My Map of travel conditions during China's snowstorm

Posted by Qiushuang (Autumn) Zhang, Software Engineer, Google MapsNext week, most Chinese will be celebrating Chinese New Year with their families. Millions of people in China travel home for this holiday. Because of the crowds, it's extremely difficult to get train tickets during Chinese New Year. I still remember how hard it was for me and my college classmates to get tickets from Shanghai to Harbin. Some of my friends slept at the train station...

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Find more with Google Maps

Posted by Lior Ron, Product ManagerThere's a lot to discover in Google Maps: addresses, businesses, points of interest, user maps, and even photos, books, and videos. To help sift through all of this, we've added a new search option that will help you find exactly what you want. Check out the new "show search options" link near the search box. Following this link will add a drop-down menu with three options for refining your search: Locations - Search only addresses, places of interest or other location names. For example, searching for "storm"...

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Doing our homework

Posted by Anna Bishop, Google Earth EducationWe know that the last thing teachers have is tons of free time to spend learning about new teaching tools. That's why I'm thrilled to point out some new YouTube video tutorials that offer up basic tricks for using Google Earth and can serve as inspiration for lesson plans. While any new user (and even some of our old hands!) can appreciate these helpful hints, it's our hunch that educators will find them particularly useful. Here's a look at one of the videos in the series:These short clips (there are...

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No address required

Posted by Nick Lee, Software EngineerHave you ever been traveling and needed to get directions from your hotel to another destination in town, like a restaurant you keep hearing about? You may have been a bit frustrated that Google Maps required you to look up the addresses of your starting and end points before ultimately getting your directions.Well, we felt the same way. So we fixed it. Now you can type in any location where you want to go -- whether it's a specific street address, a business name like Fuzzy Buddy's Dog Daycare, or even something...

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First Google Earth layer update of 2008

Posted by Wei Luo, Senior GIS Specialist Happy New Year! We're starting things off with a number of exciting updates.With help from a team of USGS scientists, we reengineered the Earthquake layer to be more accurate and informative. And to top it all off, we gave it a fresh new look. This layer presents historic earthquake epicenters of magnitudes greater than 3 for the entire world over the last 40 years. It's very fun to look at if you're interested...

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Making changes

Posted by Charles Spirakis, Software Engineer, Google MapsAt Google, we're encouraged to move to different groups and learn new skills. I recently transitioned to the Maps team -- specifically, to the group that empowers local experts like you to improve your virtual neighborhood on Google Maps. You may remember that not too long ago we launched a feature that enables people to correct marker locations.I previously focused on behind-the-scenes kernel work, so switching to something as well-known as the Google Maps user interface was quite a refreshing...

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Reordering features in My Maps

Posted by Brian Cornell, Software Engineer, Google MapsMany people have used the My Maps feature of Google Maps to store, organize, and share their geographic data. In fact, more than 7 million maps have been created, on topics ranging from skate parks and historic pubs to real-life superheroes. You can add local businesses, mark favorite spots, draw a few lines, and then label and color code everything to make it easier to read. But lately, a lot of users have told us that they want the ability to reorder the placemarks, lines and shapes in the...

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Super Tuesday = Super Map

Posted by Steve Grove, Head of News and Politics, YouTubeSuper Tuesday (February 5) is another important stage of the 2008 political season, as residents of 24 states help nominate each party's presidential candidates. Google Maps closely followed the caucus results from Iowa and primary results from New Hampshire, but we decided to do something a little bit different in honor of Super Tuesday: YouTube is implementing a Google Map to create the Super...

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The many uses of Transit

Posted by Chris Harrelson, Software Engineer, Google Transit We've always been proud of the practical uses and environmental benefits of Google Transit, but it turns out that it's an extremely helpful tool for another very important reason. Read about one Googler's own unique perspective on why it's an invaluable resource for people with no and low vision.We're continuing to add more agencies to the Transit fold (Fredericton Transit, Canada; Pioneer Valley Transit Authority, Massachusetts; and Sage Stage, California are recent additions), and...

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Lost on Maps

Posted by Jessica Lee, Product Manager, Google MapsIf you're as excited as I am about the fourth season of Lost, starting on Jan 31, then you might find this Lost fan map very useful for refreshing your memory. It includes all the places mentioned on the show, such as where Sawyer grew up, the flight path of Oceanic 815, and the locations of the Hanso Foundation offices. It also has a ton of interesting trivia. For example, did you know that the...

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Mapping the campaigns and primaries

Jonathan Goldman, Software Engineer, Google MapsIf you've been following the news this month, you're probably aware that the presidential primary season is in full swing. The Internet has provided all sorts of tools to enhance participation in the campaign process, and we've been extremely pleased to discover the ways in which people have been using maps to share information.One common theme is using maps in one form or another to coordinate meet-ups...

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The next generation of Google Sky

Posted by Ryan Scranton, Google Sky Team, and Andy Connolly, Visiting Faculty, University of Washington The new year is here and it's time to unveil a new set of features and content for Sky in Google Earth. This update is particularly exciting for us because most of the new images, views and sounds have been developed by the Sky community. From views of the sky across the electromagnetic spectrum to exploring how the sky changes over time, there's...

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Our primary colors

Posted by Brittany Bohnet, Elections Program ManagerA few days ago, we announced that Google Maps would be presenting real-time U.S. presidential nomination results for the Iowa caucuses. The map was so popular that we've decided to do it again, this time for the 2008 primary in New Hampshire.Beginning today, users can direct their browsers to maps.google.com/nhprimary2008 and watch as live results stream in from towns across the state of New Hampshire....

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Let it Snow

Posted by Evan Parker, Software EngineerI love heading up to Tahoe in the winter to go snowboarding, especially when there is good snow in the form of lots of fresh powder! Unfortunately, good snow for snowboarding often means bad road conditions, and making the decision to chance the weather or stay home can be tough without a good source of information. So I was delighted to find this great map of snow conditions in Tahoe that the Reno Gazette Journal put together during the heavy snow storms in Tahoe over the past several days. I was even more...

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Got caucus results? We do.

Posted by Brittany Bohnet, Elections Program ManagerAs the first step in deciding nominees for the 2008 United States presidential elections, the Iowa caucus has always been known as a pivotal event for each White House hopeful. In fact, candidates have been targeting almost all of their campaign energy in Iowa for the past month, as results here set the precedent by which other states will make their own voting decisions.Tonight, Iowans will gather...

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