More languages in 3D Warehouse

Posted by Lori Meiskey, Software EngineerIf you've had a chance to stop by the Google SketchUp Blog today, you most likely saw my post heralding the release of 3D Warehouse in eight new languages. Now Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Korean, Arabic, Czech, and Traditional Chinese join our list of available translations. Already included are English, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish.We're hoping the release of Google 3D Warehouse in...

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Earthquake mapping

Posted by Lior Ron, Product Manager, Google MapsI was working kind of late last night, and around 8:04 pm, I felt the floor underneath my desk shake and move. For a second I thought the Google Halloween party was getting wild, but then I realized I was experiencing my first earthquake!Equipped with my mapping skills, I went to explore what exactly happened. I found some cool things about the earthquake by using Google Maps, and I thought I would pass this info along to you: Where did it happen?A search through user-generated content on Google Maps...

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Map of the day: Halloween edition

Posted by Jess Lee, Product Manager, Google MapsHappy Halloween from the Google Maps team! If you're looking for local costume parties or haunted houses, here are some Halloween event maps for different cities in the U.S.:Portland corn mazes and pumpkin patches - A guide to Portland, Oregon metro-area corn mazes, pumpkin patches and fall harvest events, created by the Oregonian News.Chicago's Haunted Houses - Best places for a scare in the Windy City.Halloween Happenings in Detroit - Fun events for the entire family throughout the month of October,...

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Master layer for Southern California fires imagery

Posted by Wei Luo, Senior GIS SpecialistWe have created a master layer in Google Earth that includes all of the imagery of the affected areas that we've published so far. The new layer includes imagery from MODIS (from 10/24) as well as updated fire perimeters from the San Diego EOC. And we'll incorporate new imagery as it becomes available.Be sure to save the KML file to "My Places" by right-clicking and choosing "Save to My Places." To get the...

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Southern California fire imagery

Posted by Wei Luo, Senior GIS SpecialistAs the fires in Southern California continue to spread, our data providers have gathered updated imagery of the affected areas. We are making this imagery taken on October 22nd available as a Google Earth overlay, and will continue to update the imagery as it becomes available. Our thoughts are with the communities displaced by this tragedy.Thanks to DigitalGlobe for their fast work.Image (c) 2007 DigitalGlobeUpdate...

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Where in the world is ... (bonus edition -- Answers)

Posted by Matt Manolides, GIS Specialist Great job, everyone! I love following your collective blog entries tracking the updates, especially the ones that find updated imagery totally unrelated to the hints I gave.Answers:1) U.S. Route 91 turns into a much more famous stretch of road when it crosses into this town.-- Las Vegas (The Las Vegas Strip) 2) Every year, this...

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Where in the world is ... (bonus edition)

Posted by Matt Manolides, GIS SpecialistSurprise! I bet you weren't expecting another imagery update from the Google Earth/Maps team so quickly. ;-)I'm very happy to announce that, today, we've published a large amount of new high-res imagery around the world. While in the previous post I spoke of 60cm imagery, this release has mostly aerial (higher-resolution) data, as well as some medium-resolution imagery for large swaths of land. Some of you...

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San Diego Fire Map

Posted by Jess Lee, Product Manager, Google MapsFor those of you affected by the two wildfires in San Diego County, KPBS Online created a fire map that includes up-to-date news on the spread of the fire and shows the location of evacuated areas, Red Cross evacuation centers, and closed highways. They are also providing live radio coverage of the fire.The Los Angeles Times is also tracking fires across Southern California in a map, found here.Update:...

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Recap of Google's International Cleanup Weekend

Posted by Steve Miller, Google Earth Outreach Well, the numbers are officially in for International Cleanup Weekend. When the dust settled, we looked at the map and found that cleanups were planned in 35 countries, involving over 3,000 participants in almost 300 cleanup projects. Now that's a lot of trash and a lot of cleaning up.When we started crafting our plans, we expected to see cleanups in the 15 countries where the 'My Maps' tab in Google...

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Put yourself on the map

Posted by Jess Lee, Google Maps Product ManagerWho knows your neighborhood better than you? That's why we've been releasing features that let you add your own content to Google Maps. For example, you can use our map-creation tools to make maps of recommended places to visit or leave ratings and reviews for your favorite restaurants. Your maps and reviews will be seen by the millions of people who use Google Maps every day.Starting today, you can...

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Raising the limits for KML on Maps

Posted by Nigel Tao, Software Engineer, Google MapsThere's so much of the world to see, and sometimes it just doesn't all fit onto a map at once. Previously, people have written custom Mapplets or Maps API pages to visualize their dense geographic databases, and that's still what we'd recommend if you are a web developer and want the full interactivity of JavaScript. If you don't need that functionality, however, Google Maps now offers a better view of KML files of similar density and richness, especially when they contain <NetworkLink>s...

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Map of the day: Celeb spotting in New York City

Posted by Larry Greenfield, Software EngineerI know this isn't the kind of star gazing we usually report on around here, but for those of you who follow celebrity gossip, here's your chance to spot celebrities in real life. Top 50 Places to See Celebrities in NYC is a user-created map that lists all the hottest restaurants, clubs, bars and hotels in New York where you're most likely to run into celebrities like Nicole Richie, Jay-Z, J.Lo, Paris Hilton and Bruce Willis. For example, the Tribeca Grill is owned by Robert DeNiro and is frequented by...

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International Cleaner-Uppers: Show us your rubbish!

Posted by Steve Miller, Google Earth OutreachIn keeping with the environmental theme of the day, we're happy to announce that the first International Cleanup Weekend was a success! If you participated, please remember to add photos and videos to your cleanup map. Don't forget to check back on Thursday for a full summary of the weekend's achievements.Update: The maps have already started rolling in. Check out this great one created by a Boulder-based Googler for inspirati...

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Bioneers and Google Earth

Posted by Rebecca Moore, Manager, Google Earth OutreachWhat do you get when you cross a conservation biologist with an engineer? A "bioneer," of course. The Bioneers integrate ideas and practices from many disciplines and cultures, with the broad goal of restoring the Earth and its environment. Each year since 1990, the Bioneers have brought together leading thinkers (and doers) at their annual conference to exchange ideas, foster connections and build new skills.In honor of Blog Action Day, we're excited to announce that, this year, the Bioneers...

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Zoom in on Google Maps

Posted by Chikai Ohazama, Product ManagerRemember what would happen as the Six Million Dollar Man chased after bad guys and needed a closer view of the action? The "na na na na... " sound effect would come on and then he would use his bionic eye to zoom in to see what was going on. Well, now we've given you a bionic eye on Google Maps! OK, not a literal bionic eye, as Steve Austin had. But you can zoom in even closer to areas all around the globe...

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Explore even more with Google Earth

Posted by James Macgill, Software EngineerWe're always excited to see what our users do with KML files and Google Earth -- whether it's a timeline of the history of London, a tour of the works of Claes Oldenburg, or a virtual Namibian road trip. And we're always trying to make it easy to create and share interesting geographic content.We've introduced a new feature that lets you much more easily search, browse and discover some of the best geographic...

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Become a Google Earth Pro Expert!

Posted by James Therrien, Training ManagerA lot of people have been asking about ways they can familiarize themselves with the Google Earth Pro. Finally, we have a great set of classes to point them to.Now, anyone interested in Google Earth Pro can sign up for a training class at one of the many course locations. For more information, check out this post on the Google SketchUp blog. And don't forget -- SketchUp training classes are offered too!We...

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Now Playing: YouTube videos in Google Earth

Posted by Amin Charaniya, Software Engineer, Google EarthI love watching videos on YouTube. Every once in a while I'll see something so good that it makes me stop and wonder where it was recorded or how I can find more videos from that particular location. For instance, just the other day I stumbled upon a video of a man playing a guitar with his feet. The person who uploaded the video to YouTube geotagged it, so I was able to track the guitarist...

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Community maps in your search results

Posted by Lior Ron, Product ManagerIt's no secret that our users are the true experts on local information. Sometimes a tip from a friend or a friendly local can make all the difference.Over the last year, we've been working hard to organize this local wisdom; we've sifted through millions of My Maps, KML files and other information created by all of you in the geoweb. Starting today, community maps will be available in search results on Google Maps....

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More Street View cities to explore (Update)

Posted by Brittany Bohnet, Associate Product Marketing ManagerAs some of you may have already heard, we've added Street View imagery to six new cities in Google Maps: Chicago, Portland, Pittsburgh, Phoenix, Tucson and Philadelphia. To celebrate, we've created a new video that follows the adventures of our lovable Street View character as he karaokes his way through our newly added cities.If you're interested in making your own Street View video, don't forget to right-click and download this free MP3. Reply with a video response for a chance to...

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More Street View cities to explore

Posted by Stephane Lafon, Software Engineer, Google MapsFor those of you who have been eagerly awaiting new cities to be added to Street View in Google Maps, your patience is about to pay off. Today, we're announcing the addition of Street View imagery in not one or two but six new cities!Now you can check out 360-degree views of Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland and Tucson. As an added bonus, the images in Phoenix, Tucson and...

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What Are You Doing This Weekend?

Posted by Steve Miller, Product Manager Last week, Google announced an International Cleanup Weekend on October 13th and 14th, encouraging Googlers and Google Maps users around the world to head out and clean up local parks, beaches, trails, and other places close to home. To date, we have received more than 130 cleanup maps from people who have enlisted the help of their friends, family members and coworkers to make the world a cleaner, better place....

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Where in the world is... (Answers)

Posted by Matt Manolides, GIS SpecialistGreat job figuring out the answers to all the clues, I am always impressed at how people scattered all across the globe team up to solve these riddles.1) I don't mean to "flatter," but this remote Northwestern cape is very beautiful.- Cape Flattery, WA2) You can now explore the ruins of this ancient Mayan city, first discovered in 1934.- Becan, Mexico (it's a little cloudy, but you can still see plenty of...

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Now Playing: The Google Maps Video Tour

Posted by Jess Lee, Product Manager, Google MapsOver the past few months we've put together some fun YouTube videos to help educate people about features in Google Maps, like Street View and our mapmaking tools.Now, you can learn about all of these features in one place on the Google Maps Video Tour page.We've also added a brand-new Getting Started video that explains the basics. It's perfect for educating beginner users, like the aunt who always calls you for tech support help.Let us know what you think of the video by leaving some comments on...

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Google Transit Graduates from Labs

Posted by Christoph Oehler, Product ManagerIt may be back-to-school season, but Google Transit has just graduated from Google Labs! We're excited to say it's now a fully integrated feature in Google Maps. This means that when you look up directions for areas where we have transit coverage you'll now have the option of seeing how to get there using public transportation.Let's say you live in Mountain View and want to head over to Great America amusement...

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Where in the world is...

Posted by Matt Manolides, GIS SpecialistGreetings Earthlings,Today we've published a significant amount of new or updated 60cm satellite imagery for Google Earth, with the Google Maps update to follow shortly. Much of this imagery is concentrated in the U.S., Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, India, China, Australia and New Zealand. I encourage everyone to go exploring -- you never know what you might find.To help you get started, we've put together some clues pointing to interesting areas where we now have high-resolution imagery.1) I don't mean...

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