A bonus batch of Street View imagery

Yesterday we announced that Street View imagery is now available for more than 11 cities across Canada, as well as in the Czech Republic. It is always exciting to bring Street View to a new country and hear from all the folks who have been eagerly awaiting it -- the news proved so popular that global traffic to Street View doubled yesterday and there were 28 million views of Canadian images yesterday (nearly as many views as Canadians!). You can see what all our partners had to say and see pictures from the launch event on the @GoogleCanada Twitter account.

But another priority is to refresh and extend our coverage in places we've already been. Now that you've hopefully had the chance to explore some of the stunning new images, we also wanted to point out some updates to the United States and Japan that got a little lost in yesterday's new country excitement. We added new high-resolution imagery in several areas across the US, and have launched several special destinations in Japan through the Street View Partner Program.

We've updated our coverage in New York City, bringing you newer and more high-quality imagery. You can see the newly restored Guggenheim Museum, or take a look at the unique architecture of the Flatiron Building. I'm a big baseball fan, so I'm especially excited that we have the brand-new Yankee Stadium featured in Street View, just in time for the playoffs (go Yankees!):

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We've also expanded our coverage around the Washington, DC metropolitan region, which is where I grew up. Now I can take a trip down memory lane by checking out the park where my dad taught me to play catch or wandering the streets of Old Town Alexandria. DC also has a new baseball stadium for the Nationals, which you can now see in Street View:

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You'll also find updates here in San Francisco:

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There are areas of new imagery across California, Colorado, Texas, Pennsylvania, DC, Florida, and New York. Not all areas in these places have been updated, but we're still hard at work.

In Japan, with our Street View Partner Program, we've been able to add images of 10 popular tourist destinations and special attractions, such as the Sapporo Maruyama Zoo:

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For a really global experience, tour around Huis Ten Bosch, a theme park in Japan modeled as a Dutch village:

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Posted by Elaine Filadelfo, Lat Long Blog Team

A gold medal-worthy Street View update

En Français

As a former Toronto resident, one of the most enjoyable experiences I look back on is taking in the city from a street car gliding along Queen Street West. From my perch high atop cars and cyclists it afforded me the chance to see vibrant, colourful shops, parks and developing residential communities. I'm happy to share that we've expanded our coverage of Street View on Google Maps to include parts of Canada, so others can virtually experience that same street car ride.

Now, whether from your chesterfield or smart phone, you can explore 360-degree street-level photographs of Canadian hotspots ranging from Parliament Hill and the CN Tower to Old Quebec City and Halifax's Pier 21. We're also thrilled to be shining a light on the site of the 2010 Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games by including imagery of Vancouver and Whistler.

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Whistler Creekside

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Toronto's CN Tower

As you might expect, I am quite a hockey fan - which is why I'm excited that today we're also launching brand new imagery in the Czech Republic, another hockey "hot"spot. You can see some of the beautiful landmarks of Prague, such as the famous Charles Bridge:

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or the National Museum in Wenceslas Square:

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In Canada, we're thrilled to be partnering with several organizations for this launch:

• City of Vancouver - With the world coming to this great Canadian city for the 2010 Winter Olympics, explore what it has to offer using Street View and plan your visit

• Tourism British Columbia - Using Street View imagery embedded on pages throughout their site, plan your trip to the province hosting the 2010 Winter Games
• Tourisme Montréal - Get down to street level and find out why this is considered one of North America's most unique cities
• Heritage Toronto - Explore Toronto's storied buildings, museums and iconic structures

• ChicWalks.com - Take a shopping tour of top fashion cities using Street View

We've also consulted with the data-protection authorities in Canada and the Czech Republic, and have made user privacy a priority. The imagery was gathered from public roads, and is not real-time. Identifiable faces and licenses plates are blurred automatically, but we also allow any user to flag an image for removal by clicking on the "Report a problem" link at the bottom of every Street View window.

Along with Vancouver, Squamish and Whistler, today's launch includes imagery from Banff, Calgary, Kitchener-Waterloo, Toronto, Ottawa, Montréal, Quebec City and Halifax. If you're disappointed that your hometown or your favorite vacation spot isn't featured yet, sit tight: we're working to add new places!

Whether you want to virtually wander the next Olympic city, or feel like you're strolling across one of Prague's historic bridges, we hope you enjoy exploring Canada and the Czech Republic like never before.

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Promenez-vous virtuellement au Canada et en République tchèque

En tant qu'ancien résident de Toronto, l'une des plus belles expériences dont je me souviens est la découverte de la ville à bord d'un tramway le long de Queen Street West. Perché au-dessus des voitures et des cyclistes, j'ai pu découvrir les boutiques vibrantes et animées, les parcs et les communautés résidentielles en développement. Je suis heureux de vous annoncer que nous avons élargi notre couverture de Street View dans Google Maps afin d'inclure certaines régions du Canada et de permettre à d'autres personnes de découvrir virtuellement cette même promenade en tramway.

À présent, à partir de votre canapé ou de votre téléphone intelligent, vous pouvez découvrir des images à 360° au niveau de la rue de lieux prisés du Canada, de l'Assemblée Nationale, à la Tour CN, en passant par le Vieux-Québec et la Jetée 21 d'Halifax. Nous sommes également heureux de pouvoir mettre en vedette les sites des Jeux olympiques et paralympiques de 2010 en proposant des images de Vancouver et Whistler.

Parallèlement à la mise à jour de Street View Canada, nous sommes heureux de déployer Street View dans Google Maps en République tchèque - un autre pays qui adore le hockey!

Au Canada, nous sommes enchantés de notre partenariat avec les organisations suivantes dans le cadre de ce lancement :

• Ville de Vancouver—Le monde afflue vers cette ville fantastique du Canada, alors découvrez ce qu'elle a à offrir en utilisant Street View sur Google Maps
• Tourism British Columbia—En utilisant les images Street View intégrées sur les pages de leur site Web tout entier, planifiez votre voyage dans cette province qui accueillera les Jeux olympiques d'hiver 2010
• Tourisme Montréal—Plongez dans les rues pour découvrir pourquoi cette ville est considérée comme l'une des plus exceptionnelles d'Amérique du Nord
• Heritage Toronto—Explorez les bâtiments étagés de Toronto, ses musées et ses structures iconiques
• ChicWalks.com—Visitez les boutiques des plus grandes villes de la mode en utilisant Street View sur Google Maps

Pour regarder ces images, il vous suffit de vous rendre sur Google Maps et de glisser le bonhomme (icône en haut à gauche) à l’endroit de votre choix sur la carte. Les bordures bleues indiquent l’emplacement où vous pouvez obtenir un point de vue au niveau de la rue. À partir de là, vous pouvez repérer un lieu de rencontre avec vos amis, voir si votre destination offre une aire de stationnement, ou encore explorer votre nouveau quartier ou votre nouvelle ville. Nous vous prions de bien vouloir nous excuser si votre région n'est pas encore couverte : nous y travaillons.

Visitez le site global de Street View où vous trouverez différents conseils utiles et des vidéos de présentation. Si vous êtes responsable d'un site Web ou d'un blog, vous pouvez également y ajouter ces nouvelles images Street View en utilisant My Maps ou l'API Google Maps.

Veuillez noter également que nous avons pris des mesures exceptionnelles afin de protéger la vie privée de nos utilisateurs, tout en nous assurant que chacun puisse tirer parti de ce service. Street View dans Google Maps contient uniquement des images déjà visibles par toute personne qui se promène ou circule sur la voie publique, et aucune image n’est en « temps réel ». En outre, Street View utilise une technologie de brouillage pour masquer les visages identifiables et les plaques d’immatriculation des véhicules.

Si vous découvrez une image que vous considérez inacceptable ou inappropriée, vous pouvez facilement la signaler pour en demander le retrait en cliquant sur « Signaler un problème » dans n’importe quelle fenêtre Street View. Lors du développement de Street View dans Google Maps et de ses mécanismes de protection de la vie privée, nous avons consulté les autorités à la protection de la vie privée du Canada et de la République tchèque.

En plus de Vancouver, Squamish et Whistler, on propose des images de Banff, Calgary, Kitchener-Waterloo, Toronto, Ottawa, Montréal, Québec et Halifax. Nous espérons que vous apprécierez votre visite virtuelle unique du Canada et de la République tchèque.

Posted by Mike Pegg, Product Marketing Manager

Your world, your map

One of the exciting challenges of working on the Geo team at Google is that the physical world is constantly changing, and keeping on top of these changes is a never-ending endeavor. For example, 15,000 miles of roadway are built in the United States each year. At the same time, we are fortunate to have a large and active community of users who want to share detailed information about the places they live, work, and travel.

So, as part of our ongoing commitment to provide the richest, most up-to-date maps possible, we continuously explore ways to integrate new information from users and authoritative partners into Google Maps. Two years ago, we began allowing you to move map markers to improve address precision; since early last year, you've been able to add locations; and over the past few years, we've been partnering directly with transit agencies to integrate their data.

Today you may notice that the United States looks a bit different in Google Maps -- all of that new green park land was probably a giveaway. That's because we've worked directly with a wide range of authoritative information sources to create a new base map dataset. In our experience, these organizations that create the data do the best job of keeping it accurate and up-to-date. For example, in the US there are a number of publicly accessible geospatial datasets created by the government for the Census, land surveying, and transportation. These datasets provide information on everything from road networks and water bodies to toll roads and bridges. By integrating this information, and working with specialized data sources like the USDA Forest Service's Forest Boundaries and the US Geological Survey's National Hydrography Dataset, we've been able to expand and improve features in our maps like parks and water bodies. Satellite, aerial, and Street View imagery also helped. With overhead imagery, we could zoom in on roadway details to figure out details like the size of the road. Our Street View imagery, which you know as a tool to help you explore new places, turns out to be very helpful to understand road restrictions and confirm street data by reading street signs.

The best part about this new dataset is that we've been able to add a lot of new, detailed information to Google Maps - information that helps people better explore and get around the real world. For example, college students will be pleased to see maps of many campuses; and cyclists will now find many more trails and paths to explore. Soon we even plan on providing you with biking directions to take advantage of this new data. Of course, in the true Google spirit of "launch and iterate," we plan to work with more data sources to add new features in the map.

So where do you fit into this? Well, we've found our users are also remarkable data sources themselves, so we've added a new tool to Google Maps that lets you communicate directly with Google about any updates that you think need to be made to our maps. You'll find this "Report a Problem" link on the bottom right of Google Maps (you can also find it by right-clicking on the map). Has that new highway on-ramp finally opened up? Do we have an outdated name for your local school? Was Main Street converted into a pedestrian-only walkway? Tell us! Once we've received your edit or suggestion we'll confirm it with other users, data sources, or imagery. We hope to resolve each edit within a month. If you submit your email address, we'll even keep you posted on our progress. The video below walks you through the process, or learn more here:

We're constantly working on making sure Google Maps is up-to-date, accurate, and includes the information that you care about most. Your edits and feedback will not only help us achieve this goal, but will help everyone in your community to get around town better and explore the world.

Posted by Andrew Lookingbill, Software Engineer

Featured Map Makers: Faraz & Jabran

Name: Faraz Ahmad (farazilu)

Day job: Web programmer

Region mapped: Pakistan

Name: Jabran Rafique (جabran)

Day job: IT administrator

Region mapped: Pakistan

Faraz and Jabran are both Pakistani-born, high tech workers living in the United Kingdom. They both learned about Map Maker on the Internet, and they have formed a virtual team with a mission to map Pakistan. Although they live 400 miles apart and have never met in person, they collaborate on mapping Pakistan and providing other mappers with advice and tips on mapping the region.

Time lapse video of Gujranwala, Pakistan:

Faraz started using Map Maker shortly after it launched in 2008, and he is now the top mapper with more edits than any other user. Jabran found Map Maker a few months after Faraz. Both mappers started with their home towns and have subsequently mapped many cities in Pakistan. "It's like mapping your own world -- describing your world to other people. In the UK, we use Google Maps to find directions if we want to go somewhere. But we couldn't do that in Pakistan. This is a big opportunity to help other people find things," says Faraz.

Time lapse video of Karachi, Pakistan:

"I spend so much time on the Internet looking at new technologies. It's like a hobby for me to develop maps -- time spent positively because I know it will help others. In Pakistan, using Map Maker to find an efficient way to get somewhere can save a life in an emergency situation," says Faraz.

Experienced and accomplished mappers with more than 70,000 map edits between them, Faraz and Jabran collaborate with many others to map the region as well. Jabran explains, "I post on the group when I finish mapping a city. A fellow who just joined recently is making some edits near Lahore, adding names to streets and local businesses. So we help each other. If one can map it and another can name it, that's great. Someday I will open Google Maps and see all of Pakistan mapped!"

In areas of Pakistan that the virtual team knows less well, they use the satellite imagery on Map Maker to draw the roads. When they meet people from Pakistan, Faraz & Jabran ask them where they are from and what areas they know. "Then I drag them to Map Maker and ask them the names of roads, shops, hospitals, whatever. We're trying to make the maps more and more elaborate. Together we can make a difference."

Jabran recalls that, one weekend, a couple of guys with local knowledge of an area sat with him as he edited the maps -- here's one small example of an addition to the map he made based on their knowledge. "Great thanks to all those many people who agree to help in such a way," says Jabran.

Living in the UK, Faraz and Jabran use Google Maps extensively, particularly on their mobile phones, to find their way around and explore new places. Through their contributions to mapping Pakistan with Google Map Maker, their goal is to help all Google Maps users in Pakistan to find their way, too. We wish both of these Map Maker "power users" all the best in their efforts to map their worlds, and look forward to seeing their goal of completing the Pakistan map fully realized!

Posted by Jennifer Mazzon, Maps Community Organizer

Preserving forests to reduce carbon emissions

Following last week's launch of the new Climate Change in Google Earth tour series, we are excited to announce the release of three more tours. These tours shed light on solutions that non-profit organizations and communities are doing to prevent or adapt to further climate change.

The new tours we released today all involve deforestation -- preventing, protecting, and preserving our global forests around the world in an effort to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, a large part of the cause of climate change.

Greenpeace tells a story of a successful collaboration between companies, such as McDonald's, and Greenpeace campaigners to establish a moratorium on further destruction of Amazon rainforest for soybean plantations.

Conservation International flies you through Madagascar, where they are helping local communities forge new economic paths through REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) projects. Stone Gossard, of Pearl Jam, also speaks about their support of Conservation International's efforts through donations from concert ticket revenue.

Take a virtual tour with WWF of the peatland swamps in Sebangau, Borneo. With the deforestation and burning of peatland for agriculture, vast amounts of carbon emissions are released. WWF has helped local communities preserve their peatland swamps, which you can fly over in this tour.

See all these tours now by visiting www.google.com/cop15, and clicking on the button for each tour. Then stay tuned for more!

Posted by Tanya Keen, Google Earth Outreach

Helping the victims of Tropical Storm Ketsana

[Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog]

Last weekend, Tropical Storm Ketsana (local name "Ondoy") pounded Manila and nearby areas of the Philippines with a month's worth of rain in just a few hours, resulting in floods that covered 80% of the city with as much as 20 feet of water. The typhoon left in its wake nearly 300 people dead and hundreds of thousands displaced.

We're very saddened by the losses the Filipino people have sustained during this calamity. To help you stay up to date on the disaster and contribute to the relief efforts, we've put up a Help for Typhoon Ondoy Victims in the Philippines page that contains the latest news from local media outlets, lists of verified donation sites and emergency hotlines, and a volunteer-maintained map of persons needing rescue.

Filipinos have been posting videos of the flooding and its aftermath on YouTube. You can also visualize the overflows along main rivers and bays in Google Earth with this kmz file.

If you're familiar with Google Maps and would like to get involved in the effort to map missing persons, relief centers and road conditions, you can email the volunteer team at typhoonondoy@googlegroups.com. We will continue to update the page with the latest information and imagery, as well as provide any relevant updates on this blog.

Posted by Therese Lim, Google Southeast Asia Team

This week in @googlemaps

Here are this week's highlights from Twitter - remember, you can follow us at twitter.com/googlemaps. You'll find some fun links and announcements you may have missed:

• Impressive global mashup showing where iconic music album cover photos were taken - over 700 of them http://bit.ly/3YsOa1

• Map Maker data from 19 new countries & territories now graduated to Google Maps. Some amazing before/after shots http://bit.ly/pbAHd

• Making a statement on the floor of the Rio subway http://twitpic.com/jvczn

• NYC pizza quest helped by Google Maps http://bit.ly/q96uu (via @nydailynews)

• 国庆北京交通限行地图。 http://bit.ly/3faQ98 [Road closures in Beijing during National Day parade on October 1st.]

• Wild card: Ever wanted @googleearth as a carpet? Sacramento Int'l Airport has a lovely sample http://bit.ly/l2XmN

Posted by Julie Zhou, Chief Maps Twitterer