Pound the pavement

It's summer in the Northern Hemisphere, and when it's not too hot, it feels like a waste of gorgeous weather to get behind the wheel or hop in a cab. Doubly so when you're traveling to a city you'd love to explore, and you're pretty sure that you could walk from your hotel to the aquarium, if only you could figure out the way. You could try to use driving directions from Google Maps, but city centers are always a maze of one-way streets and no-left-turns. These driving directions from a local hotel to the Seattle Aquarium require numerous contortions in order to obey one-way streets and find a route under the freeway, taking you out of the way of where you could go by foot:

Starting today, you can tell Google Maps that you want walking directions, and we'll try to find you a route that's direct, flat, and uses pedestrian pathways when we know about them. Just get directions as you normally would. If you're going 10 km or less (some call this 6.2 miles), we'll show you a link that you can click to get "Walking" directions:

Our walking directions for the same hotel-to-aquarium route ignore the direction of one-way streets and make use of a pedestrian-only path under the freeway. This route is more than half a mile shorter than if you were to drive:

If public transit directions are available for Google Maps in your area, you'll seen an improvement to them as well. We used to point to your destination from the nearest transit station, but unless you could fly these directions needed some tweaking.

Now, we'll give you step-by-step directions for the portion of your trip on foot:

Walking directions are a new feature for Google, and while I'm pretty excited about it, there are some rough edges that compel us to release it in "beta." Walking directions work well for short trips in urban areas, but we don't always know if a street has a sidewalk, or if there's actually a special pedestrian bridge for crossing a busy street. There are still a lot of pedestrian pathways we don't know about, and they might save you some time if you find them. We're working on collecting new data on pedestrian pathways and on more effective ways to solicit your feedback, so that we can steadily improve this feature and get you where you need to be as efficiently as possible.

Walking is a great way to learn about a place, to get around, and to get some exercise when the weather is nice. You'll notice shops, parks, and public art that you've been accustomed to zooming past, and come away feeling like you've really gotten the insider's take on a neighborhood or city. Of course, don't get too caught up in enjoying the sights! Please be careful, and be particularly attentive in high traffic areas. Just like if you were driving, follow road signs and signals along your route, and use good judgment about streets that can't be walked (there are many useful websites containing safety tips for pedestrians).

Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'll get out of the office for twenty minutes and take a stroll.

Posted by Andy Schwerin, Software Engineer

Summer camp, Google Earth style!

Last week, 18 Googlers brought their 9-12 year old kids to our Mountain View headquarters to spend their week learning with Google Earth and all the other geo tools. By the end of the week, the "Geo Camp" participants had mastered Google Earth, Maps, and Docs, and used these tools to research environmental issues, virtually tour the planet (and universe), and collaborate to build sophisticated presentations on habitats around the world.

I'm not sure who had more fun -- the teachers or the kids! As the week came to a close, we asked them all to reflect back on what they had learned, and I just can't help but share some of their responses:

I didn't know I could ____ with Google Earth

• fly (Matt, 6th grader)
• see all the rides at Disney World (Gwen, 4th grader)
• learn about endangered animals (Aditya, 7th grader)

The coolest place I saw was....

• the Space Needle (Jack, 7th grader)
• the Empire State Building (Jake)
• the entire universe (Andrew, 6th grader)

When I'm a grownup, I'll use Google Earth to...

• find a place to go on vacation (Nick, 5th grader)
• share global awareness about different countries to other people (Esha, 9th grader)
• look at other galaxies, and see if there's traffic (Aditya, 7th grader)

If I worked on the Geo team, I would...

• build more SketchUp buildings (Erik, 5th grader)
• create a ship simulator in which you could be the captain of a ship (Ashna)
• make a driving feature so people could pretend to drive on roads (Warren, 7th grader)

Posted by Tina Ornduff, Google Earth Education team

Design your dwelling

For those of you looking for an excuse to have some fun with SketchUp, I've got great news: we're joining forces with Dwell Magazine to launch a friendly competition to Design Your Dwelling.  Get the details (including the secret site location!) over on the SketchUp blog. 

Posted by Tasha Danko, SketchUp Team

Our city in 3D

Posted by Barney Krucoff, GIS Manager, District of Columbia, Office of the Chief Technology Officer

The District of Columbia government has submitted more than 84,000 3D models to Google Earth via the Cities in 3D program. But why would a city, let alone one that is known as a horizontal city because of a strictly enforced height limit, be so eager to participate? Here's a glimpse into our thinking in the District's GIS department.

1. It is the right thing to do. Fundamentally, the District Government believes that data created with public funds should be available to the public. Making this data now available via Google Earth is an important step in making our data truly accessible to the public at large. 

2. Because every neighborhood can benefit from 3D. Instead of modeling just a select few landmarks in exquisite detail, we wanted to model every building in every neighborhood. Economic development was a primary driver behind development of the dataset. The buildings provide the context in which to plan and debate proposed new developments. Despite our aforementioned reputation as a horizontal city, we are also a city of spires, penthouses and domes, as you can now see. As public sector mappers, we put the entire city on Google Earth, not just downtown, because every neighborhood needs planning and development. We hope that the private sector will follow suit and create rich 3D models of proposed developments as KML downloads in the future.

3. We get better 3D performance from the cloud and we don’t pay for it. Some GIS users in the DC government, have made excellent use of the data, but with the city’s current technology, the 3D data had to be used locally on high-end desktops. Frankly, the District did not have the technical capabilities for distributing nearly 100,000 3D building across the enterprise. With the data now hosted on Google Earth 4.3, we expect DC Government users to turn to Google Earth just like the public. And using the same tools as our citizens is another powerful way to connect with them and ensure the quality of their experience.

4. We want to communicate with our residents. It is important to us that citizens, particularly DC taxpayers, understand what we do. We posted the “coolest” data set DC GIS has, because now that we have your attention we want to show you all of the other stuff we do. As part of Mayor Adrian Fenty’s drive for transparency, the DC government now makes more than 200 geospatial data sets publically available. So admire the thousands of 3D buildings, but also extend your virtual tour. You can add these datasets as layers on Google Earth, and view things like wards, trails, parks, museums, building permits, fire hydrants, zoning and even things the city isn’t proud of, like calls for rodent abatement. 

Where in the world is... (Answers)

Posted by Matt Manolides, GIS Specialist

Here are the answers to yesterday's quiz -- I'm sure you all passed with flying colors.

1) Founded in 1608, this former British possession has a decidedly French flair.
--Quebec

2) Once the seat of great political power, this red fortress is now a major tourist attraction.
--Alhambra, Granada

3) Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, this city was lost to the world for 1700 years.

--Pompeii

4) Passing by a famous golf course and luxurious mansions, this stretch of road is a tourist attraction in its own right.

--17 Mile Drive, Pebble Beach (California)

5) Legend has it that Hercules founded this major European city.
--Barcelona

6) This city within a city plays host to an Opera House, Planetarium, Science Museum, Oceanographic Park, and beautiful gardens.

--City of Arts & Sciences, Valencia (Spain)

7) When we updated imagery of this city, we got complete coverage of another country with it.
--Rome & Vatican City

8) This city hosted General MacArthur's South West Pacific Headquarters during WWII.
--Brisbane

9) Some of my Googler co-workers can enjoy the views from this very tall building.

--Taipei 101, Taipei


The following is a more complete list of the areas we've updated in this data push:

Updated Imagery:
Americas:
- USA: San Diego, San Francisco metro area, Wenatchee (WA), New Mexico.

- Canada: Quebec, New Westminster (BC).

Europe, Middle East & Africa:

- England: Bristol
- Spain: Barcelona, Costa del Sol, Granada, Murcia, Valencia, Cuenca, Toledo, Caceres, Zaragoza.

- Portugal: Braga, new base imagery for entire country

- Italy: Rome, Naples

- Germany: Freidburg, Munich

Asia & Oceania:

- Australia: Brisbane, Great Barrier Reef

- Taiwan: Taipei, Taichung

New 2.5m base imagery for: The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Taiwan, Tasmania, and parts of Mexico, China, and Australia.

Cities in 3D program in action

Posted by Naureen Kabir, Geo Content Partnerships

In March, we introduced the Cities in 3D Program, empowering local governments to contribute their own 3D models to Google. Since our original announcement, we have expanded the program to Europe and been working closely with several local governments in the US to get their models published to Google Earth. After four short months, the models from our first round of participants are available. Let's go for a brief tour to explore these new cities....

Amherst, MA: Taking a stroll down Main Street. In the distance, you can see the Southwest Towers on the University of Massachusetts campus.

Greenville, SC: Looking out at the Greenville skyline from South Spring Street.

McMinnville, TN: Night-time view of downtown McMinnville, where you can browse through art galleries and museums.

Nanaimo, British Columbia: Taking in the view as you fly past the Strait of Georgia.

Nashville and Davidson County, TN: A close-up view of the State Capitol, as buildings from across the entire country stretch into the distance.


Jamestown, NY: Go shopping along the downtown storefronts.


Washington, DC: The U.S. Capitol building in the heart of the nation's capital, with 3D models from all across the city surrounding it.

If you follow the link on each city's name, you'll get to learn more from them about the partnership, and check back here tomorrow to hear from the GIS Manager for Washington DC about his views on 3D data.

We look forward to working with many more organizations, including local governments, educational institutions, and community groups to get local 3D data published on Google Earth. Please contact us if you'd like to share your 3D data with us!

Where in the world is...

Posted by Matt Manolides, GIS Specialist

Today I'm happy to announce that we've just finished pushing out an imagery update for all you Google Earth fans out there. As usual, I'll drop a few hints at where these updates might be, and tomorrow I'll post the complete list of updates. 

1) Founded in 1608, this former British possession has a decidedly French flair.

2) Once the seat of great political power, this red fortress is now a major tourist attraction.

3) Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, this city was lost to the world for 1700 years.

4) Passing by a famous golf course and luxurious mansions, this stretch of road is a tourist attraction in its own right.

5) Legend has it that Hercules founded this major European city.

6) This city within a city plays host to an Opera House, Planetarium, Science Museum, Oceanographic Park, and beautiful gardens.

7) When we updated imagery of this city, we got complete coverage of another country with it.

8) This city hosted General MacArthur's South West Pacific Headquarters during WWII.

9) Some of my Googler co-workers can enjoy the views from this very tall building.