Code for My Tracks is now yours

A year ago, we released My Tracks, an Android app that lets you track activities like hikes, bike rides and trail runs using your mobile device. Now we’re announcing the release of the My Tracks source code into the wild.

What this means to users: My Tracks will become even better. The collective intelligence of the development community will create a more powerful, more intuitive, more useful, and more robust My Tracks. In addition, complementary apps will be written (For details on third party app development, see the wiki documentation). Applications for fitness activities, geocaching—heck, even dog tracking—are not hard to imagine.

Open-sourcing My Tracks also means that bug tracking is now public. Go to the "Issues" section of the My Tracks Code site to see what is being actively developed and to file your own feature requests/bugs.

What this means to developers: You can now contribute code directly to My Tracks to improve it, fix a bug, or add a feature. We don't promise that all changes will become part of the My Tracks codebase, but cleanly coded, useful contributions have a darn good chance. If you’re feeling adventurous (and slightly masochistic), file and fix bugs for unreleased--and probably buggy--versions of My Tracks, to improve overall quality and stability. Note that for all contributions, we have a code review process—see the wiki for more information.

How non-coders can contribute: Translate My Tracks! If you'd like to translate My Tracks to your language, or fix a translation that is incorrect, please let us know at mytracks-dev@googlegroups.com and we'll explain how to do it. We'll soon post documents explaining the process, on the My Tracks wiki.

All development-related discussions will occur on the mytracks-dev@googlegroups.com list (but please don't post coding-related questions there).

This is an exciting new track for My Tracks. Jump in!

Posted by Sandor Dornbush and Rodrigo Damazio, Software Engineers for My Tracks

Styled Maps and wrapping up I/O in style

Thanks to everyone who made Google I/O 2010 a success! We always look forward to this event each year as a chance to speak one-to-one with developers from the Maps and Earth API ecosystem and this year did not disappoint.

Last week at Googe I/O, we made several announcements about updates to our tools for geo developers. I wanted to give you a closer look at one of those updates -- Styled Maps for the Google Maps API v3. You now have more control over how to style the base map within Google Maps API implementations. Styled Maps gives you the ability to change and customize various features of the base map, like changing the color of the water or removing roads altogether. This new styling feature gives you full control to display and customize the parts of the map that lets your data on the map shine. Take a look at this Styled Map Wizard and make the map your own!

If you want to watch this announcement or any of our other sessions, stay tuned to the Google I/O Geo session pages where we’ll soon be posting full video from each talk, including complete presentation materials. We’ve also put together a photo album to recap some of the highlights from our time at I/O:

A big thank you to these 16 companies who met with developers to share their experience in implementing Google Maps and Earth APIs in interesting ways!

Posted by Mike Pegg, Product Marketing Manager

Congratulations to Aadith Moorthy, the 2010 National Geographic Bee Champion

[Cross-posted with the Official Google Blog]

Tswana is a Bantu language spoken by the largest ethnic group in what landlocked country?

The production of yerbe maté, a tea made from an evergreen plant, is important to the economy of Misiones. This province is located in which country that borders Paraguay?

The Øresund Bridge, opened in 2000, connects Copenhagen, Denmark with what Swedish city?

The largest city in northern Haiti was renamed following Haiti’s independence from France. What is the present-day name of this city?

Aadith Moorthy tackled these and other questions to win this year’s National Geographic Bee held today in Washington, D.C. While he missed his first question of the day, he didn’t let that get get in his way. His win is the culmination of many months of preparation and local competitions that began last fall at schools across the country.

Aadith is a 13-year-old 8th grader from Palm Harbor, Florida and attends the Palm Land Middle School. When not studying geography, he is a South Indian classical (Carnatic) music concert singer. At the beginning of the final round, he gave the audience a taste of his talent when Alex Trebek, the host of the Bee, asked him to sing on the spot.

We’re proud that Google is this year’s sponsor of the National Geographic Bee. This contest exemplifies the importance of being geographically literate and showcases just how well these students understand the world around them. This skill-set will be a vital asset as they continue their education and careers. As you can tell from the questions above, it’s not just a matter of memorizing state and country capitals!

I had the great opportunity to speak at both the preliminary and championship rounds of the Bee and was impressed by the dedication of the teachers who made special efforts to train their school finalists and the depth of knowledge of the students. This is contest with important implications for their future lives and careers.

We’re excited to follow all of the 54 finalists to see where in the world they land.



Answers: Botswana, Argentina, Malmö, Cap-Haïtien

Posted by Brian McClendon, VP of Engineering, Google Earth and Maps

Experience the 9/11 Memorial in Google Earth

The 9/11 Memorial organization, a non-profit group responsible for care-taking the 9/11 museum and memorial park, first contacted Google in 2008 to explore ideas on how our technology might be used to enhance the experience for people visiting the museum (currently under construction) and on its website. Several ideas were proposed, including the use of Street View, which the group added to their Make History website in 2009.

We met at Google’s New York City office and learned about the many creative exhibit ideas that were planned for the museum, as well as the design concepts behind the 9/11 memorial park. I found it very fascinating. I couldn’t help but wonder: how can this be shared with the world? How can we enable everyone, anywhere to learn more about events of that day, and experience what proposes to be an unforgettable museum and park?

The 9/11 Memorial designers presented artist renderings and physical models of the proposed construction, both of which were impressive, but the audience for each is limited to the small population of the public who can see them in-person. The meeting could have concluded with a list of proposals for the 9/11 organization to pursue, however we left feeling as though Google could and should do more. The events of that day are etched in all of our memories, and we felt obligated to identify an appropriate way to honor the families of the victims and support the organization whose charter it was to preserve our collective memories.

Our proposal of course was Google Earth. The products’ popularity and reach would make it an ideal platform for people to visit and explore the 9/11 site - virtually. Virtual tourism is one of the most common uses of the Google Earth, and, it’s been used to represent both historical and future buildings in the past, so we thought it would be fitting to create a 3D model of the 9/11 memorial so that people anywhere could envision what the memorial will look like when it’s completed next year.

We requested design drawings, artist renderings, and any other visual materials that could be used to construct a 3D model, and went to work. Mason Thrall, one of our most experienced 3D modelers was the first to volunteer to develop a model of the park. The 9/11 Memorial group incorporated the Google Earth plugin into their website, and developed KML placemarks that help orient visitors to the site. Take a 3D tour of the 9/11 Memorial and Museum within the context of the surrounding landscape of lower Manhattan.

The 9/11 memorial is scheduled to open next year, however you can experience today via Google Earth on their website.

Posted by Bruce Polderman, Product Manager

Stockholm is on the 3D map

[Cross-posted from the SketchUp blog]

Stockholm, which is said to be referred to as the “Venice of the North” may not receive a lot of sunlight throughout the year, but today it’s in the limelight as the newest city to be included in the 3D Buildings layer of Google Earth. Watch the video below to see Stockholm, Sweden in 3D:

Stockholm is a unique geographic location - filled with historic bridges, buildings, and parks. The rich architectural history make it a fulfilling destination for the virtual tourist.


The city's oldest section is "Gamla Stan"(The Old City). It's located on the original small islands of the city's earliest settlements and features cobbled streets and medieval alleyways.


And if time is short, make sure you fly over to The Royal Palace, the official residence ofHis Majesty The King. Explore Stockholm in 3D with Google Earth and now with Earth view in Google Maps.


Posted by Bruce Polderman, Product Manager

Top geography students prepare to compete for championship

Since last fall, more than 4 million students across the United States have competed in local geography bees, answering complex geographic questions to show their understanding of the world around them. In just a few days, this year’s 54 National Geographic Bee finalists will be arriving in Washington D.C. to compete for the winning spot.

Google is sponsoring the Bee for the second year in a row in support of its mission to raise awareness and support of geography education. Held at National Geographic’s headquarters and broadcast on public television stations across the country, the competition inspires and challenges students to learn how people and places interact and how environments and economics interrelate. These students’ knowledge exemplifies why geography matters! You can get to know the finalists by using this interactive Google Map.

From there, you can check out the videos the students have created about their passion for geography, with a surprise appearances by several members of Google’s geo team:

As the proud sponsor of the 2010 National Geographic Bee, Google wants to wish all of the finalists good luck!

Posted by Tina Ornduff, Geo Education Team

Keeping up-to-date on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill

[Cross-posted with the Official Google Blog]

It is estimated that at least 6 million gallons of oil have leaked into the Gulf of Mexico since the Deepwater Horizon explosion a month ago. Cleanup efforts are underway, but the oil has spread extensively around the Gulf and along the southern U.S. coastline. Oil has begun washing up on the beaches of Louisiana and the delicate wetlands along the Mississippi River, and can spread to Florida and throughout the Gulf as weather conditions change. This sequence of images, coming from NASA’s MODIS satellites, illustrates the movement and growth of the oil slick over the past few weeks:

April 25, 2010

April 29, 2010

May 9, 2010

May 17, 2010

The last image, taken earlier this week (on May 17), shows the coastal areas currently at risk from the spreading oil, and can help those working on the wide range of relief efforts.


You can view this and other MODIS imagery in Google Earth by downloading this KML. You can also view additional imagery and find other resources and news at our oil spill crisis response page.

Posted by Pete Giencke, GIS Data Engineer