Out of this world maps

Posted by Wei Luo, Senior GIS Specialist

I am excited to see that David Rumsey's maps have come to life in Second Life, the extremely popular online, 3-D world. It's such a cool idea: historical maps in a virtual world. I've spent hours playing with the Rumsey maps that appear in Google Earth, sliding back and forth between today's borders and the maps of yesteryear. I find the constellation maps in Sky to be particularly awe-inspiring; I am always amazed at how accurately our ancestors were able to portray the night sky without the aid of powerful telescopes.

As a self-proclaimed map nerd, I'm grateful for the work David has done to make historical maps accessible to the world, and appreciate the innovative ways that he has found to display such fragile documents in digital formats. I highly recommend exploring the more than 17,000 maps of all kinds available on his website, as well as visiting Rumsey Maps Island in Second Life. Being able to interact with a 17th century map in an online world is a pretty amazing experience.

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Show us your style

Posted by Bryce Stout, Product Manager

Do you have style? Are you a SketchUp Pro enthusiast? Then you'll want to check out our 2008 SketchUp Sketchy-Edge Style Building Competition. This is a great chance to test out the new Style Builder and try your hand at a modern take on old-fashioned sketching -- and maybe win some fun prizes. Read more about it, then get to work. We can't wait to see what you create!

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Come together

Posted by Tanya Keen, Google Earth Outreach

Recently we announced collaborative mapmaking in Google Maps. What does this mean for those of you working at nonprofits? Simply put, it's easier to make maps with your coworkers, partners, donors, and beneficiaries.

Here are just a couple of ideas:

• Get your program leads to post photos and videos of what they're doing in the field. Recent photos and videos go a long way toward demonstrating your impact on the communities you serve, which matters to donors and potential partners.
• Have your donors, partners, and volunteers add themselves to a collective map of all of your supporters. You're all working toward the same goal, and it's encouraging to see who else is on your team.
  

And here are what some pioneering groups have already done:

• Burma Chapters US
• Our Stories
• Dirty Ditching Diesel Collaborative

If you haven't explored this feature yet, click "Collaborate" within the My Maps tab to invite others to edit your map. To guide you along, we've added a new tutorial on the Google Earth Outreach site, which shows you step-by-step how to collaborate on your maps. Whether you're changing your local landscape or tackling global issues, collaborative mapmaking helps many grassroots efforts reach global proportions.

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Refine by user ratings and neighborhoods

Posted by Constantinos Michael, Software Engineer

Ever since I moved to the New York City Google office I've had an agenda: exploring the best the city has to offer like so many other New Yorkers do. Sometimes this can be an overwhelming experience, since the city has more than 18,000 food vendors according to nycvisit.com!

Fortunately, finding the best places just became a lot easier with the addition of user ratings and neighborhood refinements to Google Maps. Now when your search has a wide variety of interesting results, you'll get the opportunity to hone in on that midtown-east bakery with the delectable bagels or find some really great flowers in Chelsea. If you are visiting and can't make up your mind on where to stay, you can even get the best hotels in two different neighborhoods at the same time. All you have to do is look for the "Refine by" link, click on a neighborhood or user rating, and the new results will appear immediately.

New York doesn't have the monopoly on good neighborhoods, of course. Next time I visit the rest of the Maps team in Mountain View, CA or in the Seattle area, I'll use refinements to find a cool bar or some good downtown seafood. So, find the best of what your own neighborhood has to offer, and enjoy!

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The South China Sea Project

Posted by Phil Verney, Google Earth Community Development

We always enjoy seeing people use our products to shed light on global issues. One great example is the layer created by the UNEP/GEF South China Sea Project. This large Global Environment Facility project, implemented by the United Nations Environment Programme, is working to develop regionally co-ordinated programmes of action designed to reverse environmental degradation, such as the loss of coastal habitats and the over-exploitation of fisheries in the South China Sea and Gulf of Thailand.

This layer was developed to share information about the South China Sea Project with the Google Earth community. It is also being used as a tool for sharing geographical information and data among scientists and managers from seven countries bordering the South China Sea.

According to the Project Director, Dr. John Pernetta, this KML provides "an overview of the regional network of government ministries and departments, research institutes, and universities involved in the implementation of project activities; the project’s suite of habitat demonstration sites and pilot activities bordering the South China Sea basin; and information and data for 135 mangrove, coral reef, seagrass, and wetlands sites of the South China Sea studied during the project."

By providing rich information in the description bubbles, this KML uses Google Earth as the geographical search engine to provide an in-depth analysis of the South China Sea. This layer is a great example of how to connect with a wide audience. We encourage you to explore it in the Google Earth Outreach Showcase, and get a feel for the beauty and importance of this region.

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Are we going to Greece or Thailand?

Posted by Giri Rao, Software Engineer

A couple months ago, my wife and I decided to go on a vacation. I suggested we go to Greece, but she insisted on Thailand. I thought I could win her over by showing her some of the historical areas of Greece, so I promptly brought her to Google Maps. Unfortunately, I couldn't read a thing since all the labels were in Greek. When she tried to check out Thailand, we had the same problem.

I realized that our maps were much less useful for people who don't recognize non-Latin characters. I decided to tackle this the Google way: fixing it myself! Now, in addition to seeing the local label for a location, you'll also see an English version of the local pronunciation for Greece, Thailand, Russia, and many cities in Japan. Google Maps is now more useful for viewing the world!

And with that problem solved, my wife and I still had to decide if we were headed for the bustle of Bangkok or the ancient wonders of Athens (or Athina, as the Greeks say it). Looks like my wife won this one... Thailand, here we come!

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The art of science and engineering

Posted by Michael Weiss-Malik, Software Engineer

(Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog.)

Google Moon and Google Mars are great examples of products that required much more than pure software engineering to produce. There was quite a bit of science, and even a little bit of artistry, that went into their creation. They both expose large volumes of imagery and information in simple and accessible designs, and it turns out that I'm not the only one who thinks that they qualify as art in this regard.

New York's Museum of Modern Art has honored both products by including them in their exhibition Design and the Elastic Mind, which opens to the public on February 24th. The exhibit showcases objects and systems that pair modern design with innovations in science and engineering in creative ways. Google Moon's Apollo landing panoramas and Google Mars' imagery of the largest canyons and volcanoes in the solar system were intended to do exactly that, by applying Google Maps technology to places that are out of this world.

We're delighted that MOMA saw fit to include us in their lineup, and recommend the show to anyone living in or visiting the New York area. It runs through May 12th.

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