Mapping resources for the Red River Floods

As the news began to spread of the Red River's record-setting crest level, the first order of the day was to help get the word out to as many as possible. This was especially true in Fargo, North Dakota's most populus city, with 92,000 residents living in the vicinity of the Red River. For many Fargoans, the need for timely, flood-related geographical information, including shelter locations, evacuated neighborhoods, and official news was paramount. Radio Fargo-Moorehead, owners of several of Fargo's TV and radio stations, worked to develop a My Map that was embedded across its network of Fargo-area station websites, including: KFGO.com, BOB95FM.com, ROCK102online.com, MOJO104.com, Y94.com, and 740thefan.com. 

Through the collaborative editing properties of My Map, this map was jointly kept updated over the course of the flood, the changes being instantly reflected on the Radio-Fargo station websites. After only 72 hours, the number of map visits from Fargoans, Moorheaders, and others from across the country exceeded 250,000. These resources will continue to evolve as this situation continues to change.

View KFGO - Red River Flood 2009 in a larger map

View the KFGO Fargo MyMap

We have also published a Google Earth Layer (kmz) with more GIS-related information for the flood response. This layer will be updated with additional data, including imagery, as it becomes available. To view the layer in Google Earth, download the KML file found here.

Posted by Phil Dixon, Geospatial Business Product Manager; and Pete Giencke, GIS Data Engineer

Your 3D buildings in Google Earth

[Cross-posted with the SketchUp Blog]

Late last week we updated the 3D Buildings layer in Google Earth. The emphasis of this release was user-contributed data; photo-textured 3D models created using Google SketchUp and published to the Google 3D Warehouse.

This release was significantly larger than previous releases. Thousands of user-generated models were pushed live and we hope yours was included! The reason for the increase is that we've been working hard to identify and review 3D building models that may have been overlooked. Many thanks to our loyal modelers who have helped to identify these deserving models, and been patient while we work out some kinks in the process.

If you're a geo-modeler and have been waiting for your model to be reviewed, have a look to see if it made it in this release. If not, then stay tuned. We've already started the process of re-reviewing each and every "Google Earth ready" model submitted to the Google 3D Warehouse. It's no small undertaking but we're committed to having this completed very soon.

In the meantime, hats-off to the many modelers whose models were included. To highlight a couple....check out the Chrysler building in New York modeled by Kevin Girard, or Saint Peter's Basilica and Square in Vatican City by Antonino Grasso Cristaudo. Awesome work!

Posted by Bruce Polderman, Sr. Business Product Manager

Searching for more than the point

Over the past few years Google Maps users have created millions of maps using the My Maps feature. At the same time we have been busy scouring the web to find maps in other formats, like KML and GeoRSS, to include in our index. As you may have seen in the recent post about blended search results we have been including individual places from those maps in our results. Until now, however, there has been no easy way to find complete maps created by others. That changes this week, as we start to surface a link to these complete maps when we think they are relevant to your query. For example, the query 'President Birth Places' now returns the following:

Clicking on the maps title takes you to a great map showing where each president was born:

Here are a few other queries to try: London Olympics 2012, US State Capitals, US National Parks, Events near Bay Area and Castles in Wales.

In addition to making searching better, this is also an excuse for you to go polish your maps, since now the world can find them! Remember, if we find an attribution in your feed we will link back to you.

Posted by James Macgill, Software Engineer

Mapping the big melt

Since the mid-1970s, glaciers have been melting faster than any other point in geologic history. James Balog, National Geographic Society photographer, has visited many of the world's most stunning glaciers, and has documented their unnaturally rapid retreat as a result of global climate change. Thanks to James Balog's Extreme Ice Survey, you can go to what was once the highest ski resort in the world, Chacaltaya Glacier in Bolivia, at 17,200 ft; this thousand year old glacier has all but disappeared in the past 68 years. Or visit Columbia Glacier in Alaska, which has deflated and thinned approximately 1200 feet since the early 1980's—equivalent height to the Empire State Building. Watch time-lapse photography of many glaciers' movements around the globe, from Alaska to Greenland to Switzerland.


Through books, films, TV shows, and now through Google Earth, efforts are being made to illustrate what is going on with the world's most remote and inaccessible glaciers. "I think science and art both have something to say to the public about what's going on. And that's what motivates me. I think with these tools we have a mechanism for telling the truth and bringing the evidence to the public," said James. 

According to the Extreme Ice Survey, glacial retreat isn't happening at a glacial pace. You can watch PBS's NOVA special on Extreme Ice this Tuesday at 8pm to hear more about it. Until then, explore the Google Earth layer created by Bryce Tugwell.

Posted by Tanya Keen, Google Earth Outreach

Mapping the Madness returns

Today, the wonderful chaos that is March Madness returns, and with it, comes a brand new college basketball KML like the one I built last year. To celebrate this annual moment of basketball bliss, I've added the locations of this year's 13 tournament venues, in addition to the locations of the 65 tournament teams' campuses.

Why, you might ask, did I decide to burn the midnight oil again to map these locations? Because I'm a a die-hard college hoops nut, plain and simple. Plus, I love learning facts like the ones below. As you're watching the games over the next few weeks, take a minute during a break in the action to do some March Madness geo-browsing and see if you can find these spots in Google Earth:

• A tournament venue with an airplane silhouette on top of it
• The tournament team based in Moon Township, PA
  
• The two tournament teams that play in arenas that have their school logos on the roofs

I've also included these placemarks on a My Map - check it out:

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Enjoy, and let the Madness begin!

Posted by Adam Hughes, Google Maps Senior Strategist and College Hoops Fan

Street View cures the homesick blues

I moved from Amsterdam to London last year and even though I've enjoyed getting to know London, I can't help feeling a bit homesick sometimes. Which is why I'm really excited that today we're launching Street View for both the Netherlands and the United Kingdom;  now I can take a trip down memory lane and explore my new home, even if it's raining. Starting today you'll be able to view 360º street level imagery for Amsterdam, London, Rotterdam, Manchester, Liverpool and several other cities in these countries -- 25 cities in all!

Now whenever I feel like going back to the Netherlands I can use Street View to admire the beautiful canals in Amsterdam:
 

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...or visit my old university in Rotterdam:

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...or even take a look at the bike I left behind:

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Street View will also help me further explore London and other cities in the United Kingdom. I can now better plan my visits to Portobello market in London (so that I don't get lost like last time)...

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....try to find the exact spot of a famous zebra crossing:

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....show my friends abroad some of London's most famous landmarks (spin around for another view):

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....or take a look at historic Oxford: 

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The great thing about this is that with Google Maps on my mobile I can check Street View when I'm out and about and see exactly what the restaurant I'm supposed to be meeting my friends at looks like.

I'm not the only one who's very excited about Street View's arrival in the Netherlands and the UK; there are quite a few websites which are already (yes, already - it's that easy) using Street View in creative ways. With some help from our friends at fancyapint.com I can use Street View to find the best watering holes in London, and the Tate museum helps me get a better sense of British culture by showing how the world has changed since the likes of J.W. Turner were painting back in the 18th century. Other partners such as the Mayor of London show the highlights of the city, VisitBritain shows me where to go in the United Kingdom, and the Dutch tourist organisation VVV shows me what's what in Holland.

And if somehow this just isn't enough, there is even more! After launching Street View in France, Spain and Italy last year we're also excited to announce that we're adding more cities to Street View in these countries, which means that Google Maps will be even more useful when you next plan a vacation to the south of France, Zaragoza or the Amalfi coast.

If you want to view street level imagery for all these new locations - go to Google Maps and drag the Pegman icon to one of the (many) new cities in Europe. Have fun exploring!

Posted by Kenzo Fong Hing, Product Marketing Manager

A taste of what's to come

On September 6th 2008, satellite imagery company GeoEye successfully launched the world's most advanced commercial imaging satellite, GeoEye-1, into orbit. After nearly 4 months of in-orbit checkouts they officially announced the start of GeoEye-1 commercial operations in February. Since then they have been building their archive with beautiful images of our planet, such as this one of the pyramids near Cairo, Egypt:

In the coming months you will start seeing stunning GeoEye-1 imagery blended into our database and viewable through Google Earth, Maps, and Google Maps for Mobile, but until then you can visit http://earth.google.com/geoeye/ to download a KML preview of full resolution GeoEye-1 imagery to get a taste of what's to come. As exciting as these images are, remember: there will be even more coming soon!

Posted by Dylan Lorimer, Strategic Partner Manager; and Jacob Schonberg, Associate Product Manager