Mapping the "No Phone Zone" movement

Mobile communication has revolutionized the way we live, but unfortunately, irresponsible use has also made the roads more dangerous. In 2008, nearly 6000 people lost their lives in the US and more than half a million people were injured in police-reported crashes during which some form of driver distraction was reported — and according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, cell phone use was a major contributor to that.

To help combat distracted driving, Google Maps has worked with The Oprah Winfrey Show to power the mapping for Oprah’s No Phone Zone initiative. The simple pledge form gives you three choices for more responsible driving: no texting, no texting plus handsfree calling only, and no phone use at all while driving.

The first of two maps we’ve made shows where across the US and Canada people have electronically signed the No Phone Zone pledge. It’s nearly real-time, so as you watch the maps you can see the latest name, city, and state/province to join the hundreds of thousands of commitments. This is a nice use of our Google Maps API to allow folks from around the country to easily share their voices on a map in near real-time. Check it out!

The second map helps you educate yourself about state policymaking. Click on a state to restrictions on texting, handsfree, and handheld phone use, and then click through for more details from the Governors Highway Safety Association or to contact a state’s governor directly.

You can see these maps on Oprah.com, or click on “The Map” in the No Phone Zone Widget below. Embed it in your iGoogle page, on a blog, or pretty much anywhere else you communicate by using the “Share” button at bottom-left in the widget below. To make the map work in both the widget and on their website, the developers made use of both the Flash and JavaScript versions of our Google Maps API.

I’ve already signed the pledge but I plan on keeping an eye on the map to watch as more submissions come and see how others make use of it. To learn more about what our mobile team is doing to support safe driving practices, visit our Official Mobile Blog.

Posted by Jesse Friedman, Product Marketing Manager

Up close and personal

[Cross-posted from the SketchUp Blog]

We’re happy to announce that Nashville, Indianapolis, Charlotte, and Dallas are the newest additions to the family of Google Earth cities with high-quality 3D imagery. Exploring some of America’s most well-known cities from the comfort of your own computer just got even easier, and it also got more fun!

Whether exploring Nashville’s music venues along 2nd and Broadway, Indy’s Monument Circle in the heart of downtown, Charlotte’s diverse and numerous museums, or Dallas’s architecturally rich historic districts, the updated high quality 3D imagery will make you feel like you’re really there.

Give it a go in Google Earth or watch the video below for an up close tour!

Posted by Catherine Moats, 3D Modeling Specialist

Imagery for response to Haiti earthquake and Yazoo tornado

To help support ongoing relief efforts in Haiti, we’ve been working with our satellite partner GeoEye to capture updated imagery of Port-au-Prince. As the rainy season approaches, it’s important to have current imagery in order to help aid workers identify and monitor the numerous refugee camps that have sprung up.

You can access the new Haiti satellite imagery by using the Historic Imagery feature in Google Earth. Simply open Google Earth and click on the clock icon in the top toolbar.


The historical imagery time slider will appear just beneath the toolbar. The tick marks on the slider represent images in our database that are available for your current view.

Drag the slider with your mouse to flip between images from different dates. In the below example, you can learn about how a refugee camp has changed in the months since the earthquake.

We’ll continue adding new imagery to the database as it becomes available. We also now have new imagery of the Yazoo City, Mississippi area, where a devastating F4 tornado tore through the town over the weekend. We are making the imagery available as a Google Earth overlay, which we hope can be helpful for responders and those affected by this tragic event.

While we're not able to publish imagery after every disaster around the world, we appreciate the work of our partners and providers to help make this imagery available whenever possible.

Posted by Matt Manolides, Senior GIS Strategist

Tags: Now in 11 cities

Last week we announced that our new ads offering, Tags, would be rolling out to additional cities. Now business owners in San Jose, Houston, Austin, Atlanta, Washington DC, San Diego, Seattle, Boulder, Chicago, San Francisco and Mountain View can sign up for Tags from their Google Places accounts.

You’ll notice that we’ve added Mountain View, CA to the list of cities participating in the trial. Because we are still tweaking the product a bit, we thought we’d make it available in our hometown so we can get quick feedback as we work on new features.

For those who are not yet familiar with Tags, for a $25/month flat fee businesses can opt to add a yellow tag to their Google Places listing that highlights a particular aspect of their business. The tag options today include coupons, photos, videos, menu, reservation, website, and driving directions. In a couple of weeks we will launch a new tag type: “post to your Place Page,” a freeform text field in which a business owner can highlight a custom message announcing a sale or an upcoming event.

Posted by Shalini Agarwal, Product Manager

April showers bring... new imagery

The Google Earth and Maps Imagery team has just finished finished pushing out large amount of updated imagery. In total, more than 35 countries are getting updates in one form or another. Some of my favorite highlights include:

Las Vegas, NV

"The Boneyard" in Tucson, AZ

The World Expo in Shanghai

For a complete picture of where we updated imagery, check out the Google Earth plug-in below (updated areas highlighted in red). 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

Posted by Matt Manolides, Senior Geo Data Strategist

Connect with your "neigh"bors using Google Places

[Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog]

This is the second post in our Small Business series about entrepreneurship and the various Google tools you can use to establish and improve your business presence on the Internet. Here, you’ll learn how Google Places (formerly called the Local Business Center) can help you attract and be discovered by customers in your area for free. -Ed.

As a local business owner, one of the things that sets you apart is your ability to make personal connections with your customers because of your passion for what you do. Letting people know who you are and what your business is about is a vital part of finding customers, building lasting relationships with them and helping your business succeed. Google Placeshelps business owners like you to manage your online presence and supplement your Place Page with all the information that helps people decide to visit you — from basics like hours of operation and address to helpful extras like videos, coupons and special announcements.

To give you a firsthand account of how Google Places can help a small business grow and succeed, I’ve invited Danya Wright to share her experience:

I first began riding horses at age six. Ever since then I knew that I wanted to spend my life working with horses and sharing my passion with others. I had jobs working for several barns and riding programs around Arizona, but always dreamed of having a school of my own.

Two years ago, I finally realized my dream and opened Specialized Training and Riding School — S.T.A.R.S. of Horsemanship. At S.T.A.R.S., we offer lessons to riders of all ages and skill levels, provide therapeutic horse training services for those with disabilities, and train Special Olympics riders. Our property is a 10-acre scenic environment for our students and horses. But because we’re located in a rural area ofGilbert, AZ, this also presents a big challenge: I don’t have the advantage of “window shoppers” or drive-by traffic. Without a storefront, those who do pass by may not realize that my stable is open to customers. Whenever I want to find a local business, Google Maps is my resource, so I wanted to make sure my business appears there too.

I did a little research and quickly found Google Places (which was known as Local Business Center when I first signed up). Within a few minutes, I was able to update theS.T.A.R.S. Place Page to add key details about my business, like exact location and contact information. And I could mention the special services we offer like group classes, private lessons, birthday parties, Scouting events, parent-child sessions and so on. Now when a company’s looking specifically for a team-building venue, they can find my business easily.



Since avid equestrians can be quite particular about facility details, I wanted to make sure that my Place Page included all of the specialized information that’s relevant to my target clients. Now when you search on Google, you can be taken to our Place Page to see photos that offer preview of our stables and even meet Salty, one of the horses. You can also find a coupon to help provide a little extra incentive to come try out our lessons if you’re new to horseback riding.

Since I started using Google Places six months ago, my business has grown tenfold from what it was before — I’ve gone from averaging around 10 to 15 students to now serving more than 100. To be honest, I had just figured that new customers would trickle in over time, but it’s boomed far beyond my expectations. And now I can spend more time with horses and riders, and less at the computer!

Posted by Carter Maslan, Director of Product Management, Local Search

Keeping Canada's map current

En Français

The map of Canada is constantly changing - new roads are being built, highways are being renamed, and bike trails are opening. To keep up with all these changes, we've started using new map data in Canada. This new base map is built from a wide range of sources, just as we recently announced for the US in October. In Canada, we've made use of data from organizations such as the National Hydrography Network and Canadian Council on Geomatics. Once again things like satellite imagery and Street View were also helpful to make a rich, thorough base map.

You may notice some changes like seeing a full map of your former campus, but overall the look and feel of Google Maps will be pretty similar to what you're used to. One of the biggest changes is that now you can give us direct feedback about our map of Canada - let's say a new park has just opened in your neighborhood. You'll notice a link that says "Report a Problem" in the lower right corner of Google Maps when you're looking at Canada, which will let you send your updates and feedback directly to us. We'll review it as soon as possible and keep you posted on the status of your report. We want our map to be as up-to-date as possible and reflect what's important to you, and we think these changes will help us with that goal.

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En Français

La carte du Canada est en constante évolution : de nouvelles routes sont construites, des autoroutes sont rebaptisées et de nouvelles pistes cyclables sont aménagées. Afin de tenir compte de ces changements, nous avons commencé à utiliser de nouvelles données cartographiques pour le Canada. Cette nouvelle carte a été assemblée à partir d’un large éventail de sources, comme celles utilisées dans le cas des États-Unis (annonce effectuée en octobre). Au Canada, nous avons recueilli des données auprès d’organisations comme le Réseau hydro national et le Conseil canadien de géomatique. Des concepts comme l’imagerie par satellite et Street View nous ont également été utiles pour concevoir une carte de base riche et complète.

Vous remarquerez certains changements, comme la possibilité de consulter une carte précise de votre alma mater, mais l’aspect visuel et la navigation de Google Maps demeureront assez semblables à ce à quoi vous êtes habitué. L’un des plus importants changements est la possibilité de nous faire parvenir directement votre rétroaction au sujet de notre carte du Canada. Par exemple, si un nouveau parc a été aménagé dans votre quartier, vous pouvez alors cliquer sur le lien «Signaler un problème», au coin inférieur droit de la carte, afin de nous transmettre directement vos mises à jour et vos commentaires. Nous examinerons votre rétroaction dans les plus brefs délais et nous vous tiendrons au courant du progrès de votre demande. Nous désirons mettre au point une carte la plus actuelle possible qui répond à vos besoins, et nous croyons que ces changements nous aideront à atteindre cet objectif.

Posted by Waleed Kadous, Software Engineer