Happier travels through Street View with Pegman

Today we're happy to announce some big improvements to the Street View feature in Google Maps! Thanks to feedback from our users, we've now made Street View even better and easier to use.For one thing, Pegman, our plucky mascot, is now close at hand wherever you go. He hangs out right on top of the zoom slider:To enter Street View, drag Pegman to a street (or just keep zooming in all the way, and the lowest zoom level is now Street View imagery)....

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Some favorite Google Maps features now for iPhone

(Cross-posted from the Google Mobile Blog)I waited in line on launch day to buy my first-generation iPhone, and ever since then it has never left my side. The best part is that it keeps getting more useful with every software upgrade Apple puts out. This time around, Apple has improved their version of Google Maps by putting even more Google features in your pocket.The most eye-catching one is Street View: Apple's silky-smooth implementation makes...

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Tip of the week: airport codes in Google Maps

Thanksgiving is only a week away, which means that the holiday travel season is upon us. Booking plane tickets can be like alphabet soup: you're just trying to get from Los Angeles to Washington, DC, but your itinerary has you changing planes at CVG and landing at BWI. Where on earth are those airports? In Google Maps, you can simply enter the 3-letter airport code to find it on the map. This makes it much easier to figure out where exactly your journey will take you, and to get directions to or from an airport without having to find...

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360 degree panoramas in Google Earth

This week, we've started to feature another layer in the Google Earth Gallery, showing several thousand panoramic views provided by 360cities.net. This layer contains exciting 360 degree panoramas from a variety of great photographs taken all over the world!Do you want to explore some beautiful spots in Central Park, or be impressed by the beautifully illuminated Kremlin at night as seen from the Red Square in Moscow?These amazing panoramas from...

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A local focus: two new case studies

From the practical to the political, from the serious to the silly, developers of over 150,000 sites around the world continue to inspire us with their creative uses of the Google Maps API.To celebrate this blossoming ecosystem, we've redesigned our Case Studies video site. Timed with this relaunch, we've got two new videos showcasing innovative API uses, this time for sites that help you make the most of where you live.Yelp was an early and eager adopter of the Google Maps API. As their local reviews...

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Access Google Maps wherever you are on the web

One of my favorite things to do while I'm on a business trip -- wherever I am -- is to find great coffee shops. Knowing I can relax with locals and get a strong cup of coffee helps get me through the jet lag and long days that usually accompany these trips. However, I'm usually busy doing all sorts of things on the web, like creating presentations, updating spreadsheets, or checking my flights.To find a new destination for my coffee fix without having...

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Happy Geography Awareness Week

Some of my earliest memories are of spreading National Geographic maps out on the floor of my living room, picking a faraway place on the planet, and imagining myself on a different continent. Fast forward a couple of decades to 2008, and National Geographic is still inspiring young people to explore our globe.For the third year in a row, Google is delighted to work with My Wonderful World, a National Geographic-led campaign to give kids the power...

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Announcing SketchUp 7

It's my pleasure to announce the launch of Google SketchUp 7. If you've been putting off getting familiar with Google Earth's 3D modeling "other half", now's the time to do something about it. After all, nothing makes a nicer holiday gift for your spouse than a 3D model of your dwelling or dream dwelling. Well, almost nothing.So what's new in SketchUp 7? Lots of stuff, but here are some of the highlights I think you'll find most interesting...

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Santa Barbara fire map

A strong, fast-moving wildfire began last night in Santa Barbara, California and has already destroyed 100 homes and put many more at risk. Residents of the impacted and endangered areas urgently need information about the fire path, evacuated areas, road closures, and other important safety factors. A group in Santa Barbara quickly put together a My Map containing extensive information that can help keep residents informed and safe. If you are in the impacted area or would like to stay abreast of the situation, we hope you'll find this...

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When in Rome...teach!

This week we introduced the new Ancient Rome 3D layer in Google Earth, a groundbreaking collection of 6,700 3D buildings modeled as leading scholars determined they stood in the year 320 A.D. While we hope that teachers are already pretty excited to incorporate Ancient Rome 3D into their lessons, we wanted to go a step further and issue an open challenge to educators to harness the power of this new tool in the classroom....

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Tip of the week: Know before you go

We've featured some of the most stunning pictures found in Street View on the blog, from the Colosseum in Rome to the Parthenon (well, a replica) in Nashville, but there are also countless practical uses of Street View. Here's one of them: use Street View to take some of the stress out of parking. When you're going into a city or to a new part of town, you probably don't want to waste time circling blocks to find areas where you can park. Here are some ways Street View can help:Take a look to see if there is street parking available at...

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Roman history comes to life in Google Earth

Were you someone who struggled to stay awake in ancient history class? If so, perhaps this was due to those uninspiring "artist renditions" in your textbook. Reading countless pages that described how a monument, building or city may have appeared at the time can be pretty difficult to imagine.Well, today we introduced a new approach to learning about ancient history: the ability to go back in time and explore Rome as it existed in 320 AD -- in 3D!All...

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Create cool KML, win cool prizes

The KML in Research contest deadline is Dec 1st.  For those of you working on KML already, make sure you check out the judging criteria and submit your file before the contest deadline.  For those of you new to KML, there is still time to get a quick start using some of the tools and examples highlighted on the KML tools page.We are looking for KML that uses Google Earth to display data, describes academic research work,...

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Apps of maps

Seeing the diversity and creativity of what people are doing with our geo tools continues to surprise and enthrall all of us working on these very tools. Intrepid software developers worldwide are taking the initiative by building unique applications to demonstrate that Google Earth and Google Maps aren't just places to plan a route or see your house (though are still great for doing that!), but places to view all forms of information in their geographical context. Here's a small selection of some of the tools that I have enjoyed...

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Street View elects DC, Baltimore, and Seattle

Whew!  It's been a busy last couple weeks for the Street view team.  After our recent launches in France, Spain and Italy, Street view is now available in 6 countries. But to help celebrate Election Day, we thought we'd head back to the US and launch imagery of the nation's capital, Washington, D.C.While you're waiting to hear who the 44th president will be, you can take a look at the Washington Monument, built to commemorate the first president:View Larger MapYou can also check out the Capitol -- in a few months,...

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Geo tools for election day

Today, citizens across the country will vote -- and be antsy to find out how everyone else voted. Today you'll be able to access voting results as they occur with our 2008 Election Results Map. You can follow along in our Google Maps Elections Gallery or embed the results onto your own site. Real time results will begin in just a few hours, so stay tuned!While you wait for results to come it, we want you to find as much information as you'd like concerning this historic 2008 election. Here are a few of our latest geo tools for getting the...

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