31 Google Maps tips for smooth sailing through the holiday season

With families coming together, the start of the ski season, and weekly shopping trips becoming acceptable, there's a lot to love about the holiday season. What's that? Gridlocked traffic? Fully booked hotels? Can't find the perfect gift? Oh my, the holidays are rough!

To help kick off your season right, we've put together a list of 31 Google Maps tips for life to help you to save time, look smart, and manage your travels efficiently. Start with the tips that are right for you, based on what type of expert you'd like to become: a Local Expert, Ace Navigator, Global Explorer, or Business Owner. You can try a tip a day for a month, or blast through them all at once.

Here are my favorite tips from each section:

Local Expert Tip #3: Just keep searching
It's rare that you leave the house with only one goal in mind. More often you're heading to one place, like a party across town, but you need to pick up your contribution at the grocery store and get gas along the way. In Google Maps, you can see multiple searches layered on the map all at the same time. When you do two or more consecutive searches, 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 at once.

The markers on the map are color-coded, so you can tell which search is which. This is perfect for helping you pick the most efficient route to accomplish all your goals.

Ace Navigator Tip #4: Check live and predictive traffic information
Traffic patterns are hard to decipher when you're driving out-of-town. For both highways and arterial roads, Google Maps provides live and predictive traffic information for any day of the week and time of the day, based on past conditions and live crowdsourcing. Plan your departure times to avoid traffic jams!

Global Explorer Tip #6: A page for every place

No matter how far from home your travels take you, with Google Maps on your side you can become an expert even in a foreign locale. By clicking on the "More Info" link in a business listing, easily learn more about any place on the map with information ranging from photos to reviews to store hours. A Place Page is like a webpage for every place in the world, organizing all the relevant information about it. Who wants blueberry pancakes in New York? I've never been there, but I'd now recommend Clinton Street Baking Co, which has the "best blueberry pancakes ever!" according to reviews.

Business Owner Tip #3: Add coupons to your Google business listing

Cross your fingers that the economy is recovering, but even so, holiday shoppers are likely to be on the lookout for bargains. Google Insights for Search shows that searches for coupons are still up. By claiming your Google business listing through Local Business Center, you can create coupons that will appear alongside your business listing on Google Maps. Let Google users print your coupons and bring them to your business, or even show your coupons on mobile phones to attract customers on the go.

Enjoy our new tips for life, and next time you find someone lacking in holiday cheer, just share with them one of 31 ways to save time, look smart, and manage their travels more efficiently, like you.

Posted by Laura Melahn, Product Marketing Manager

With coupons on your phone, it doesn't matter where you left the scissors

We know that coupons are a great way for local businesses to drive customers to their stores - that's why we created the option for businesses to add coupons to their Google Local Business Center listing back in 2007. Now, as the holiday shopping season kicks off, we've upgraded the ways that customers can find your coupons.

First up, with more and more people using their mobile devices to find local businesses, we've added a new option for Local Business Center users in the US to display their coupons on mobile devices. Additionally, we've made it simpler to find and print coupons from your desktop, so now it's easy to get discounts wherever you are.

Coupons on a mobile device
If you add a new coupon to your business listing in Local Business Center, by default it will now be available on mobile devices. To make your existing coupons available on mobile, edit them and check the box for Mobile Distribution, as shown here:

When users pull up your business listing on their mobile phone, they'll see a section that lists the available coupons. They can then click to find a specially-formated page which shows all the coupon details they need for redeeming it. Now even when customers are on the go, they can see all the great values and offers available from your business.

Improved interface for desktops
We've also overhauled the printable pages that people visit from a business' Place Page. Now you can be confident that every Google coupon customers bring to your store will look the same, helping you and your staff easily recognize and redeem them. In addition to the re-design, we've made sure that the coupons print out correctly and consistently across all major browsers and operating systems.

To create a coupon now or to claim your business with Local Business Center for the first time, visit google.com/lbc.

Posted by David Armstrong, Software Engineer

Uniting for a cause

At an event organized jointly by the United Nations and Google at Google's office in New York, 80 United Nations delegates from more than 20 UN agencies, met with various Google product teams to explore how Google's wide array of products and services can further the UN mission and help foster innovation and new thinking. Google's Alfred Spector and the U.N.'s Choi Soon-hong, the first Chief Information Technology Officer (CITO) for the United Nations, both gave inspirational keynote addresses. We discussed products and tools including Google Earth & Map Maker, Flu Trends, visualization APIs, public data search, and much more.

One consistent theme was the desire to increase momentum in efforts to collaborate and share information publicly in ways that will help all U.N. agencies and other humanitarian organizations meet new challenges in an increasingly networked society. This same theme was echoed in the workshop that Google hosted in Washington DC with over 20 international humanitarian organizations last month.

Google's Map Maker Product Manager Lior Ron made two exciting announcements at the event. On the heels of our recent announcement of the Latin America Mapping competition, Google will be launching a global mapping competition in partnership with UNICEF. The competition will run December 15 - January 31, and Google will donate $50k to UNICEF that will go toward programs that empower young people through technology in the home country of the competition winner.

The other announcement is that Map Maker data for Southeast Asia is available for download for non-commercial uses. The 9 Southeast Asian countries where Map Maker is open for editing that are now included in the Map Maker download program are Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar (Burma), Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam.

The Map Maker download license is available for non-profits, government agencies, and individuals to create and enhance their own non-commercial map-related projects as long as attribution is given back to Map Maker. We started this data download program with the Africa dataset over the summer. See our new Map Maker partner showcase page to learn how several United Nations agencies have used Map Maker data to further their humanitarian missions.

Posted by France Lamy, Google.org

More new imagery in November

We just launched new imagery for Google Earth and Google Maps. Check to see if any of your favorite places has gotten an update! You can download this KML for viewing in Google Earth or you view the updates in Google Maps. Or you can view the updated areas highlighted in red below:

Updates are noted with a red frame

You can also share your cool new imagery finds with us using Twitter! After looking at the updates in the viewer above, tweet your cool finds and add the #GEarthIMG hashtag to your tweets. Here's one interesting example of a tweet we saw last time we updated our imagery:

@8ctagon #GEarthIMG @gsightseeing Historical Imagery in Dakar 1942. Planes in flight 14.706837°-17.4, 16356°".

For some added fun, point the Twittersphere to the precise location using a Google Maps link. In a few weeks time, we'll follow things up with a round-up of tweets from those of you using the hashtag and share them with all of you. We'll also be re-tweeting some of your finds from @googleearth.

Posted by Matt Manolides, Senior Geo Data Strategist

Building blocks: 3D models with detailed facades

With tools like SketchUp and Building Maker, modelers around the world have been creating remarkably high-quality 3D buildings for Google Earth -- just check out any of our Featured Modelers to see the impressive work they've been doing. We've also had local governments contributing models of their entire city - like Amherst, Massachusetts and Washington, DC - through our Cities in 3D program.

At Google, we've also been busy working on expanding our 3D coverage. Last week, we added detailed 3D models for Valencia, Spain. Many of these were Google-created models and before that, across the Atlantic, we released models in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Indianapolis, Indiana. In addition to adding entirely new areas, we've been tinkering with ways to make richer, detailed 3D models. If you zoom into downtown Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Berkeley, or Stockton you'll now notice that our 3D coverage is now much more extensive and a lot more vibrant.

San Diego, CA

Berkeley, CA

The buildings in these five California cities now have detailed facades, meaning that you can see storefronts and architectural details like you would if you were walking down the street. We've constructed these models by using imagery from Street View, similar to the way that users can make photo-textured models in SketchUp 7.1.

With these models in Google Earth, you can go in one swoop from viewing the globe through an astronaut's eyes to virtually browsing the shops in San Francisco's Chinatown or San Diego's Gaslamp District.

Showing is always better than telling, especially for an interactive and vivid experience like this, so go explore the models in Google Earth. To kickstart your exploration, check out this video preview of what awaits you:

Posted by Christian Frueh and Manish Patel, 3D Modeling Team

Ready, set, map: Latin America Map Maker competition

This past Saturday, we launched the first ever mapping competition in Latin America during a live session on Map Maker at the Campus Party Mexico 2009. The competition officially kicked off at the event in Mexico city, where tech enthusiasts from all over the country got to know first about the Map Maker competition.

Participating in the Campus Party allowed us to enjoy not only a warm welcoming from our Mexican audience but also learn about their sincere interest in improving the geographical data for their country. Our presentation included a demo on Google Map Maker main features like how to add points of interest, moderate changes from other users or edit driving directions.

There was time to discuss the brand new Google Maps Mexico (htttp://maps.google.com.mx/) and all the new & exciting possibilities Mexican users have in their country: looking for addresses, points of interest or local businesses, photos and reviews from other users, creating your own maps with My Maps, adding your business to the map through the Local Business Center or exploring one of the seven first Latin American cities available in Street View (Mexico City, Monterrey, Guadalajara, Puebla, Puerto Vallarta, Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Cozumel).

The Campus Party started in 1997 in Spain as an event for passionate Internet users and since then, it has become an essential meeting point for those interested in understanding new information technologies. Nowadays, there are four different yearly editions of the event at Valencia, São Paulo, Bogotá and Ciudad de México and almost 40.000 registered campusers worldwide.

Now, you can map the areas you know best in Latin America and possibly win a prize while you are at it! The Map Maker competition runs from November 14th until December 15th and all Latin American lovers are invited to participate. You can find all the details, Terms & Conditions and the entry form for you and your team members at http://mapmaker.google.com/competition.

We were also excited to announce the prizes for the winners of the Map Making competition. Winners will be based on those with the biggest volume and highest quality of edits and moderations during the Map Maker competition; among others, 100 laptops for a university or school from the winning city, a netbook for each member of the best team or a laptop for the top individual contributor. Winners will also enjoy an all included trip to the 2010 Super Mappers Conference, which will be an amazing opportunity to share your mapping passion with other top contributors and to get to know the Google team.

Crea tu mundo con Google Map Maker (in Spanish):

Because you know your neighborhood better than anyone, put it in the map and let the competition begin!

Posted by Genoveva Descalzo, Consumer Operations & Latin America Competition Manager

Google Earth 5.1 is now out of beta

Two months ago, we released the beta version of Google Earth 5.1.  The 5.1 release focused on one of our most important features: performance. The power of Google Earth is the seamless, immersive 3D fly-throughs that give you a sense of being "there," so we made a lot of adjustments under the hood to make flying around the globe faster and smoother. Today, after a few more tweaks and bug fixes, we're proud to say that we're ready to remove the beta tag.

This release also includes the Google Earth browser plug-in for Mac users, all in the same installation. Both Mac and PC users can explore all of the exciting Google Earth sites that our developers have made without having to mess around with another installation. You can search for universities,  or perhaps fulfill your secret fantasy of being the captain of a giant shipping vessel. Now these and many more Google Earth web applications are just a click away.

Download the latest version today at http://earth.google.com.

Posted by Peter Birch, Product Manager

Group on Earth Observations Portal enables you to see forests and the trees

Did you know that deforestation and forest degradation account for almost 20% of global warming emissions? That is more than all of the emissions from global transportation combined! Yet, it has historically been difficult to integrate avoided deforestation and degradation into climate policy plans. Why? In part, because it requires a great deal of collaboration and technical expertise to make sure that the right data are collected and made accessible and that the right techniques are available to analyze and verify the data.

Scientists, NGOs and politicians have been working on this problem for a while, but only recently has a truly comprehensive international approach been attempted. The Intergovernmental Group on Earth Observations (GEO), mobilizing national institutions, inter-governmental organizations, space agencies and the research community, has worked to facilitate access to satellite, airborne, and in situ data, and create a framework to establish technical standards for a global network of national forest carbon tracking systems. GEO, with the help of the Google Earth Outreach team, has worked to develop a forest carbon tracking portal which will become a central point for online collaboration and data collection.

Today, the first version of the portal was launched at a GEO plenary. The portal itself runs on Google Apps. I worked with GEO to create a web page that uses the Google Earth browser plugin and Appengine. The page shows satellite data provided by several space agencies, as well as the first maps that can be used to detect deforestation. It is structured to also show other types of data and maps as soon they become available. Here's the map of Mexico forest types within the portal interface. You can zoom in to see individual polygons and click on them to see the corresponding forest type.


You can read a more complete description of GEO FCT (Forest Carbon Task) here.

I'd like to thank numerous GEO FCT participants for their feedback, as well as other Googlers who've provided technical help. In particular, kudos to Roman Nurik for his original KML layer example, as well as to Matt Hancher and Rupert Breheny.

Posted by Simon Ilyushchenko, Site Reliability Engineer

New cities, features added to Building Maker

A few weeks ago, we launched Building Maker, a new way to model buildings in 3D for Google Earth. Since then, we've been excited by the community's enthusiastic response and today, we're announcing that eight new cities can now be modeled with Building Maker: Brussels, Rotterdam, Cologne, Dortmund, Boston, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and San Jose.

We've also made some useful improvements to the product, including: the option of a Google Earth-view when you're choosing a location to model, the ability to save models as drafts before submitting them for review, and a new tool for tracing buildings.

For more information about this announcement, have a look at our post on the Google SketchUp blog.

Posted by Spudde Childs, Software Engineer

Online and offline globetrotting come together with voyage around the world

For the last three years I've been friends with the author of the Google Earth Blog, Frank Taylor. Besides being a Google Earth enthusiast, Frank is also quite the thrill-seeker; he didn't hesitate to let me fly his plane while he shot photos of the 2006 X-Prize Cup. However, Frank is about to embark upon a mission requiring even more bravery.

Frank is moving from virtual, to actual globetrotting - he and his wife are embarking on a five-year trip around the world in their sailboat, Tahina. But, Frank isn't leaving his passion for Google Earth on dry land. For the next five years, Frank will share maps of his GPS tracks, videos, 360-degree panoramic photos, aerial photography captured from a kite (see an example here), and more, with regular updates to Google Earth. You'll also be able to follow Frank's progress on his website, www.TahinaExpedition.com and, thanks to his partnership with National Geographic, on their site as well.

Frank has told us that one of the goals of his trip is to raise awareness about issues like climate change, pollution, coral reef disease, and the need to create more marine protection areas. We're excited to help him share his amazing trip with the world.

Frank, we wish you bon voyage and bonne chance, especially battling the sea, weather, boredom, pirates, and those sea monsters depicted on old maps.

Posted by Robin Ziegler, Community Development, Google Earth

An update to Google Earth for the iPhone

Just over one year ago, we unveiled Google Earth for the iPhone and iPod touch. Google Earth quickly became one of the most popular applications in the App Store, and after only six months, was the second most-downloaded free application overall. A big thank-you to the over 220,000 users have taken the time to write a review!

Today, we're proud to announce version 2.0 of Google Earth for iPhone. We've added some exciting new features, including the ability to view maps that you create on your desktop computer right from your iPhone, explore the app in new languages, and improved icon selection and performance.

View your maps wherever you go
Have you ever wanted to view a custom map with Google Earth on your iPhone? Well, now you can. By logging in directly to your Google Maps account, you can view the same maps that you or others have created, using the My Maps interface. Maybe you're on a trip and want to see where Tony Wheeler, the co-founder of Lonely Planet, most likes to travel. Or perhaps you're walking around looking for a restaurant and you want to see where world-famous chef Ferran Adrià likes to eat. All you have to do is click "Save to My Maps", open Earth on the iPhone, log in with the same account information, and voilà, you have your same collection of My Maps right in your pocket.



It's fun to create and view your own maps as well. Here's an example of a map that I created that shows the two attempts my friends and I made to summit Mount Ritter in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. As you can see, we didn't quite make it (the red line is the intended route, and the blue and green lines are our 2008 and 2009 attempts, respectively). Next year we'll get it for sure! I created this map by using the desktop version of Google Earth to read the tracks directly out of my GPS device, saving the resulting tracks as a KML file, and then importing into My Maps in Google Maps. You can learn more about My Maps here.

Browse businesses, photos, and places more easily

Browsing the world from the palm of your hand can be a thrilling experience, and viewing photos, Wikipedia articles, and place information is a great way to discover new parts of the globe. With the latest version of Google Earth for iPhone, we've made this even easier. Now, when you touch an icon, a small glow appears under your finger to let you know which icon you have picked. If your finger touches more than one icon, you'll be taken to a list of all icons, so you can select the one you are interested in.

New languages

We've also included new languages in this release, bringing the total to 31 languages from the original 18. The complete list of languages is: English (U.S), English (UK), French (France), German, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Polish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Arabic, Thai, Czech, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian, Malaysian, Romanian, Slovak, and Croatian.

We hope you enjoy our latest release. Please note that the app will be rolling out around the world over the next twenty-four hours - if you don't see it immediately, be sure to check back soon. You can download Google Earth for iPhone here.

Posted by Peter Birch, Product Manager, Google Earth

Explore Valencia in 3D

[Cross-posted from the Official Google SketchUp Blog]
As of today, you'll be able to see Valencia, Spain in 3D by opening Google Earth and flying down to one of the most beautiful cities in Mediterranean Spain. When you have Google Earth open, make sure the "3D Buildings" layer is checked to get the full effect. Watch the video below to see a fly-through animation of Valencia.



If you want to see some impressive buildings in Valencia, we recommend flying down to these places:

• City of Arts and Sciences (open kmz file)
  
• Plaza de Toros (open kmz file)
  
• Saint Mary of Valencia Cathedral (open kmz file)

Posted by Nicole Drobeck, 3D Modeling Specialist

Saving the world, one line of code at a time

The whole thing started last spring at the first-ever Crisis Camp in Washington DC where we heard about the challenges that NGOs, governments, and first responders face during disaster response.

We discussed these challenges with colleagues from Microsoft, and Yahoo. We all agreed that we could provide technological development. But, even for large companies, resources are finite. So, the question became, “How do we make this happen quickly?”

We decided to reach out to our active development communities. Out of this effort, Random Hacks of Kindness, a hackathon for humanity, was born. Random Hacks of Kindness, jointly sponsored by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, NASA, and the World Bank, aims to build an active developer community around disaster response and humanitarian relief.

This weekend, benevolently-inclined hackers will listen to a keynote from FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate. Then they’ll churn out some of the most important open source code on the planet—code that saves lives and mitigates human suffering. They'll address problems like, how do we crowdsource information from local citizens to aid first resonders? How do we quickly collect and publish fresh aerial imagery of an affected area? How do we create a comprehensive missing persons finder after a disaster?

Their work will have a positive, lasting impact on the state of the human experience, not just here in the U.S, but all around the globe.

While it’s no exaggeration to call these coders modern-day superheroes, they’ll be going home with just a T-shirt for their efforts. It's a nice T-shirt, but perhaps masks and capes would have been more appropriate.

For more information, visit http://www.randomhacksofkindness.org

Posted by Jeff Martin, Google Crisis Response Team

Google Latitude, now with Location History & Alerts

[Cross-posted from the Google Mobile Blog]

Since the launch of Google Latitude earlier this year, we've been getting a lot of feature requests. One of the most popular ideas was for Latitude to keep track of location history, allowing you (but not your friends) to see where you've been at any point in time. Another popular idea was to notify you when you're near your Latitude friends so you can easily meet up or grab lunch. Today, we're happy to introduce both Google Location History and Google Location Alerts (beta) to let you do even more with Latitude.

Google Location History
Whether you're taking a road trip across the country, backpacking across Europe, or just going out for a night on the town, it's fascinating to look back at where you went, and for how long you stayed. Enable Google Location History to store, view, and manage your past Latitude locations. You can visualize your history on Google Maps and Earth or play back a recent trip in order. Of course, you can always delete selected history or your entire location history at any time. While working on Location History, I found myself going back in time to discover things that would have otherwise been impossible. For example, I stopped at an awesome BBQ place on my way back from Lake Tahoe this summer, but I couldn't remember the name when my friend was asking about it a few months later. I pulled up my location history for that weekend, found where I was stationary on the drive home, and the restaurant name showed up in Google Maps: Drooling Dog Bar BQ. Check it out below:



Google Location Alerts (beta)
People also want to know when their friends were nearby, but it's not always convenient to keep checking Latitude to see if a friend has recently shown up near you. After working on this for a while, we realized it wasn't as straightforward as sending a notification every time Latitude friends were near each other. Imagine that you're Latitude friends with your roommate or co-workers. It would get pretty annoying to get a text message every single time you walked in the door at home or pulled into work. To avoid this, we decided to make Location Alerts smarter by requiring that you also enable Location History. Using your past location history, Location Alerts can recognize your regular, routine locations and not create alerts when you're at places like home or work. Alerts will only be sent to you and any nearby friends when you're either at an unusual place or at a routine place at an unusual time. Keep in mind that it may take up to a week to learn your "unusual" locations and start sending alerts.

To enable these features, go to google.com/latitude/apps. You must first be an existing Google Latitude user; if you're not already, sign up here. You must explicitly enable each feature, and of course, you can disable it at any time. Learn more in the Help Center about Location Alerts and Location History, suggest and vote on ideas in the Mobile Product Ideas page, or report problems in the Mobile Help Forum.

Posted by Posted by Chris Lambert, Software Engineer, Google Mobile

More views in more countries

It's been a very busy week for the Street View team! Not only have we made Hawaii the 50th state to get Street View imagery but we've also been hard at work mapping other stunning locations around the world. Now you can explore around huge swathes of Spain, an extra 30 towns in Netherlands and 5 cities in Mexico.

In my home country of Spain, I think we may have created what could be the the first ever virtual pilgrimage: Street View imagery is now available for the Camino de Santiago in commemoration of the year Xacobeo 2010 (the holy year of Saint James).

People can "wander" virtually along the French route from Auritz to Finisterre, through significant points as Pamplona, Estella, Logroño, Nájera, Santo Domingo de la Calzada, Astorga, Ponferrada and Santiago de Compostela. Potential visitors can also plan their entire trip thanks to a customized "mapplet" on Google Maps, created by Consumer Eroski magazine, where tourists can see hotels, hostels and restaurants located along the Camino de Santiago. Make sure you also visit other amazing Spanish sites such as:


View Larger Map
Alhambra of Granada


View Larger Map
Aqueduct of Segovia


View Larger Map
Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao

In the Netherlands, you can now explore the many iconic windmills of Kinderdijk. We tried to guess how many windmills there must now be in the Dutch imagery but we were stumped. We want to hear your guesses but we think it could be in the hundreds. Don't believe me? Here's another example:

View Larger Map

Of course, the Netherlands has much more to explore than just windmills -- here's a virtual tour through some other beautiful places:


View Larger Map
Utrecht


View Larger Map
The Hague

But who'd have thought Street View would be able to get my taste buds going too! I've been reminiscing about all that gorgeous Mexican food by checking out the many taco stalls of Mexico City and wishing i could order an enchilada or find my true favourite a 'Gordita'. You can tour other amazing places around the wolrd in our new gallery of global landmarks.

Posted by Isabel Salazar, Google Spain

Trike finalists announced!

Last month we asked you to submit nominations for places that you want our Street View Trike to visit. We were inundated with more than 25,000 suggestions across all categories, with university campuses making up 44% of all suggestions.

Starting today, you can cast your vote for your favorite place within each category to tell us which locations you'd most like to see on Google Maps. The finalists in each category are... drumroll please:

University Campuses

Arizona State University

Michigan State University

Princeton University

Rochester Institute of Technology

Stanford University

Parks & Trails

Boulder Creek Bike Path, CO

Capital Crescent Trail, MD/DC

Centennial Trail, WA

Schuylkill River Trail, PA

Stevens Creek Trail, CA

Pedestrian Malls

Faneuil Hall Marketplace, Boston, MA

Navy Pier, Chicago, IL

Pier 39, San Francisco, CA

Landmarks

Alcatraz Island, San Francisco, CA

Central Park, NY

Millenium Park, Chicago, IL

Kennedy Space Center, FL

National Mall, DC

Theme Parks & Zoos

Bronx Zoo, NY

Busch Gardens, VA

Detroit Zoo, MI

Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago, IL

San Diego Zoo, CA

Universal Studios, FL

Visit www.google.com/trike to vote! You can vote as many times as you like until the deadline at 11:59pm PST on Monday, November 30th. We'll then work on getting all the winners into Google Maps, and of course we'll work closely with the relevant organizations to collect images of any privately-owned locations. It takes a bit of time to ride a 250-pound bike around the country, but we're excited to see which locations get your votes.

If you're anxious to see some new places in Google Maps right now, you happen to be in luck! Today we've added imagery of my home state Hawaii, making it the 50th state featured in Street View. In honor of this launch, we've created an online gallery to showcase some of the amazing new imagery from Hawaii, as well each state capitol building from across the United States. You can read more about today's launch on the Official Google Blog. To get you started exploring this amazing new imagery, here's an image from Kailua Beach - I first learned to surf at the island offshore:

View Larger Map

You'll find much more waiting for you to explore in the Street View Gallery. You'll notice it also has a collection of locations photographed by the Trike -- you can help determine which places will be included in the future by submitting your vote!

Posted by Laura Melahn, Product Marketing Manager

NYC subway system on Google Maps

My wife and I moved out to New York last week, and we sure put Google Maps to use in our housing hunt. With Real Estate listings to help find a place, Street View to scope out the neighborhood, directions to help us find our broker, and local search to find nearby amenities, just about the only thing that we needed another source for was to see where the extensive subway lines ran. Until now!

We're happy to announce that you can now see New York's subway lines drawn out directly on Google Maps as part of the transit layer. To turn it on, just point Google Maps to somewhere in New York, click on the "More..." button at top-right, and select "Transit":

The colorful lines aren't just pretty to look at, they're also interactive. When you click on any station name, a bubble pops up with the names of the line that service the station, and all the other lines on the screen fade out.

This new feature compliments the New York transit directions we launched last September, for all services offered by the MTA, including bus, ferry, commuter rail, and of course the subway. We cover much more than the Big Apple, so look for the transit layer in other cities like Paris and Tokyo, and use transit directions with over 436 agencies around the world.

Having the MTA in the transit layer will certainly help me get my way around my new hometown, as I start to familiarize myself with the nation's largest public transit system. I can even pull up the layer on my mobile phone while on-the-go (read more on the Google Mobile Blog). We're happy to say that we found a great place in Brooklyn — and based on the leafy green trees and walk-up brownstones in Street View, some friends back in California are convinced we're moving to Sesame Street!

Posted by Jesse Friedman, Associate Product Marketing Manager

Historical Imagery Updates for Berlin

With Historical Imagery in Google Earth, we've made it possible to use Google Earth imagery to see how the world has changed over time. We've been adding imagery since the feature launched in February, and today we announced on our Google Germany Blog that we've added historical images of Berlin from 1945 and 1953. To view these new images, you'll need Google Earth 5.0. Historical imagery can be accessed by clicking on the clock icon in the top menu bar. Here's a sample of what you'll find as you explore the imagery:

Berlin 1945

Berlin 1953

Berlin 2009

Posted by Stefanie Schneider, Google Germany

Featured Map Maker: Mihai

Name: Mihai Voiculescu (Cartograful)

Day job: Web programmer at itbox.ro

Region mapped: Romania



Until last month, Romania wasn't on Google Maps. Users started a Facebook Cause and a Twitter Petition to get Google's attention on adding Romania to the map. "I found out about Map Maker opening in Romania over Twitter -- I follow Google Maps on Twitter," says Mihai Voiculescu. Mihai is now the #1 mapper in Romania with more than 5,000 map edits made since Google Map Maker opened in Romania in August, and as of last month many of those edits are now live in Google Maps for the world to see.

Like many mappers, Mihai started by mapping his hometown -- Târgu Jiu, the city in the southwest of Romania where sculptor Constantin Brancusi lived and where several of his large works of sculpture have become tourist attractions. From there, Mihai went on to help map Bucureşti (Bucharest) -- the video below shows how the map of Bucharest grew quickly from 5 highways to a complete city over a two week period:

Mihai runs a Romanian travel web site (itbox.ro) that uses the Google Maps API, and says that having a detailed and accurate map of Romania on Google Maps is important for local tourism. "Many people who came to Romania asked me why Romania isn't on Google. People think that Romania is empty, like a desert. Having Romania on Google Maps is a big plus." Mihai also uses Panoramio and has had some of his photos published in Google Earth; "I love the Web, programming and travel," he says.



Normally, Google Map Maker mappers use Google's satellite imagery to draw roads and locate schools, parks and businesses. When the satellite imagery isn't clear enough (due to clouds or low resolution) to trace from directly, Mihai uses a GPS device to create GPS tracks for roads or to locate hotels, then exports the tracks as KML files and uses the Map Maker Overlays feature to draw the roads and hotel locations accurately. He also uses KML files to locate hotels on the map for his travel web site.

Mihai collaborates with other Romanian mappers and co-created a Romania Map Maker discussion group. "I met these people online," says Mihai. However, he will soon be getting together with his fellow mappers in person as they have scheduled a Map Maker training event and mapping party in Bucharest at the Bucharest Academy of Economic Sciences on November 14th (a Google team member will also attend the event in person). "I want to thank all the people from Romania who contribute to build the map on Google."

Posted by Jennifer Mazzon, Maps Community Organizer