Tip of the week: Viewing KMLs in Google Maps

We post a bunch of KML and KMZ files on this blog, and usually tell you to download the file then open it with Google Earth. But don't forget that you can also open KML or KMZ files in Google Maps, and without a download. To open, just paste a URL hosting the file into the Maps search box and click 'Search'. (You can find the the URL by right-clicking on one of our links to a KML/KMZ, instead of downloading it). You can find more detail about what KML content is viewable in Google Maps in the Help Center, but this trick should come in handy for most of the files you find us talking about on the blog. For example, last year we blogged about a KML of air emissions created by the EPA -- and here it is in Google Maps!

 

Posted by Elaine Filadelfo, Lat Long Blog Team

Maps for Android

For anyone interested in details about what to expect from Google Maps on the Android-powered T-Mobile G1 phone, head over to the Google Mobile Blog. You can find out how the navigation works, how the maps application integrates with other applications, and even read more about the cool Compass mode. The post is a great preview of what's to come.

Posted by Elaine Filadelfo, Lat Long Blog Team

Getting around your neighborhood with Google Maps

When I moved to the Bay Area last year, everything was new to me. I didn't know Los Altos from Los Gatos, good eateries in my neighborhood, or how to get to where I wanted to go. Whether you're moving to a new area, traveling to a new place, or simply exploring a new part of town, this may sound familiar to a lot of people.

There's a simple solution: turn to Google Maps to find local information. We've gathered a lot of useful info about local businesses so you can find everything you need in one place. You can find neighborhoods and see if they're close to downtown, parks or other places of interest. If you're moving into a new home, you can look for nearby supermarkets, hardware stores, restaurants and other places that will help you settle in. Almost every business listing includes the phone number, website, store hours, price and more. Most also have user reviews and photos. 

And it turns out I wasn't the only one who turned to Google Maps to learn more about my town. Watch this video to see how Google Maps helped Ryan, a fellow newcomer to the Bay Area:

Even if you know your hometown like the back of your hand, odds are you'll want to go somewhere new at some point. Not only can you find out the address of a specific location and get directions to it before even heading out the door, but you can virtually explore the neighborhood with Street View (available in many cities in the U.S., Japan, and Australia), or check out live traffic conditions. You can also use the "Send" feature of Google Maps to text the address to your phone or email directions to friends.

Watch this video to see all the things you can do:

And don't forget, with Google Maps for mobile, you can access all of this great information on the go. To learn more about using Google Maps to find local information, visit http://maps.google.com/golocal.

Posted by Cathy Tang, Associate Product Marketing Manager

Adding another dimension to your city

Your downtown is so much more than an address listing of the businesses in it. What if there were a way for someone to discover their new favorite bookstore, within easy walking distance of the parking garage, with a coffee shop next door and a kids' play area a block away, all at once? What if you could plan a walking tour of all the historic buildings downtown, and in the process discover that there's an ice cream parlor and a pottery shop that you just have to visit along the way? There's a way to do all these things, and it's easier than you think.

Google Earth has a Photorealistic 3D Buildings layer that you can use to host 3D models of the buildings in your downtown annotated with a wide variety of information that people might find useful. Because it's a full, navigable 3D environment, you can go on a virtual tour and get a much better feel for the city than you might from a traditional map. You can click on a building to pull up an information bubble that might contain anything from descriptions of the stores in the building to photographs of the merchandise to a description of the building itself, its construction date, and architect. You're in control of both the model and the information attached to it; you can update it with links to events happening in the area, sample restaurant menus, or websites associated with a retail store.

With a complete set of 3D models, you can even use Google Earth for city planning. Is that side street really as pedestrian-friendly as you want it to be? If I approach downtown from this bus stop, do I have a clear idea of where I should go to get to the central square?

Apart from the benefits for visitors wanting to search, browse, and explore your city, right now there's an added reason to put your 3D downtown on the map. Photo-textured, publicly-available 3D building models are still novel enough to create buzz, as the city of McMinnville, TN discovered. The idea of using the 3D models as a jumping-off point to a wide variety of content is even more compelling; Walt Disney's recent release of their Orlando theme parks and resorts really shows the potential for interactive models in Google Earth. With the new Google Earth Browser Plugin you can even place tours of your 3D models on your city's website where people explore them without needing a Google Earth client. Your city could be on the leading edge of the virtual tourism market!

If you're thinking this sounds good, but difficult and/or expensive, don't fret. There are lots of free tools to get you started. Google SketchUp is an easy-to-use 3D modeling program that you can use to construct the architectural models and apply photographs to them to generate photorealistic buildings. It's free to download, and there are lots of tutorials available to help you learn the program, and specifically to help you construct a model that's optimized for Google Earth. You can then upload your model to the 3D Warehouse, add descriptive information, and mark it for inclusion in the "Photorealistic" 3D Buildings layer in Google Earth. Alternately, your city GIS department may already have models of your downtown that you can start with; or you may want to use some other software package to build your models. If you'd prefer not to upload your models using Google's 3D Warehouse, you can contact the team behind the Cities in 3D program to learn about another way to add your models to Google Earth.

Happy modeling!

Posted by Allison Floyd, Software Engineer

Let's map Africa

[cross-posted from the Google Africa Blog]

We are excited to announce that users may now build and edit maps in Map Maker for 45 new African countries, bringing the total number of countries covered in Map Maker to 122 countries, covering a population of 3 billion people. The Map Maker team is very excited about this announcement as Africa symbolizes our dream - to bring rich, deep map and local data to places that had none. Having good maps and local data spurs investment, local commerce and planning. Many NGOs also depend on a good base map to plan and execute their work. So much so that many NGOs have told us that they either cannot do their work without good maps or have to spend a lot of effort building these.

However, we need your help. With Map Maker, any user can create or edit map data including schools, buildings, local businesses, national parks, trails and safaris. If you have strong local knowledge, this is your chance to make a little difference.

The countries enabled for editing today are: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Morocco (including Western Sahara), Zambia, Zimbabwe. And don't forget that you can also edit the several other countries in Africa that were made available in August: Cape Verde, Comoros, Madagascar, Reunion, São Tomé and Príncipe and Seychelles.

We leave you with an image of Nairobi, Kenya, where Google MapMaker has been working on a project in partnership with a team of seven students from three Kenyan universities to create better online maps for this region.

Posted by Lalitesh Katragadda, Software Engineer and Sanjay Jain, Product Manager

Opening the door to geospatial data

[This post recently appeared on the new Content Central blog; it's a great look where some of our geospatial data comes from and how organizations can share data with us. -Ed.]

Have you ever wondered how your organization could add your geospatial data, such as aerial imagery or places of interest, to Google Maps and Google Earth? Maybe you're using the Google Maps API and want to enrich our basemap with your own data. Or perhaps you'd just like to expand the reach of your organization's investment in GIS (geospatial information systems) by putting this data in places where people in your community are more likely to encounter it. You are not alone.

Some of us in Google's Public Sector Content Partnerships team attended the recent ESRI International User Conference where we met hundreds of local government GIS managers and others who eat, sleep and breathe GIS data. There was one comment we heard over and over: "We'd like to share data with Google, but we don't know how to contact anyone there."

Admittedly, we haven't done a great job of explaining how to get your GIS data into Google's services--like what types of data we welcome and in which formats and at what quality level. But we're working on it, as you'll see in two these examples:

Earlier this year we introduced the Cities in 3D Program through which we invite local governments, community groups and educational institutions to take ownership of the 3D representation of their community on Google Earth. In a video tour of "Cities in 3D"and case studies of successful 3D modeling projects, this site makes the case for producing and sharing 3D models as a tool for planning and economic development, for fostering tourism or merely to simplify navigation. The site, which was recently made available in multiple European languages, also explains the steps toundertaking a 3D modeling project and includes a spec of the various data formats we welcome. And, of course, the Cities in 3D program site includes a contact form where an organization can tell us about 3D data (as well as aerial imagery and terrain data) they'd like to share.

 

Another example of how we're opening the door to making GIS data available to Google users is the Voting Information Project. Google is a founding partner in this initiative to make it easier for voters in the U.S. to find information online about registering to vote, locating a polling place, and knowing what to expect when you get there. Thanks to data shared by election officials in a growing number of jurisdictions, we're now able to point voters to their polling place on Google Maps and provide other relevant voting info.

So, the door is open. If your organization has 3D data to share, or would be interested in learning how to produce a 3D model of your community, we'd like to hear from you. If your organization provides official election information, including polling places, and you would like to ensure voters in your jurisdiction can readily find this info on Google Maps, check out the Voting Information Project's open format for election data sharing and let the VIP team know what you have to offer. And if you've got other GIS data types to share, just tell us about your interest at gisdata@google.com or stay tuned to the Content Central blog as we offer additional information about how to add your GIS data to Google services.

Posted by JL Needham, Manager of Public Sector Content Partnerships

Now's the time: register to vote

Political participation is at an all-time high this election season, and a record number of voters have already started to cast ballots -- a few even camped out in Ohio to be the first in line for early voting yesterday.

But roughly 1 in 4 Americans still aren't registered to vote, according to the most recent Census report. Now is the time -- voter registration deadlines are less than a week away in most states.

We're trying to help increase participation by making sure you have easy access to voting information. Google's Voter Info Map currently puts registration, absentee and early voting information in one place. (If you're on a phone, you can check out our mobile version at m.google.com/elections.)

We're working closely with state and local election officials, the Voting Information Project and the League of Women Voters to centralize official voting information. Stay tuned for more posts on the project and details on how you can help confirm your local polling place address.

Leonardo DiCaprio, will.i.am, Tobey Maguire, Forrest Whitaker and a few of their friends put together the first in a series of public service announcements to encourage young Americans to register to vote -- and they include a link to our Voter Info Map.

As the Internet plays a greater role in helping people participate in elections, we're excited to help out. And you can, too. Help make sure everyone is ready for election day by reminding your friends and family to register and vote.

Posted by Katie Jacobs Stanton, Google Elections Team