More new imagery added to Google Earth and Google Maps

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


Updates are noted with a red frame

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

@Rukasu1: Checking out the massive size and scope of the Menik Farm IDP Camp in Sri Lanka with the new GE imagery. #GEarthIMG http://tiny.cc/D4P9P
@Henk_e_S: New road infrastructure in Hoek van Holland: http://bit.ly/MXrDd #GEarthImg
@Spathiinc: New GeoEye-1 imagery in Google Earth/Maps of World Cup Stadium construction in Cape Town: http://bit.ly/7oLkGL #GEarthIMG
@Mpegg: Checking out the awesome new imagery of Whistler, site of 2010 Olympics on @googleearth: http://bit.ly/74PdrJ #GEarthIM

Posted by Matt Manolides, Senior Geo Data Strategist

UNESCO World Heritage sites in Street View

If like me you're an avid traveller (of the virtual or standard variety) you'll probably know that in the last few months the Street View team has been working with tourist agencies, the public and partners from across the world to bring a new kind of imagery to Street View, focusing on putting tourist spots and iconic cultural landmarks on the map in all their 360 degree beauty.

As part of this effort, we're delighted to be announcing a global alliance with UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) to put imagery of World Heritage sites into Street View. To whet your appetite we've released new imagery for 19 UNESCO sites around Europe, including places in Czech Republic, France, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom. You can explore the sites directly in Google Maps, or visit the microsite to learn more.

In the coming months Google will work with UNESCO to select additional World Heritage landmarks, in countries where Street View imagery is being collected, which will be photographed for the project. The aim is to collect imagery from diverse regions throughout the world including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Mexico, South Africa, US and many countries throughout Europe. With permission from the site manager/owner such places look set to one day be available to millions of people around the world who may never have the chance to visit them in person.

Fancy a little tour of your own? Why not start with a walk alongside the Seine. From the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower, from the Place de la Concorde to the Grand and Petit Palais, the evolution of Paris and its history can be seen from its banks. The Cathedral of Notre-Dame and the Sainte Chapelle are architectural masterpieces while Haussmann's wide squares and boulevards influenced late 19th- and 20th-century town planning the world over.with a virtual walk.

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If you fancy going a little further back in time you could swoop over to Italy to explore the ruins of the Roman towns of Pompei, engulfed by Vesuvius eruption in AD 79. These have been progressively excavated and made accessible to the public since the mid-18th century and are now available for all with a simple click of a mouse.

Visualizzazione ingrandita della mappa

Personally, I couldn't resist going one step further back in time by visiting Stonehenge, in Wiltshire, one of the most famous groups of megaliths in the world. The circles of menhirs are arranged in a pattern whose astronomical significance is still being explored, and the site has captivated acheologists for hundreds of years.

There are plenty more sites you can visit too - like the Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout in the Netherlands, the old town of Cáceres in Spain and the historic Center of Prague in Czech Republic. Check them all out here.

We work in partnership with landmarks and attractions all over the world to put them on the map and the Street View partnership programme is now available in the following countries: France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the US. So if you want to be part of it just get in touch!

In the meantime, enjoy your trip!

Posted by Kenzo Fong Hing, Google London

More Street View updates: See the sea, see the world

Today's update to Street View is a whale of a launch -- literally! We've added imagery gathered by our Trike for several special attractions we've partnered with in the United States, including the SeaWorld parks. Of course, that includes photos of SeaWorld's biggest star, Shamu:

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You can also catch their acrobatic dolphins mid-leap:

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Along with imagery of all three SeaWorld locations (Orlando, San Diego, and San Antonio), we've also photographed Aquatica and Discovery Cove, through our partnership with SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment. Another theme park addition is Hersheypark in Pennsylvania, where you can see their dozens of rides and, of course, lots of candy.

High school seniors around the country know that college application deadlines are fast approaching, so to help them narrow down their choices by getting a better feel for schools, we've worked with Boston University to add their campus to Street View:

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You can also browse all our new special attractions in the Street View Gallery. And if you work for a theme park, college, race track, or any fun destination that you want to be featured in Street View, be sure to visit our Street View Partner Program site to learn more.

To the north, we've expanded our coverage in Canada. Nine new cities can now be explored from the comfort (and warmth!) of your home: Victoria, Nanaimo, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Sudbury, London, Sherbrooke, and St. John's. The historic Victoria Empress hotel looks like it would make a great trip:

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We're also continuing to provide imagery of entirely new countries. Today Singapore becomes the first country in Southeast Asia included in Street View. You can explore iconic locations like Orchard Road and Clarke Quay; cultural areas like Chinatown and Little India; or the heartland like Jurong and Woodlands.

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In the UK, earlier this year we let users nominate locations for our Trike to photograph, just as we recently did in the US. After more than 10,000 submissions and 35,000 votes, winners are now online: Millennium Stadium, Angel of the North, Eden Project, Warwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, and Stonehenge:

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Stay tuned for the big announcement of the trike contest winners in the United States, and more exciting Street View news that's always on the horizon. Till then, I'll leave you with a challenge: see if you can find another area, photographed by our trike, where a friendly bunch of Googlers stopped by to say hello.

Posted by Julie Sohn, Content Partnerships Team

Climate Action - Let Gov. Schwarzenegger be your guide!

[Cross-posted from the Official Google.org Blog]

Today Governor Schwarzenegger and the California Natural Resources Agency is announcing CalAdapt, a new Google Earth-based tool designed to help Californians learn more about climate impacts and adaptation. The Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI) helped develop the CalAdapt prototype with support from the California Energy Commission and Google.org.  SEI has been a leader in developing an international network of interactive climate adaptation tools, as you can see at WeAdapt.  CalAdapt is still in Beta, but the goal for this interactive tool is to bring science to the people.  

And California has the science. The California Climate Change Center is one of the few state-funded climate research programs in the country.  The Center has provided critical support for research and collaboration among scientists and resource managers in a series of state-wide climate assessments.  

Don't miss Gov. Schwarzenegger's narrated Google Earth tour, which shows the risks of continued climate change for Californians and the important actions state and local agencies are taking to address these. See the short video version below (and the longer one here) or download the full tour for Google Earth here.  You can learn more about California's response in its Climate Adaptation Strategy, which was also released today.

We're pleased to see California's continued leadership in addressing climate change. 



Posted by Dr. Amy Luers, Senior Manager, Environment, Google.org

Keep your starred items in sync with Google Maps

(cross-posted with Google Mobile Blog)

Google Maps for mobile has long allowed you to add stars on a map to mark your favorite places. You may have noticed a few months ago that Google Maps for desktop browsers introduced the ability to star places as well. Unfortunately, there was no way to keep these starred places in sync with Google Maps on your phone. With today's release of Google Maps for mobile 3.3 on Windows Mobile and Symbian phones, you'll now be able to keep the starred places on your phone and on your computer completely synchronized. It's like magic, but magic that you can use. Let me show you how:

My colleague Andy is at his desk right now, and he wants to check out some comedy in London tonight. Google Maps lists the 4th result as Upstairs at the Ritzy -- it sounds like a great spot: cheap, fun and comfortable. With one click, Andy stars the item and he's done. When he walks out of the office and turns on Google Maps on his Nokia phone, Upstairs at the Ritzy will be the top place in his list of Starred Items, and it will show up as a star on his map. From there he can call the theater, get walking directions, or even SMS the address to a friend.

Starring on Google Maps for desktop computers and Google Maps for mobile

Starring places also works great when you're out on the town and you find cool spots using your phone. I was in Paris with my wife recently. We visited the obvious tourist spots like la tour Eiffel and le Musée du Louvre, but we also found a few interesting places we hadn't expected. While wandering the streets of Paris, we stumbled upon a cafe...the sort of place you'll remember forever, but immediately forget the name. I started Google Maps on my Nokia phone, searched for the name of the cafe (Les Philosophes) and starred it, knowing that when I come back to Google Maps on my computer at home, it will be starred, right there, on my map. How cool is it to create a trail of interesting places from your phone?!

For users upgrading from an older version of Google Maps for mobile, you'll be asked, when you log in, whether you'd like to synchronize your existing starred items with your Google Account. This means you can preserve all the work you've put into customizing your map on your mobile, and have it show up, conveniently, in Google Maps in your desktop browser.

To enjoy the benefits of all this mobile synchronization goodness, download Google Maps for mobile for your Symbian or Windows Mobile phone by visiting m.google.com/maps in your mobile browser. And don't worry, we're busy building this same functionality into our other mobile versions of Google Maps -- so sit tight.

Posted by Flavio Lerda and Andy McEwan, Software Engineers

Put your town on the 3D map: Google Model Your Town Competition

[Cross-posted from the Official Google SketchUp Blog]

People build 3D models for all sorts of reasons. One of them is geo-modeling – making photo-textured models of real-life buildings that appear in Google Earth. For some, geo-modeling is a hobby; they get a kick out of building something that provides a real benefit to the people in their community. Local geo-modelers are the unsung heroes of the virtual world - no longer.

Our first-ever Google Model Your Town Competition is by far the biggest 3D modeling challenge we've ever launched. It's open to just about everyone (not just students), just about everywhere in the world. Form a team, model buildings (using SketchUp or Building Maker) and upload them by the end of February 2010.



You can model as many structures as you like – which types of buildings you choose to include is entirely up to you. The important thing is that your choices say something about the character and history of your town. You can even include links to videos and photo albums in your entry; this is really more of a 3D portrait contest for communities.

If your town wins, a bunch of us from the SketchUp team will visit, throw you a party and do our best to make you look like the local hero that you are. There are other prizes, too – check out the competition website for details, and start rounding up teammates!

Here's some inspiration (just to get your creative juices flowing):



Posted by Allyson McDuffie and Aidan Chopra, Google Geo Team

Santa, Santa, when will you be here?

As I slowly emerge from my tryptophan-induced coma, I find my thoughts drifting merrily toward the next holiday on the calendar. And, like any kid trapped in an adult's body, I have to admit that I'm no more immune to the heady anticipation of Santa's arrival than I was as a wide-eyed eight-year-old lad.

I remember putting up the tree, stringing the lights, and wrapping the presents, the smell of freshly-baked pies tickling my nose and the sound of Christmas carols floating through cinnamon air. My dad would hang a wreath on the front door. My mom would tie a big red bow on the dog. And, in a small digression from this Rockwellian scene, we would call NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, to track Santa.

Times have changed. Now, in addition to taking phone calls, NORAD shows Santa's location online at www.noradsanta.org. There you can view a collection of video snippets from Santa's journey last year, play holiday games (a new one released each day), receive updates from Santa's Village, and read a special tribute to Colonel Harry Shoup, the father of the program, who passed away this year. 

Bookmark the site so you can visit often. And be sure to come back on Christmas Eve. That's when NORAD actively tracks Santa's journey in its entirety, from take-off to touch-down.  You'll be able to view his position on a Google Map, in your browser with the Google Earth plug-in, and on most phones.

Happy holidays to all! (And to Santa... a good flight!)

Posted by Jeffery Martin, Business Product Manager