Happier travels through Street View with Pegman

Today we're happy to announce some big improvements to the Street View feature in Google Maps! Thanks to feedback from our users, we've now made Street View even better and easier to use.

For one thing, Pegman, our plucky mascot, is now close at hand wherever you go. He hangs out right on top of the zoom slider:


To enter Street View, drag Pegman to a street (or just keep zooming in all the way, and the lowest zoom level is now Street View imagery). Tip: if you hold Pegman over a location for a second, you'll see a preview of what it looks like. Which direction you're facing depends on which side of the street you drag to:


Also, we've revamped the layout of Street View to give you more room for looking at really big stuff like the Colosseum in Rome, or for zooming in to get a better look at small stuff like this space invader mosaic in Paris.

The minimap in the corner lets you see the surrounding area. To see Street View and the map at the same time, you can click on the icon at the top left of the minimap. Looking up driving directions? This split screen view is especially handy for previewing turns along the way, and each step will be listed at the top of the Street View image.

Want to learn more and see the new features in action? Check out this video, narrated by Pegman himself:

And since Pegman now has even more of a starring role while you're exploring Street View, we thought we'd take a moment to celebrate him with a parade of Pegman Easter eggs, sketches, and prototypes:

Posted by Stephane Lafon, Software Engineer & Andy Szybalski, User Experience Designer

Some favorite Google Maps features now for iPhone

(Cross-posted from the Google Mobile Blog)

I waited in line on launch day to buy my first-generation iPhone, and ever since then it has never left my side. The best part is that it keeps getting more useful with every software upgrade Apple puts out. This time around, Apple has improved their version of Google Maps by putting even more Google features in your pocket.

The most eye-catching one is Street View: Apple's silky-smooth implementation makes it a joy to pan around the world. You might wonder why you'd want to look at panoramas of the world while you're already out in it, but I've found it handy for getting an idea of what to look for when going somewhere new. In somewhere like New York, it's also a great way to get your bearings when you pop out of a subway station in an unfamiliar part of town.

Speaking of subways, my favorite new feature is the addition of Google Transit and walking directions. In a time of congested roads and fluctuating gas prices, driving isn't always the best way to get from A to B, so why limit your options? Now when you get directions, you can switch between driving, walking, and public transportation directions (where available) with a single tap.

Google Maps has schedules for transportation systems in more than 100 cities worldwide, including New York, Tokyo, Montréal, Zürich, and Perth — and now it's easy to get that information on your iPhone. As more transportation agencies decide to share their schedule information, their routes will be available on the iPhone the instant they appear in Google Maps on the web.

Finally, in the latest version of Google Maps for iPhone, you can email information about a location to your friends, which can be a great help when coordinating a get-together.

To get these new Maps features on your iPhone, you'll need to update your phone's software through iTunes. I hope you'll find these new additions as useful as I have. And don't forget that even if you don't have an iPhone, Google Maps for mobile is available for many other kinds of phones, including BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian Series 60, and Android — visit www.google.com/gmm for more details.

Posted by Joe Hughes, Mobile Maps Software Engineer

Tip of the week: airport codes in Google Maps

Thanksgiving is only a week away, which means that the holiday travel season is upon us. Booking plane tickets can be like alphabet soup: you're just trying to get from Los Angeles to Washington, DC, but your itinerary has you changing planes at CVG and landing at BWI. Where on earth are those airports? In Google Maps, you can simply enter the 3-letter airport code to find it on the map. This makes it much easier to figure out where exactly your journey will take you, and to get directions to or from an airport without having to find its address. 

Maybe I'll see you at SJC or DCA.

Posted by Elaine Filadelfo, Lat Long Blog Team

360 degree panoramas in Google Earth

This week, we've started to feature another layer in the Google Earth Gallery, showing several thousand panoramic views provided by 360cities.net. This layer contains exciting 360 degree panoramas from a variety of great photographs taken all over the world!

Do you want to explore some beautiful spots in Central Park, or be impressed by the beautifully illuminated Kremlin at night as seen from the Red Square in Moscow?


These amazing panoramas from 360cities.net will provide you another way to browse user contributed pictures and information in addition to our Panoramio and Wikipedia layers.

Are you also an enthusiast taking panoramic views? It's not difficult to add your images as Photooverlays to Google Earth on your own. If you want to share them with others, just follow the links in the balloons of the 360cities.net layer that will take you to the website to join the 360cities.net community.

Posted by Philipp Hirtz, Engineering Manager, Google Earth

A local focus: two new case studies

From the practical to the political, from the serious to the silly, developers of over 150,000 sites around the world continue to inspire us with their creative uses of the Google Maps API.

To celebrate this blossoming ecosystem, we've redesigned our Case Studies video site. Timed with this relaunch, we've got two new videos showcasing innovative API uses, this time for sites that help you make the most of where you live.

Yelp was an early and eager adopter of the Google Maps API. As their local reviews site has grown in size and geography, Yelp has aggressively built upon our platform with intuitive neighborhood maps, static maps that load quickly but quickly transition to powerful dynamic maps, and more. They've also been quick to support our newest API features such as Street View and Mobile. Check out the video!

We are also excited to profile Zipcar, which uses Google Maps to help its exploding userbase find cars available for hourly or daily rental in their neighborhood:

We've got five more case study videos at the newly redesigned site, so take a quick break and (re)inspire yourself!

Posted by Jesse Friedman, Associate Product Marketing Manager

Access Google Maps wherever you are on the web

One of my favorite things to do while I'm on a business trip -- wherever I am -- is to find great coffee shops. Knowing I can relax with locals and get a strong cup of coffee helps get me through the jet lag and long days that usually accompany these trips. However, I'm usually busy doing all sorts of things on the web, like creating presentations, updating spreadsheets, or checking my flights.

To find a new destination for my coffee fix without having to leave the site I'm on, all I need to do is use the Google Maps gadget on the new Google Toolbar 5 (for Internet Explorer or Firefox). Every time I click on the "compass" icon on my Toolbar, a Google Maps window pops under it: inside the gadget I can search for "Seattle Cafe" and get listings of local coffee shops, along with reviews and driving directions. You can find more interesting gadgets to add to your Toolbar in our gallery.


Posted by Christos Apartoglou, Product Marketing Manager, Google Toolbar

Happy Geography Awareness Week

Some of my earliest memories are of spreading National Geographic maps out on the floor of my living room, picking a faraway place on the planet, and imagining myself on a different continent. Fast forward a couple of decades to 2008, and National Geographic is still inspiring young people to explore our globe.

For the third year in a row, Google is delighted to work with My Wonderful World, a National Geographic-led campaign to give kids the power of global knowledge, on Geography Awareness Week. Beginning today, students and teachers alike can explore a range of geo-activities using Google Earth. Working together on projects like this, that encourage people to roll up their sleeves and explore the world, is what Google's Geo Education initiative is all about.

Did you know that the Lake Victoria water level is dropping, impacting the daily lives of 30 million Ugandans, Kenyans, and Tanzanians? Take a geo-tour of global hotspots to see how geography can help us understand critical issues facing the world today.

Did you know that dining in certain fast food joints in Japan can be a very elegant experience? Or that grocery shopping in Russia is often more of a negotiation than a transaction? With National Geographic's Glimpse, you can hear from young people living and working around the world and see their stories in Google Earth.

Visit the Google for Educators site to learn more about these initiatives and to start exploring today!

Posted by Nate Johnson, Virtual Exploring Enthusiast