for contemporary art to Curzon Soho cinema, where you can catch the latest independent film releases.

Vladimir Spivakov, artistic director and principal conductor of the State chamber orchestra Moscow Virtuosi and the National Philharmonic of Russia, has shared his favorite places to hear and appreciate theater and music in Moscow, from the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied, to the historic Maly Theater, the oldest theater in Moscow.

With this project we also hope to send a friendly message to local businesses — people are looking online for local information, and you should be here. Timothy Childs, Founder and Chief Chocolate Officer of TCHO in San Francisco, shares his perspective on using online tools to build and grow:

"TCHO is all about using appropriate technology, to make high quality chocolate and experiences for our customers. As our start-up moves to early growth stage, we are now using tools like Google Maps and the Local Business Center to reach customers and to continue building our business."

It's estimated that 80% of U.S. Internet users use web search to find restaurants, stores and other local businesses, and yet only about half of local businesses currently have a website. By working with local experts to highlight the power of the web, we're encouraging local business owners to build out their online presence. If you're a business owner looking to get online, have a look at the Google Local Business Center.

To browse the full collection of favorite local businesses and places, visit google.com/favoriteplaces or m.google.com/fav from your phone's browser.



Special thanks to all the participants and partners around the world who helped to make this project possible, including United Airlines, NYC & Company, Time Out and Le Figaro.

Posted by Michaela Prescott and Katie Mandel, Product Marketing, Google Maps

Where in the World is ... (Answers)

How did you all do in the quiz? As you were browsing around the globe trying to find the answers, did you happen to notice that the coastlines look a lot prettier than before? If so, you've earned some extra credit. One of the features of this update was a 'Global Coastline Mask' for the coastlines. Before this, you would see jagged edges from multiple images at the coastlines. With this update, we have made the coastlines more realistic and cleaner. Here is a before and after shot of some islands and coastlines showing you the effect of this change.



We have tried to ensure that we retain all the significant ocean features and structures, but if you think you've spotted any area where we have accidentally masked out an important feature, please report it to us via this form. (select 'blacked out' category).

By the way, here are the answers to the quiz:

1) This large seaport is also known as 'The Pearl of the Mediterranean'
--Alexandria

2) Daring professional divers entertain the tourists by jumping from high cliffs into the sea below in this famous resort city.
--Acapulco

3) This long barrier island has been the landfall point of many hurricanes in the USA.
--Santa Rosa Island

4) This group of more than 740 islands host a large populations of penguins, seals and albatrosses
--Falkland Islands

5) 100 kilometers away from the highest peak in Spain, this island gained prestige from UNESCO when part of its geographic territory was designated a World Biosphere Reserve.
--Gran Canaria

Following is a more complete version of the updates in this data push:

Americas:
- USA: Ohio, Orange County (NY), Baker County (FL), Boise (ID), Brevard County (FL), Cheyenne (WY), Escambia County (FL), Lake County(FL), Muscogee County (GA), Osceola County (FL), Palm Beach County (FL), Pueblo County (CO), Richmond (VA), Sedgwick County (KS), Contra Costa County (CA), Crawford County(AR)
- Mexico: Acapulco
Bolivia: Santa Cruz
Argentina: Mar del Plata
Chile: Antofagasta

Europe, Middle East, & Africa:
Sweden: Ludvika
Austria: Linz
France: Ardeche, Ain, Aisne, Allier, Alpes-Maritimes, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Ardennes, Ariege, Doub, Eure-et-Loir, Eure, Lot-et-Garonne, Tarn-et-Garonne
Italy: Bergamo
Scotland: Queensferry
Spain: Gran Canaria ( part of Canary Islands )
Russia: Omsk, Irkutsk, Tambov, Kostroma
Romania: Constanta
Saudi Arabia: Riyadh
Egypt: Alexandria
Libya: Tarabulus
Turkey: Gaziantep, Van

Asia & Oceania:
India: Surat
Pakistan: Kotri
China: Jining, Yining, Yibin, Liaocheng, Jiujiang,
Papua New Guinea: Port Moresby

New 2.5m base imagery for: The Galapagos, The Falkland Islands, Yemen, Oman, Bulgaria, and Albania

Sometimes our imagery updates are much broader than this brief list indicates. Our satellite partners give us tons of fantastic data, often spread out over a very diverse set of locales, so it can be hard to translate that into a condensed list of city names. To highlight some of these areas, we decided to have some fun putting together a KML this month that details some of the updates. We hope that this encourages everyone to explore the new imagery and find interesting and exciting discoveries. You can download the KML here.

Posted by Ujaval Gandhi, Senior Geo Data Strategist and Jason Clark, GIS Data Engineer

Where in the World is ...

We've been hard at work processing imagery for everyone to enjoy, and we've just released a major update. To help you find some of the interesting places getting imagery updates here's a short quiz with a few hints in it to help you out. We will be back soon with the answers and a complete list of updated areas.

1) This large seaport is also known as 'The Pearl of the Mediterranean'.


2) Daring professional divers entertain the tourists by jumping from high cliffs into the sea below in this famous resort city.


3) This long barrier island has been the landfall point of many hurricanes in the USA.

4) This group of more than 740 islands in South Atlantic Ocean hosts a large populations of penguins, seals and albatrosses.

5) 100 kilometers away from the highest peak in Spain, this island gained prestige from UNESCO when part of its geographic territory was designated a World Biosphere Reserve.


Posted by Ujaval Gandhi, Senior Geo Data Strategist and Jason Clark, GIS Data Engineer

Official geo Twitter accounts

Have you seen us on Twitter? The Official Google Blog has just posted a list of Google's Twitter accounts. Below are the active geo-related accounts:

twitter.com/GoogleMaps - uses, tips, mashups, and news for Google Maps
twitter.com/GoogleEarth - announcements, tips and tricks for Google Earth

twitter.com/EarthOutreach - Earth & Maps tools for nonprofits & orgs
twitter.com/SketchUp - Google SketchUp news
twitter.com/3DWH - SketchUp's 3D Warehouse
twitter.com/Modelyourtown - 3D modeling to build your favorite places
twitter.com/GoogleSkyMap - all about the Android app for the night sky

We enjoy sharing frequent updates of the geo world with you, and we hope that you find our tweets useful.

Posted by Julie Zhou, Chief Maps Twitterer

The results are in, and they are beautiful

[Cross-posted from the Official Google SketchUp blog]

Wow! We received some amazing entries for the Google SketchUp 2009 International Student Bridge Modeling Competition. Higher education students from over 65 countries registered for the competition, 42 collections were created in the Google 3D Warehouse, and 77 bridges were modeled from all over the world. The types of bridges range from historical to pedestrian, rail and highway - and they were all certainly impressive. Check out our winners page for details and comments from our illustrious panel of judges.

The winners are:

1st Place
Jason Wong
School of Architecture and Construction Management, Washington State University, US

2nd Place
Tobias Merk
School of Design, Hochschule Augsburg - University of Applied Sciences, Germany

3rd Place
Nicholas Falbo
Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies & Planning, Portland State University, US


Posted by Allyson McDuffie, SketchUp for Education Program Manager

Special Site for President Obama's visit to Ghana

[Cross-posted from the Google Africa Blog]

President Obama's visit to Ghana has caused a wave of excitement on the web, with searches for "Obama" increasing by 150% in Ghana over the last week. In recognition of this occasion, we have teamed up with the Ministry of Tourism in Ghana to create a special site for President Obama's visit. This adds to the existing wealth of information on the Ministry's official site which highlights places of interest, restaurants and accommodation, as well as festivals, eco-tourism, and much more.

Using Google's geo products, the site includes a pictorial tour in Google Earth of key landmarks along the historical slave route in Ghana, such as Gwollu in North West Ghana, where people created a refuge from the infamous slave raids. The tour also visits Salaga Market, a major slave market where wells and cemeteries have now been turned into shrines, and the Slave River at Assin Manso, where the slaves had their last bath prior to leaving Africa's shores. The tour ends at Cape Coast Castle in the Central Region, now a UNESCO World Heritage monument, with the final Doorway of No Return.

Using Google Maps, the site shows places that President Obama and the First Lady will visit during their trip to Ghana. The map will provide fresh updates on events as they happen, including links to videos via YouTube that will keep the map fresh and interesting. Locations include Kotoka International Airport, the President's arrival point; the Osu Castle, where President Obama will meet the President of Ghana, Professor Atta Mills; and Cape Coast Castle and the Conference Centre in Accra, where the President will meet Ghanains.

We have already partnered with other tourism authorities on the continent, including in Egyptand South Africa, to showcase some of Africa's extraordinary natural beauty and cultural heritage in Google Earth. As Ghana welcomes the first African-American U.S. president, we're very excited to work with the Ministry of Tourism to help raise awareness about Ghana's unique tourism offerings.

Posted by Estelle Akofio-Sowah, Country Manager, Ghana

Google Earth Enterprise launches version 3.2, with APIs, historical imagery and sub-surface terrain

[Cross-posted from the Google Enterprise blog]

We're constantly adding useful and interactive functionality to our enterprise products, andGoogle Earth Enterprise is no exception. Today we're announcing the latest release of Google Earth Enterprise: version 3.2. Google Earth Enterprise allows customers to build private globes on their secure networks using the same technology that powers the public Google Earth. Version 3.2 delivers new features that allow government agencies and other organizations to apply the recent advances in the public version of Google Earth, such as historical imagery and underwater terrain, to their own data and operations.

Version 3.2 gives Google Earth Enterprise users the option of using a browser to view and interact with their private globes using the Google Earth API. This delivers the same fast, familiar, 3-D navigation that users get from Google Earth – but within a web browser rather than the standard client.

Another new addition is historical imagery in Google Earth Enterprise, making it easy for employees to view how a place or region has changed over time. Many of our customers have archives of imagery of a property or point of interest taken over a series of days, years – even decades. The 3.2 release allows customers to time-stamp the imagery, tracking changes over time to provide a handy historical reference.

With the new release, customers also have the option to build Mercator imagery tiles for any 2-D maps they create with Google Earth Enterprise. Mercator is a commonly used conformal projection for viewing tiles in the browser. The new release allows customers to easily overlay their tiles on top of Google's basemap for a 2-dimensional mashup of their own internal data and Google's. (Thanks again to Gerardus Mercator and his great work on the Nova et AuctaOrbis Terrae Descriptio ad Usum Navigatium Emendate in 1569!)

We've also added support for Enterprise users to process their own sub-surface terrain data, also known as bathymetry – something we shared in the public Google Ocean launch in February 2009. Using the Earth API or latest Google Earth Enterprise client, you can now navigate below sea level to visualize that data in your organization's globe too.

Customers who want to access Google Earth Enterprise 3.2 can email enterprise-operations@google.com for upgrade information. Not using GEE yet? See what Google Earth Enterprise has to offer.

Posted by Dylan Lorimer, Google Earth Enterprise Product Manager

Take a ride with LA Metro in Google Transit

The Los Angeles region is widely known for its extreme traffic, and a study released just this week by the Texas Transportation Institute reports that LA has the most significant congestion in the United States. It goes on to estimate that commuters in LA spent 485 million hours idling in traffic, wasting 367 million gallons of gas.

However, Los Angeles also has an extensive public transit network, operated by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro), and today we're excited to introduce them as the newest addition to Google Transit. Metro operates 5 rail lines and nearly 200 bus lines within Los Angeles County, logging an average of 1.5 million weekday boardings.

As a part of Google Transit, Metro's itineraries will now appear as an alternative with the "Public Transit" link when a user searches for driving directions within their service area to remind commuters of the availability of public transit. Turning on the Traffic layer in Google Maps to get an idea of what congestion awaits may provide even more motivation to try take advantage of Metro!

Los Angeles welcomed 4.7 million international visitors last year, so the ability to use the familiar Google Maps interface in a native language is another great benefit to tourists and potential Metro passengers. This announcement of Metro's participation in Google Transit also comes just a few weeks after they published their GTFS data to their developer site, so we hope to see more creative applications take advantage of the developer tools Metro provides.

Whether Metro's inclusion in Google Transit helps people discover the availability of public transit in LA, or makes it easier for people to plan their transit itineraries, we're excited to have such a large agency on board and hope it will help beat some of the infamous LA traffic.

Posted by Jessica Wei, Strategic Partner Development Manager, Google Transit

The blue circle comes to your desktop

If you've used Google Maps for mobile, you'll be familiar with My Location. With single click of a button, your approximate location is shown on the map with a blue circle. Wouldn't it be great if that same feature was available in Google Maps on your desktop or laptop computer?

Today we're excited to announce exactly that, the launch of My Location for Google Maps.

When you visit Google Maps with a supported web browser, you'll see a new My Location button in the top left corner of the map. Simply click the button to center the map to your approximate location. If your location can be determined accurately enough, it's shown with a blue circle, just like on Google Maps for Mobile. Click the button again to remove the blue circle, or to re-center the map after you've moved it away.

My Location is a great way to start exploring the map around you, and perfect for working out where you are when you're away from home. For example, if you've just arrived in an unfamiliar city, My Location is a handy way to view the map around you, even if you don't know the street address. You can find things to do nearby or work out the best way to get where you need to go. Even when you're somewhere familiar, My Location is a convenient way to open the map 'on the right page'.

To obtain your location, Google Maps takes advantage of the W3C Geolocation API standard. The Geolocation API is a new feature available in the latest web browsers which allows any website to access your current location. If you use Internet Explorer, you might be familiar with My Location in Google Toolbar, which is able to provide your location in Google Maps, but this is limited to Internet Explorer. Using the new Geolocation API allows My Location to work in any browser that provides the feature. Currently, you can use My Location in Google Maps if you use Google Chrome, Firefox 3.5 or any other web browser with Gears installed. We hope to support other browsers soon too. You won't see the My Location button on browsers that don't support the feature.

So how does it work? When you activate the My Location feature, Google Maps asks your web browser for your location. Typically, your browser uses information about the Wi-Fi access points around you to estimate your location. If no Wi-Fi access points are in range, or your computer doesn't have Wi-Fi, it may resort to using your computer's IP address to get an approximate location. As you'd expect, the accuracy of My Location varies with your location, and in some cases, Google Maps may not be able to provide a location at all.

Google takes privacy very seriously, so your location will never be used without your permission. The first time you use My Location on Google Maps, you'll be asked to confirm that you're happy to share your location with Google Maps, and you can always undo your decision. See the help center article on Privacy and My Location for more information about how your location is used.

So visit Google Maps, click the My Location button, and start exploring the map around you!

Posted by Steve Block, Software Engineer and Noam Ben Haim, Product Manager

Help customers find their way with new Google Maps gadget

Last week, I looked up directions to the hotel in Sacramento that I had booked for the 4th of July weekend. As I had never been to that part of the state before, I was puzzled by the directions offered by their website - I wasn't whether I was approaching from the North, South, East or West or where the major highways were. What I needed were step-by-step directions from my exact starting point to the hotel that I could easily print and go.

With the new directions gadget from Google Maps, any business can offer just that. This simple gadget allows webmasters to add customized Google Maps directions to their business locations. With the directions gadget, you no longer need to type and update multiple sets of text directions. Let's face it: customers are only looking for directions from their specific location.
Google has made this process easy for you. The gadget allows you to pre-fill the "To" field with one or multiple addresses. Customers are then able to print their directions with a single click. And if they would prefer not to drive, the gadget also provides walking and public transit directions.

Second, if someone entered a vague starting address, they would have the option to specify a more exact address, which will then fly into the "From" field.

Providing directions from Google Maps is very flexible; in addition to run-of-the-mill addresses, you can give your customers directions to everything from a generic ZIP code to a specific set of latitude-longitude coordinates for any of your locations.

Example destinations:
123 River St, Woods, MA
90210
42.06782° N, 71.756963° W

You can also give your address an alias, or a name that everyone will understand, particularly if your business has more than one location. You can do this by putting the alias in parentheses just after the address:

42.06782° N, 71.756963° W (Grandma's House)
Take a look at how Legoland California, Emeril Lagasse, and Harvard University are using the gadget. And then test and create your own directions gadget here. For the many locations outside of the US, the gadget is available in 23 different languages.

Posted by Julie Zhou, Associate Product Marketing Manager

Improving real estate search on Google Maps

The web is becoming increasingly indispensable to people looking for a new home to buy. For example, you can use Street View to check out the neighborhood before driving to an open home; use driving directions to find out exactly how to get there; and Transit to work out what your new commute might be if you went ahead and moved house.

We want to keep making it easier for people find the real estate information they're looking for and have it returned to them in a useful way. So, from today, if you enter a query like <<homes for sale in san francisco>> on Google Maps, you'll see that we make it easy for you to see all your results on a map with a one-box that will take you to real estate listings. Previously, you had to specify "real estate" from the search options menu, but now we're making it easier to find available listings

You'll notice that we've made some other enhancements that will improve your real estate searching experience. We've added lots of markers that will show not only the ten most relevant listings with pins on the map, but also show a small circle on every other listing in that area using the search results layer, so you can get a really good idea of the distribution of properties for sale. You can click on each marker and each small circle to get more detailed information about the property.

This feature means you can now conduct a real estate search around a specific neighborhood, or see at a glance all the properties close to a BART stop. You can also pan the map to another area entirely to see listings there if you decide that another part of town is more your speed.

Finally, feedback from users has told us that it's more helpful for the address of a property to be in the headline of a listing rather than the number of beds and bathrooms as we were previously showing, so we've updated this too.

We've also expanded the feature to cover real estate in Australia and New Zealand properties for rent and sale, and made it easier to provide property listings for inclusion.

Check out maps.google.com/realestate to check out more information on how Google Maps can be a useful tool in your real estate search.

Posted by Andrew Foster, Product Manager

A festive Fourth with Google Maps

I'll be heading to the nation's capital to celebrate Independence Day this weekend, so I've been browsing the many maps that the Washington Post has put together to help people take in the festivities. If you'll be in DC too, you can find a map of the various events going on throughout the holiday weekend and a map of fireworks shows throughout the entire region. My friends and I plan to take in the fireworks over the National Mall, so we're consulting this map to determine the very best viewing location.

Of course, DC isn't the only place to celebrate the Fourth. Here's a list of maps of parades, fireworks shows, and events from other places around the country (thanks to the Google Maps Mania blog for finding some of these!):

• South Central Indiana
• San Francisco Bay Area
• Milwaukee region
• New Hampshire
• Baltimore
• Northern Alabama
• Western Michigan
• Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

If your town has a map that you want to share, let us know by sending it to @googlemaps on Twitter. If you're planning your own Fourth of July celebration, you can make your own My Map to show friends how to get to your BBQ or where exactly in the park you plan to meet to catch the fireworks.

Posted by Elaine Filadelfo, Lat Long Blog Team

Featured Modeler: John from Dursley, England

[Cross-posted from the Official Google SketchUp Blog]
John is a retired British architect whose passion for photography and knowledge of his town's architectural history helped shape his beautiful 3D models of Dursley, Gloucestershire in England.

"The alignment of the buildings on Castle Street is a bit on the skew," he said, "but that makes sense if you know there used to be an actual castle in that location. The castle had a moat that the streets were laid out around."


John started using Google Earth and Google SketchUp around the same time. His brother was introduced to SketchUp at a lecture on SketchUp by his SeniorNet group. John's local library had an Internet cafe and, on his brother's recommendation, he took a look at Google Earth. "I was absolutely staggered. And decided I had to put Dursley on the map. There's another chap who does great stuff in Gloucester City called Andrew. He helped me out when I was first getting used to the process, in dealing with stuff like zed-flashing (z-fighting), where two overlapped textures have a flashing problem."

As John explains, an architectural background and access to information on the history of a specific site are both critical to his process for creating a realistic representation of Dursley.

"What's remarkable to me about 3D buildings in Google Earth is that they can combine in a live model all of the detail that is otherwise only available from different books and records. There is a resource in the UK called Buildings of England that describes with great precision the development of different local architectures. That helps me, but so does my knowledge of standard architectural practices that haven't changed all that much through the recent centuries."


John also draws a good deal of understanding about a structure based on the form of its roof as seen in the Google Earth satellite imagery. He is also keen on architectural photography (check out John's photo site).

"Knowing how roofs are built helps you: most roof surfaces have a similar slope and extend beyond the building footprint, but more important, the roof surfaces tell the story of how the walls are arranged. Add to that the fact that string courses have been used right through the centuries, work with some solid photos, and, Bob's your Uncle, you can be successful."

As for inferring building heights, John relies on his photos and makes "jolly well sure" the doors are 2.1 meters high on the textured model.


"You really need to understand how components and move/array can help you in SketchUp. Architecture has always had repeating elements. Once you have created one Victorian chimney, for example, it's likely you can use it for multiple sites. Really the key for repeatable success is to get the hang of working with SketchUp's grid system, setting your point of origin, aligning Red and Green axes to your site, and then drawing on axis. Getting on axis is like turning on the ignition before trying to drive your car."

"I really see a great educational benefit in having architecture available in Google Earth. The models are an encapsulation of so much history, architectural geometry and knowledge. They are especially important for the area of my focus, 'Listed Buildings', what you call Historical Register in the States. There really is no other way to truly capture all the detail of a building so clearly and concisely. " Check out John's site on Dursley.

As a result of his impressive work, John's models have been highlighted in the press. "The BBC was out to see what I was up to for a profile and so were the local papers." So why does he do it? According to John, he and his fellow modelers model their cities in 3D so that the world can experience the places they hold so dear. "What motivates both Andrew and myself is the same kind of interest in our home town or city. Combine that with architecture, history, and a means of sharing it with the world you can see why I get so excited. My brother thinks I should publish a coffee table book called, 'Dursley from All Angles' using screenshots of my models; I just might."


Posted by James Therrien, Google SketchUp Team