Happy birthday: Google Maps API Turns 5!

Today is an important milestone here at Google and we’re all pretty excited - the Google Maps API turns 5! It was five years ago today that we posted a brief announcement to let the world know about the JavaScript Maps API and now 5 years later more than 350,000 active websites make use of it. Uses have ranged from tools that have made it easier to find an apartment, track the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and even make an Earth sandwich! Many, many more examples have been chronicled on sites like Mashable and the Google Maps Mania blog.

In 2005, Adrian Holovaty launched the first crime mashup that overlaid Chicago’s public crime data onto online maps providing Chicago’s citizens and journalists with a true picture of crime in their city. The site won the 2005 Batten Award for Innovations in Journalism and was named by The New York Times as one of 2005's best ideas.

In honor of this very special birthday, we took a chance to check back in with Adrian to see what he thought about the journey of the Google Maps API over the past 5 years:

“Of my 11 years of doing Web development, Spring 2005 was the most interesting and exciting time. When Google Maps launched -- with maps assembled client-side, in JavaScript! -- I was one of the band of tinkerers around the globe who poked at Google's obfuscated code until we figured out how to embed their maps in our own pages. It was a ton of fun, not only doing the reverse engineering, but seeing the various discoveries and hacks other people were making: embedding multiple maps in a single page, swapping out the map tiles, using custom map markers, making markers move, loading real-time data onto maps... New discoveries were being made on a seemingly daily basis, and the best ones built on the other ones, which led to a sense of a community contributing to a greater understanding.

“These days, it's hard to fathom a Web without embeddable maps. Wasn't it always that way? To Google's eternal credit, instead of shutting these hacks down, they recognized the demand and legitimized it in the form of their mapping API.

“And the rest is... well, kind of boring in its simplicity, now that reverse engineering isn't involved. There was something raw and pure about those original hacks, like hunting and skinning your own food, living off the land, a digital self-sustainability. I feel like an old man yelling at kids to get off my lawn: ‘Back in my day, I had to reverse engineer Google's obfuscated JavaScript to get embeddable maps on my pages!’ You don't know how good you have it.”

The Google Maps API has seen some significant milestones of its own during the past five years. Some of the announcements we’re most proud of are the Maps API for Flash, Static Maps API, our Enterprise offering Maps API Premier, and the new Maps API v3, built with mobile use cases in mind and recently graduated from Code Labs.

The Google Maps API has established itself as the most popular Google API and the most deployed service-based API on the web. We continue to be amazed by how popular this API continues to be for web and mobile apps being developed today. This ProgrammableWeb dashboard shows that of the apps built and submitted over the past 2 weeks, a quarter of them make use of the Google Maps API. Click the 'All Time' tab and you'll see that nearly half of the almost 5000 cataloged mashups use it.

Today, on this 5 year milestone, we really have all of you to thank for this incredible chapter in web and mapping development. The remarkable levels of innovation, creativity and interest have come from all of you. You saw the possibilities the Google Maps API held and what it could be combined with to create, and you built it. Now join us to celebrate! Keir Clarke from Google Maps Mania has created a mashup that we want all of you to contribute to. Please tag your Google Maps mashup or tool to the map wherever you are:



Since we can’t all share a giant cake, I think it’s fitting that we all build a giant mashup of mashups to mark this special API birthday. We’re looking forward to the next 5 years of mapping innovation together with all of you!

Posted by Mike Pegg, Google Maps API team

Minor Style Updates, Major Improvements

Sometimes, little things can make a big difference. Since our last major style evolution, we have been making ongoing incremental improvements to the style of our maps. We'd like to highlight a few of the more recent changes and show the impact of paying attention to the small details.

Starting with the area close to our office in Sydney, you can see that we've made roads thinner and more discernible, and improved treatment of tunnels so they don't look so much like they're above ground:



In Taichung, Taiwan, our roads used to overlap in some places. We've fixed that, making the map more navigable and providing a better sense of the city structure:


Here's another example from Bangalore, India. The new version manages to both add detail and feel easier to read:



And finally, in Prague, Czech Republic, you can see the improvement in our styling of building models, which makes the map less overwhelming and the road labels easier to read:



We hope that you have enjoyed this quick tour - have a look around Google Maps today and see if you notice any improvements to your local area. Small details, big improvements!

Posted by Jonah Jones, User Experience Designer

Imagery Update - Week of June 14th

The Google Earth and Maps team has just finished pushing out yet another imagery update. Though we didn't blog about it at the time, many of our sharp-eyed fans also noticed that we updated a number of cities back on May 26th. There's plenty to see in these last two updates, from hunting for UFOs in Roswell to soaking up the blues while sauntering down Beale Street in Memphis.

High Resolution Aerial Updates:
USA: Nashville, Memphis, Charlotte, Puget Sound Area, Los Angeles, Ft Myers, Roswell NM, Winona MN
The Netherlands: Hoorn, Wijdemermen, Leidschendam, Wassenaar, Olst, Overbetuwe, Sint Hubert, The Hague, Lopik, Houten, Hilversum, Purmerend, Elburg, Enkhizen, Assen, Groningen
South Africa: Soccer City in Johannesburg
New Zealand: Kapiti Coast

Countries receiving High Resolution Satellite Updates:
Algeria, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Colombia, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iceland, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, The Philippines, Russia, Rwanda, Senegal, Serbia, Tanzania, Uganda, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam

For a complete picture of where we updated imagery, download this KML for viewing in Google Earth.

In addition to those updates, we've also added imagery of the flooding that occurred in Nashville to Google Earth's Historical Imagery database. You can access the new Nashville flood imagery by simply opening Google Earth and clicking on the clock icon in the top toolbar.

The historical imagery time slider will appear just beneath the toolbar. The tick marks on the slider represent images in our database that are available for your current view.


Drag the slider with your mouse to flip between images from different dates. In the examples below, you can see before/after images of the flooding in Nashville.


Posted by Matt Manolides, Senior GIS Strategist

Properties, now on Google Maps in the UK

Good news today if you’re house-hunting in Camden Town or Kew Gardens - property search has come to maps.google.co.uk. From today, visitors to maps.google.co.uk will be able to click “Properties...” on the More menu in Maps to see a little red dot on the map showing every house or flat for sale or rent.

The search can be refined by choosing features like sale or rent, bedrooms, bathrooms, and price. The map will update to show the properties matching those criteria - and also dynamically update as you scroll and zoom around the map until you’ve found your dream spot.



Other maps layers and features like Photos, Videos, Satellite, and Earth view can be turned on as well, helping you to explore the property results geographically and get an even better sense for your new neighbourhood.

In a survey conducted just before Google Street View launched across the entire UK, a fifth of those surveyed said they had used the service for househunting [source: YouGov Plc February 2010]. We hope they’ll find this new feature really useful for exploring what’s available in neighbourhoods right across the UK.

The feature is showing hundreds of thousands of listings, from PropertyLive, Zoopla, Ezylet, SmartNewHomes, Vebra, Property Pal, Spicer Haart, Countrywide, and Zoomf. If you’re an estate agent, take a look at maps.google.co.uk/propertytools for information on how to have your property listings show up on Google Maps.

So have a go today - it’s as easy as typing in “property for sale camden town” and then scrolling around the map to see what meets your criteria. You can find contact details for the estate agent on the ‘Place Page’ that pops up for each listing - you can even add any scheduled open homes to your Google calendar with one click of the mouse. Just don’t try making an offer on London’s most famous home ... we don’t think that one’s for sale.

Posted by Andrew Foster, Product Manager

Google Earth now available for iPad

Google Earth has been finding itself in all sorts of places lately, from the iPhone to Android phones, to the browser, and even the car. Today, hot on the heels of yesterday's launch of Google Earth 5.2 we are proud to announce that Google Earth is now available for Apple’s iPad.

Google Earth for iPad is one of the best ways yet to experience Google Earth. With the combination of an intuitive touch interface, a large screen, and the snappy A4 processor, you a great new way to explore the globe and share your adventures with your friends.

Some iPad users have noticed that Google Earth has been available for the iPad from the very beginning, but until today, this has simply been the iPhone version running in a scaled-up mode. With our latest release, we now have native support for the iPad, which means that you get to see the world in beautiful full-resolution imagery. There is a custom toolbar at the top, and you can click on individual icons to open “balloons” without having to navigate away from the 3D view.

As with the iPhone version, you can easily navigate with your fingers, using one finger to move the globe; two fingers to change your viewpoint; a single finger double-tap to zoom in; and a two-finger double-tap to zoom out. And like all Google Earth products, you can search for geographic features and businesses by typing your query in the search box.

Along with Panoramio photos, Wikipedia articles, and Google Places, you can also view roads rendered directly on the terrain. Select any of these layers from the “Layers” menu in the toolbar.



To start exploring the world on your iPad, download it today from the iTunes store.

Posted by Peter Birch, Product Manager, Google Earth

Let Pegman guide you to user photos

You may be familiar with the photos layer on Google Maps - it’s a great way to explore user generated photos from countries all over the world right within Google Maps. Over the last couple of years since launching this layer we’ve made various improvements so people can explore them more easily. Like being able to slide from a gorgeous view along the bank of the Seine at dawn to another at sunset, simply by clicking the dots. Today we have another great way you can take that round the world trip you always wanted.

Remember Pegman, the little orange man that you can drag and drop on to the map to jump into Street View images? As of today, he has a new trick up his sleeve. He’s becoming our official photo tour guide, helping you not only navigate our Street View imagery where it’s available, but also helping to highlight the amazing geo-located photos the Panoramio photo community has contributed, as well as public images from Picasa and Flickr. There are images from pretty much every corner of the globe, so there is almost no end of sights and scenes to keep you busy.

When you drag Pegman, you will now see small blue dots to show where user-contributed photos are available (they look a bit like the squares you see on our Wikipedia layer on maps).



If you drag Pegman over one of the blue dots, you get to see a preview of a photo taken at that location.



Then if you drop Pegman onto one of the blue dots, you will be able to view that image in our photo browser, which will let you navigate further into neighbouring pictures.



The photos you can explore this way are the same as those that you can find in the Maps photo layer, giving you a full interactive tour. It’s also a great way to explore images taken from places in out-of-the-way locations - say, the top of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park.



Dragging Pegman onto a photo is another handy way to see all the types of images available in Google Maps. So go ahead and let Pegman be your tourguide to parks, forests, lakes and more.


Posted by Dennis Tell, Software Engineer, Google Zurich

Google Earth Pro 5.2: A powerful tool for professionals

Every day, thousands of our customers rely on Google Earth Pro for its power to visualize and analyze vast amounts of global data from a large array of sources. Applications of Google Earth Pro range from analyzing environmental impacts of natural disasters to the creation of detailed presentations for prospective clients.

With yesterday's release of Google Earth Pro 5.2, we have added new data layers to give you even more information to help make the right decisions. This set of exclusive data layers allow for direct access to information on land parcels, traffic flow, and the US census results. In addition, we have added new features to enable you to visualize large data sets with amazing detail as well as to save your measurements for retrieval in the future. Google Earth Pro 5.2 also optimizes the data you import from outside sources to allow for faster rendering of your data and improved clarity at every altitude. Finally, saving the measurements you make in Google Earth Pro allows you to quickly retrieve information from your data across multiple sessions.

Google Earth Pro premier data layers

We’re happy to announce that with thus launch, discovering information about the people around you, your projects, and your clients is now much easier with the set of exclusive data layers built into Google Earth Pro.

Earth Pro now includes three new data layers:

U.S. Demographics includes demographic data (e.g. income, age, education) from 2010 and estimated 2015 values at the state, county, tract, and block group level with data from Claritas. For income and age, you can view beautifully color-coded layers enabling you to quickly zero in on target markets and even cross-reference with your own layers.



U.S. Parcel data gives you critical parcel and building information such as Assessor’s Parcel Number (APN), use codes, and zoning data. You can also get more detailed reports, such as sales history, by purchasing a DataQuick PDF report, which is linked to within the layer.



U.S. Daily Traffic Counts reports the average number of cars that have passed through an intersection in the US.



Processing large data sets

Google Earth Pro has always been a great tool for importing and viewing GIS data. However, it has been difficult to import very large data sets and view them interactively. Now, with the release of Google Earth Pro 5.2, we’ve introduced new tools for processing and preparing complex vector files and high resolution images that allow for fast, interactive browsing of your data. These tools, leveraging the same technology used to create the core Google Earth layers, divide or “regionate” data into many smaller files which are loaded dynamically. This ensures that only the data which is in view needs to be retrieved, maintaining a high level of performance. With vector data regionation, Google Earth Pro 5.2 will prevent data congestion at high altitudes while still allowing you to access the data points you care about.

When importing image overlays into Google Earth Pro you now have the option to create what is called a super image overlay, another form of data regionation. The new super image overlay feature automatically creates image tiles with the appropriate image resolution for every altitude. Similar to the base imagery already included in Google Earth Pro, you will now be able to seamlessly zoom in from high altitudes to extremely detailed lower altitudes without forcing Google Earth to load the entire image file while viewing a specific portion of your imagery. The use of image regionation dramatically speeds up the rendering process and in doing so, allows you to visualize complex imagery quickly and efficiently. Never again will you be forced to lose image clarity in order to retain the speed and agility you expect from Google Earth. Of course, data sets processed in Google Earth Pro can be shared with all 700 million Google Earth users around the world.

On the Google Earth team, we often find ourselves in the situation where we have large images of current events that we want to publish quickly. In these cases, we use this same regionation technology to quickly publish imagery to the world. One such example was the 2009 Presidential Inauguration. This image of the National Mall on Inauguration day would have been far too large to download and view as a single file, but as a fully regionated KML file, you can easily navigate this stunning image of the inauguration without slowing down your computer.



Enhanced Measurements

Lastly, in Google Earth 5.2 you now have the ability to save paths and polygons created by the measurement tool as KML. This will allow you to share measurements with co-workers and return to them later if you want to review measurements you’ve made. In addition to being able to save your measurements as KML, we’ve also added the ability to view measurements of existing paths and polygons. This allows you to quantify the information that until now you could only inspect visually.

To purchase Google Earth Pro, visit our online store or sign up for a 7-day free trial. You can also read more about Google Earth Pro on our website at http://earth.google.com/pro.

We hope you enjoy these new features.


Posted by Alex Unger, Associate Product Manager, Google Earth Pro

Relive your hiking, biking, and other trips in Google Earth

I’m a big fan of traveling and being outdoors. As a software engineer on Google Earth, I rarely go outside without bringing a GPS so that I can plot my adventures in Google Earth. That’s why I’m excited to tell you about the new features in Google Earth 5.2 that make it easier than ever to relive your journey.

In earlier versions of Google Earth you could see your GPS tracks as lines or points on the map. That has worked pretty well, but I’ve always had a nagging feeling that we could do much better, creating animations that show exactly how you move around the world.

With Google Earth 5.2, you can now import existing GPS data as a new kind of “track.” With a track, you can move the time-slider to animate time and retrace your journey. Google Earth will draw an icon so that it is properly positioned for the given time that you are viewing. As you move through time, the icon will animate along your path. You can also select a window of time which will highlight the corresponding section of your trip.

In Google Earth 5.0, we introduced Tours: cinematic, narrated flights around Google Earth. With one click you can make a tour based on your track, which will fly you along your journey from a bird’s-eye view. You can play back the tour like a video and share it with friends.

The best way to explain the power of the new track feature is just to show you some examples. I’ve always had a passion for flight, and earlier this year I decided to take flying lessons. I took a GPS along with me, and imported my tracks into Google Earth. Next, I found a model of a Cessna from the Google 3D Warehouse. Finally, I created tours of those tracks to move the camera along the path of my flights. Voilà!

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In addition, a powerful aspect of the new track feature is the ability to show multiple tracks at the same time. If you load multiple tracks into Google Earth that take place in the same period of time, then you can use the timeslider to animate all the tracks simultaneously. For example, if you have GPS tracks for several people in a race, you can use Google Earth to replay the event.

Importing your own tracks

Importing GPS tracks is simple in Google Earth. Just connect your GPS device to your computer and choose “GPS” from the “tools” menu. Alternately, you can download your GPS data from your handheld unit onto your computer as a .gpx, .nmea or .log file and then drag it into Google Earth or open it from the file menu. The GPS data will convert into a KML track and display in the 3D view. If you move the time-slider, you should see your icon move through time.



Making a tour of your track

It’s easy to create a tour of your track. Simply highlight your track in the left-panel, and click on the “Create Tour” button which looks like this:Google Earth will fly you along your track, and move the time-slider to animate your object.

Elevation profiles

While I was obsessed with animation, another engineer on the team, John Rohlf, was interested in visualizing the elevation gains of his hikes and ski trips. He wrote the elevation profile feature, which will graph the elevation of any line or track in Google Earth. For tracks, you can also use the elevation profile to graph speed or any other data that your GPS device records, such as heart rate, cadence, temperature, etc. To see the elevation profile of any line or track, right-click on it in the left-hand panel and select “View Elevation Profile.”



The profile-view will pop up in the bottom of the window. If you move your mouse around the graph, a big red arrow in the 3D view will show you the corresponding point in 3D. You can also view other graphs by clicking on the names of the other data types. If you select just a portion of the elevation profile, you can get statistics for just that section, such as the average grade of a climb. Try it out! You can see how high you hiked, or how fast you drove... just be careful. We won’t pay your speeding tickets.



Example tracks
Here are some examples to get you started:
Biking on Twin Peaks in San Francisco
Peter’s bike to work ride
Dan’s flight

For more information
For more advanced track usage, including instructions on how to incorporate 3D models into your KML, see the KML reference guide.

Download Google Earth 5.2 today at http://earth.google.com.

Posted by Dan Barcay, Software Engineer, Google Earth

Announcing Google Earth 5.2

Today we are proud to announce the latest version of the Google Earth desktop application, Google Earth 5.2. With this release, we are bringing exciting new features to both the free version, Google Earth, as well as our paid professional version, Google Earth Pro.

Over the next couple of days we’ll be diving into these features in more detail, but I wanted to give you an overview of what Google Earth 5.2 brings.

Visualize your hiking, biking, and running tracks

Google Earth has always been a great tool for viewing your outdoor activities, whether it be hiking, running, biking, skiing, sailing, or just about any other way you choose to explore the world. With the release of Google Earth 5.0, we added the ability to connect your GPS device directly to Google Earth and import your track. Now, with Google Earth 5.2, we’ve added the ability to view elevation, speed, and other data as a graph directly in Google Earth. Just connect your GPS device to upload your track, and select “View Elevation Profile” from the menu. This will bring up elevation and speed graphs. If your GPS device records additional information such as heart rate or cadence, these will also be available to view in the graph. You can also see statistics such as total elevation, maximum slope, and average speed. You can select a portion of your ride and get statistics for just that section.

We’ve also improved the way you can play back your trip. Just click on the time animation button, and relive all those twists and turns in your journey. You can even quickly and easily generate a tour of your trip. This video shows a tour that I generated from my bike ride into work.

Integrated web browser

Google Earth is a “geo-browser” - a great tool for exploring places, businesses, and photos around the globe. However, sometimes when you want more information, you may want to click through to a link to see the full Google Places page for a business, or learn more about a photographer whose photo you really enjoy. In the past, this has required opening a link in an external browser to see the full page. For Google Earth 5.2, we’ve added an embedded browser that lets you browse the full web. Click on a link, and the browser pane slides across the screen. When you want to return to the Earth view, just click the “Back” button and you’re back exploring the world!

New improvements to Google Earth Pro

While Google Earth has been downloaded by over 700 million people all around the world, not everyone is aware that we also have a professional version, Google Earth Pro, which gives the powerful tools needed by engineers, real-estate professionals, governments, and others to process and visualize large geographic data sets. Google Earth Pro 5.2 brings new features to our professional users, including:

• Parcel, demographic, and traffic data layers for the US
• Improved GIS importing
• Automatic generation of super-overlays for very large image files
• Automatic regioning of large point and vector data sets
• Support for MGRS grid system

We’ll be following up shortly with more details on these great new features in Google Earth 5.2. However, if you to get started right now, go to http://earth.google.com to download it. Happy trails!



Posted by Peter Birch, Product Manager

Google Tags rolling out nationwide

Just a month ago we announced that Tags, our new advertising feature for local businesses, became available in 11 cities throughout the U.S. Today we’re excited to announce our plans to expand the trial to the entire country. The rollout will start with states where we have already had Tags available in select cities (California, Texas, Illinois, Georgia, Washington, and Colorado). We’ll update this page as additional states go live.

For a flat monthly fee of $25, businesses can enhance their listings that appear on Google.com and Google Maps with a yellow tag that emphasizes specific information such as a coupon, video, website, menu, reservations, photos, or a custom message. Tags do not affect the ranking of the listings, and we clearly indicate which parts of the search result are sponsored.

If you try out a query for “massage houston,” you’ll see that two of the businesses whose listings appear have created coupon Tags to promote their current offers:




We haven’t just been working on increased availability; we’ve also been adding new features. Tags now appears on mobile web searches as well, helping your local customers quickly identify what’s unique about your business while they’re on the go.



Posts, a new kind of Tag that enables business owners to create a custom message, is also live. These messages can be changed as often as the business owner would like, making it easy to let the world know about a special discount or limited-time offer.

We hope you find Tags to be a useful and easy way to find and connect with your local customers. To learn more and try it out, please visit www.google.com/help/tags.

Posted by Shalini Agarwal, Product Manager

Fun on the Autobahn: Google Maps Navigation in 11 more Countries

[Cross-posted from the Google Mobile Blog]

There’s nothing quite like driving through Europe in the summer. In the past week, I’ve seen the beautiful Val d’Aosta, the Swiss Alps, the Cathedral in Chartres, and travelled through the Channel Tunnel as I road-tripped from Milan to Geneva, Zürich to Stuttgart, and on through Paris to London. Why the burst of mileage? Well, I’ve been testing Google Maps Navigationversion 4.2. Yes, road-testing it around Europe was a grueling process, but somebody had to do it :)

Today we’re launching Google Maps Navigation version 4.2 in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland for Android devices 1.6 and higher. Google Maps Navigation is an Internet-connected GPS navigation or ‘satnav’ system that provides turn-by-turn voice guidance as a free feature of Google Maps.

On my test trip, I found a number of Navigation features useful:

• While driving through the Loire Valley, I put my French language skills to the test by finding my destination with Search by voice (now launched in French, German, Italian, and Spanish for Android 2.0 and higher);
• I previewed a typical British roundabout with Street View to see exactly where I’d need to exit before getting there in person;
• I satisfied my craving for moules frites by searching for it along my route;
• I kept the gas stations layer on to ensure I’d always know where the nearest petrol station was, just in case;
• And, of course, the turn-by-turn voice guidance kept me on-track to my destination -- despite my sometimes spotty connection in mountain tunnels -- thanks to the way Maps Navigation saves the route on your device when you start.

Google Maps Navigation (beta) with Search by voice is available in version 4.2 of Google Maps, on Android devices 1.6 and higher. To download Google Maps version 4.2, search for Google Maps in Android Market.

Try Google Maps Navigation in your local country and language today -- and have a great time touring around the Continent this summer if you get the chance!

Posted by Michael Siliski, Product Manager, Google Maps for mobile

Seeing new sights with photo overlays

Sometimes you want to explore a place for yourself, and sometimes you want to get a sense of how other people experience it. With our newest update to User Photos available within Street View, you can seamlessly do both. Now when you’re browsing a location in Street View, you can see user-contributed photographs directly overlaid within the panorama.


The new feature places thumbnails of relevant photos on top of the Street View imagery when you click the “Photos” option at the top right of the panorama. When you move your mouse cursor over one of these thumbnails, a photo appears which matches the content of the panoramic view. Using the overlays you can quickly preview several photos without changing your viewpoint or losing track of where you were. And if you click on the photo, you enter our interactive photo browser to explore additional pictures taken by the community.

It is now even easier to inspect architectural details and close-up quirks, or see what is happening at a place at more than one time of the day. Start to explore this new world through the eyes of other travelers with some of these locations:

See the Bundesplatz fountains in action

Explore Ponte Vecchio in Florence from a new perspective

See the sun rise over Notre Dame

Posted by Daniel Cotting, Computer Vision Team, Google Zurich

Map Makers respond to the Pakistan landslides

In January 2010, a series of landslides hit Atta Abad, in the Gilgit-Baltistan semi-autonomous region of Pakistan, causing loss of lives and blocking the Hunza River. Since then, the region and its 500,000 people are under continual threat from the rising height of the lake formed due to the landslide. Lake waters have already displaced about 20,000 residents; some villages are completely submerged while downstream communities are at risk from flood waves.

This event took the work of Omer Sheikh and Jabran Rafique -- dedicated individuals, exceptional Google Map Maker users & advocates -- to another level.

Omer currently lives in Lahore while Jabran resides in London. They live thousands of kilometers apart but have a shared commitment to map their country and assist their people as they cope with this disaster situation.

“From the onset of the disaster, the international community seemed to be hardly aware of the situation. Worst...I was unable to locate on a map where Atta Abad was! As a mapper, my first appeal went out to the Google Map Maker team, and Google Maps Pakistan,” recalled Omer.

Together, Jabran and Omer created a website, http://www.local.com.pk/hunza/, that uses the Map Maker API -- for raising awareness about the importance of this emergency and making disaster data more accessible and useful. The publishing of post-disaster imagery, made available by Google, is also allowing Map Maker users to provide unique mapping contributions (i.e. shelters, health centers, flood prone areas, etc), all to be brought online in near-realtime. The website is now recognized as a primary source of information for the Hunza disaster, and as such is being listed on the UN-Spider knowledge portal.

Jabran describes their mapping process: “The gap in information available to the public was obvious. After getting the latest imagery, we started mapping the area. We used Map Maker as our baseline data and started adding other feature of interested such as locations of towns, the extent of the lake, submerged bridges & highway sections.”

When asked about his motivations for becoming so involved in this effort, Omer explains: “We hope that our effort to make reliable information more widely available will help disaster relief managers and decision makers save lives and prevent more damage to the fragile economy of this remote region. In contributing to Map Maker, my desire is to establish a basic framework around which we can document, understand and bring transparency to the events taking place around me. We, as a mapping community, need to better demonstrate the benefits of online collaboration and the utility of tools such as Map Maker for rapid dissemination of information.”

This is the journey of two mappers who have used the Map Maker community as a basis to connect the ideas & skills of dedicated individuals -- for the better good of their own community. To contribute to the Hunza Landslide Relief Support please visit this website.

Posted by France Lamy, Google.org

Explore the South African stadiums in 3D

[Cross-posted from the SketchUp Blog]

Whether you call it soccer, like us, or football, like the rest of the world, we have your virtual ticket to South Africa right here. Google Earth is proud to feature 3D models of all ten stadiums and the nine cities of host nation South Africa.

To check it out for yourself, download this 3D tour to explore the stadiums in Google Earth, or check it out using the new Earth view in Google Maps. Fly into Green Point Stadium for a seat looking out at Cape Town’s famous Table Mountain. From there you may want to head over to the dramatic arch that suspends Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium. The distinctive multi-hued orange shell of Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg is a must see. It’s here where South Africa kicks off against Mexico in the first game on June 11, and where the final takes place exactly a month later.

See what’s in store for you to explore in Google Earth:

South Africa offers much more than soccer stadiums of course, which is why we’ve also modeled thousands of buildings around the country. These 3D cities can help you get a feel for why South Africa receiving the world’s attention. And if you’re lucky enough to be there, you might like to see how close the stadium is to your hotel.


Finally, since several of the stadiums are either newly constructed or heavily remodeled, you can use the Historical Imagery feature in Google Earth to see the transformation over the years. Open up Google Earth, turn on the Historical Imagery layer by clicking on the clock button at the top, and slide the bar to travel through time.

We realize that the United States winning the Cup is a long-shot, but the 3D team here in Boulder, Colorado will be cheering for team USA anyway!

Posted by Bruce Polderman, Product Manager

Hope for Cousteau’s Ocean on World Oceans Day

Today is the second annual United Nations-designated World Oceans Day.

We celebrate this year by remembering the wonderful underwater films by Jacques Cousteau, as it would have been his 100th birthday on Friday. Take a tour of 10 locations from The Silent World and other film clips on our Ocean showcase following Captain Cousteau as he explored our connection to the Ocean World.

Take a highlight tour through 10 Cousteau film clips.

We as well have added the third Hope Spot tour with Sylvia Earle’s Mission Blue foundation to the Ocean Showcase, where you can visit 5 more special places in the ocean in need of protection from the Chilean Fjords off South America, to the deep sea angler fish in the Charlie Gibbs Fracture Zone, to the surfing hippos off the Gulf of Guinea off West Africa to the Outer Seychelles and Kermadec Trench north of New Zealand. You can now explore any of the Hope Spot posts in the Ocean layer in Google Earth by clicking on the yellow highlighted circle icons in the ocean.

See Hope Spot content highlighted with yellow circle icons in Google Earth. Click on the flame icon in the Gulf of Mexico to get more information on the Deep Horizon oil spill.

Celebrate the opportunities and challenges of our shared resource, the Ocean. See the cost of the Gulf of Mexico oil rig explosion with new data, as that oil spill tragedy unfolds by clicking on the default on placemark southeast of New Orleans, USA.

Dive deeper on your own using Google Earth.

Posted by Jenifer Austin Foulkes, Product Manager

Street View brings a taste of South Africa to football fans everywhere

It’s not every day that you find an elephant in Street View, or for that matter get to visit most of the South African football (or you may know it better as soccer) stadiums in one day. But from today you can do both with our bumper set of brand new Street View images and 3D models of host nation South Africa.

With just days to go before the tournament kicks off, football fans can start soaking up the atmosphere in seven of South Africa’s soccer stadiums, including Soccer City in Johannesburg, Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane and Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban. Thanks to some serious pedal-power by our trike riders in South Africa we’ve made available these pitch-level pictures from inside and outside of these stadiums. And we’ve created complete 3D models of all 10 stadiums, as well as many host cities which can be viewed in Google Earth -- check them out on the SketchUp Blog.

To make it easier for people to find all these great places South African Tourism have provided information on the most important sights. Visit maps.google.com/exploresouthafrica to start virtually exploring South Africa. Here are some amazing shots from on the field to get you excited:

Moses Mabdhiba Stadium:

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Soccer City Stadium:

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You can view more photos from inside the stadiums in our Street View gallery. But for those who can’t tell their keeper from their striker we’ve got something altogether different. There’s dramatic coastal scenery in the Cape; the urban buzz of Soweto, home to Nelson Mandela; or the world renowned Kruger National Park to explore at your leisure.

In fact, you’ll be greeted by a special host when you start exploring the imagery of Kruger:

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And this coastal view lets you see the sea, as well as Table Mountain in the distance:

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Whatever colours you’ll be wearing when the whistle blows and whichever side you’ll be cheering for in the dreaded penalty shoot out, you can now get a sense for how it might feel for the players to step out onto the turf to take part in the most famous football/soccer tournament in the world!

Posted by Julie Taylor, Google South Africa

Make the most of football fever, quicker than stoppage time

People all over the world already use Google Maps to search for pubs, bars and restaurants in their local area. And with football’s (soccer, to all you Americans) biggest event right around the corner, millions of fans will be looking for the perfect venue to enjoy the tournament. So for all you business owners, this could be the ideal time to create your entry on Google Maps for free or make sure your current entry is still up to date. You can even specially indicate that you'll be showing games at your establishment.

Once you’ve signed up for this campaign you will get a couple of things to help you stand out more during the games. When people search for places to watch the games we’ll highlight businesses that have flagged themselves as viewing locations (both on Google Maps and Google Maps for mobile) and you’ll also get a special football badge on your Place Page.

What else can you do to make sure you’re ready for football fever? We’ve provided a quick checklist with stuff you can do:

• Add additional information people looking for places to watch soccer will appreciate (ie: how many & what size screens you have). Read more here.
• Let people know which games you are showing and let them know if you have any special football promotions by posting a live update to your Place Page. Read more here.
• Got lots of satisfied customers post-game? Ask them to add valuable feedback or recommend you on Google Maps. Read more here.

Make sure you join before June 11 to be certain your local football-loving customers can find you in time for their big match. You can learn more on this site: http://www.google.com/showsoccer.

Have fun and may the best team win! I can't wait to find the best place in London to go cheer my team to victory.

Posted by Kenzo Fong Hing, Maps Product Marketing Manager, London

Travel through the past with Historypin

One of the things I love about living in London is trying to read the history of the buildings from their present day appearance—looking for clues about what their purpose might once have been and how society might have looked at an earlier time.

Just the other day I was in a new part of town and I noticed, high up on one of the Victorian facades, the faded painted letters indicating the building’s former use as a bookbinder—not something we tend to see on a highstreet anymore.

Of course city landscapes, urban environments and our local streets change all the time, as does the fashion you might see on these streets or the types of cars driving down them. It’s fascinating to compare this development which is why we were thrilled when We Are What We Do, the social movement that launched the Anya Hindmarch ‘I’m Not A Plastic Bag’, approached us to collaborate on their latest creation called Historypin.

Historypin is a digital time machine that provides a new way for the world to see and share history, using Google Maps and Street View.

The site allows users to share images—of streets or buildings, cities or villages—from their personal photo albums, as well as the stories behind them.

It’s a really unique use of Street View which means pictures can be dated as well as geo-tagged and then ‘pinned’ into place on top of modern Street View photography for people to explore over time.

This VE Day parade from 1945 in Leeds, in the North of England, is really evocative for example:

It’s also a great way to get the different generations hanging out together over the family album. The project aims to start millions of new conversations between old and young, motivating older people to share their history while younger people share their digital skills.

I also love this glimpse of 1970’s fashion in London and the crazy dodo in a pram (or stroller).

It only just launched in Beta but the result so far is a fascinating snapshot of the changing face of local streets and well known landmarks, providing us all with a new perspective on historic moments.

But this is just the start! Historypin has ambitions to become the world’s largest user-generated communal archive of historic images and stories and anyone, anywhere can get involved. Pictures have been provided from individuals as well as various national archives, including such diverse contributors as Selfridges, Marks & Spencer, the Royal Albert Hall and Arsenal FC.

It looks like it’s time to grab a cup of tea, dust off the albums in the attic and take a trip down memory lane—then down Street View—with your grandma or grandpa.

Posted by Laura Scott, Google London