Calling all 3D Google Earth files

Posted by Mark Limber, Product ManagerWe love seeing all the great 3D SketchUp models that pop up in the 3D Warehouse. You can find everything from abstract art to buildings. The very best georeferenced content appears in the 'Best of 3D Warehouse' layer in Google Earth, which everyone can see just by turning on the '3D Buildings' layer.SketchUp is a great tool for creating Google Earth models, but we know sometimes you'll want to go beyond what...

Read More

Street View and Privacy

Posted by Peter Fleischer, Global Privacy CounselStreet View is a service that lets people view and navigate within 360 degree street level imagery of various cities in the US. It provides users with a rich, immersive browsing experience directly in Google Maps, enabling greater understanding of a specific location or area. Since we launched Street View in May, we have released imagery for seven US cities. We thought hard about how to design Street View so that the service would respect the privacy of people who happen to be walking down a public...

Read More

Custom icons for your maps

Posted by Keith Golden, Software Engineer, Google MapsWhen we first started developing the map creation tools in Google Maps, I found a turkey hiding among the Maps placemark icons, a Thanksgiving leftover, no doubt. I proposed we include it in our icon menu. For some reason, no one else on the team seemed to think that was a good idea. I'm guessing few of you have been clamoring for a turkey, but perhaps you have wished for some other symbol that...

Read More

Previewing content in Google Earth

Posted by Wei Luo, Senior GIS SpecialistYou might go to Google Earth to look up something specific—your house, your next vacation spot or close-up pictures of elephants in Africa, for example. Or sometimes you might just feel like wandering the earth, diving in to find out more about a particular location or topic. But where do you start? There's so much fascinating content in Google Earth created by partners like National Geographic Magazine, the...

Read More

Every percent counts

Posted by Chris Harrelson, Software Engineer, Google TransitThe Google Transit team has been busy lately. In the last few weeks alone we've added trip planning coverage for:- Buses and light rail in Dallas, Texas- The Las Vegas Monorail- Humboldt County, CA- Thousand Oaks, CA- Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART)I'm especially excited about this last one, since it's our first partner agency to serve my hometown of Berkeley, CA. Oh, and there's one more reason I like BART. As you may know, Google Transit began its life as a 20 percent project. Now, the...

Read More

Australia readies itself for a Google Maps election

Posted by Alan Noble, Google AustraliaIt might not be widely known to our friends in the northern hemisphere, but a federal election is due to take place in Australia before the end of the year. Nothing captures the public's attention or stirs emotion quite like an election, however, many of our citizens do not have easy access to electorate information. A recent launch in Sydney of a Google Australian election website helps to remedy this by providing...

Read More

More of the world for you to explore

Posted by Dave Barth, Product ManagerHere's great news for all of the virtual explorers out there: Today we added 54 new countries to Google Maps! We've more than doubled our coverage of Latin America and are now mapping three times as many countries in Asia as before. So if you've ever wanted to get the flavor of an energetic metropolis like Mexico City or scope out the relaxed vibe of a small island like Aruba, we've got you covered.Here's the full list of new countries:Afghanistan, Aruba, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belize, Bermuda, Brunei...

Read More

The new moon

Posted by Michael Weiss-Malik, Software EngineerDespite its phase changes, the same side of the moon always faces Earth, like a giant eyeball keeping watch over us. And for most of history, that's all we ever did in return: stare back. Until 1969, that is, when Neil Armstrong took his famous first steps. It's not easy to fly to the moon yourself, but we can offer the next best thing.As you may have heard, we've released a new version of Google Moon, one that fully eclipses its predecessor. This update brings higher-resolution map imagery, text...

Read More

KML 2.2

Posted by Mano Marks, Google Geo API TeamOn May 31, at Developer Day, Google previewed early beta documentation for KML 2.2, the latest update to our geographic data presentation language. That preview introduced a number of important features to KML, including: PhotoOverlay Camera Atom attribution elements Limiting session length in NetworkLinks Linking between features When Google Earth 4.2 was released on August 22, KML 2.2 Beta was officially released, with some additions to what was previewed in May. Here's...

Read More

Greener maps

Posted by Steve Miller, Product Manager, Google Earth OutreachWe love it when you put our products to work to help the environment. Individuals and organizations have come up with all sorts of creative ways to create maps that highlight the causes that they care most about, and we wanted to recap just a few cool examples from this summer.In June, the Commission for Environmental Cooperation released a layer for Google Earth that tracks pollution from industrial locations across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Another Google Earth user did the same...

Read More

Where do you want to fly today?

Posted by Gerhard Wesp, Software Engineer, Google EarthWord is out that the new version of Google Earth includes a hidden Flight Simulator. Good sleuthing!You might be wondering why we hid it in the first place. Well, we know that discovery is what Google Earth is all about, and you've proven yourselves quite adept at finding the unexpected. We knew it would only be a matter of time before you happened upon this new, enjoyable way to appreciate the...

Read More

Happy trails

Posted by Keith Golden, Software Engineer, Google MapsAs many of you have discovered, the line tool in Google Maps is a great way to create maps of your bike routes and hiking trails. But something has been missing: After plotting out a hike in Yosemite, how do you know whether it's going to be a 2-hour hike or a 2-day hike? You can't tell how long the trail is!Well, now you can. We've added distance measurement to the line tool. Whenever you draw...

Read More

Mercedes-Benz Search & Send uses Google Maps

Posted by Tricia Murdy, Telematics Analyst, MBUSA, LLC, and Thomas Bock, Senior Systems Engineer, DaimlerChrysler REDNA Inc.We are pleased to announce the launch of Mercedes-Benz Search & Send, a new service that enables you to send destinations directly from Google Maps to select Mercedes-Benz vehicles equipped with Tele Aid. Mercedes-Benz is the first automotive manufacturer to offer this functionality in the U.S.Search and Send is a convenient...

Read More