Where in the world is... (answers)

Posted by Matt Manolides, GIS Specialist

Great detective work, everyone!

1) The fans of 'Sweet Lou' get to see his three cities updated.
-- New York, Seattle, and Chicago (referencing Lou Piniella, a beloved baseball figure in these three cities)

2) This town has the longest railway station name in the UK
-- Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyll-llantysiliogogogoch, Wales

3) In 1860, Sir Rutherford Alcock was the first foreigner to climb this mountain.
-- Mt Fuji, Japan

4) This major U.S. city was granted "town" status on February 2, 1856.
-- Dallas, TX

5) A major tourist destination and UNESCO World Heritage Site, this city is also home to one
of the richest silver mines in the world.
-- Guanajuato, Mexico

6) This town, founded in 1514, was the departure point for the Francisco Hernandez de
Cordova (1517) and Cortez (1518) expeditions.
-- Trinidad, Cuba

7) With over 100 buildings, including a bowling alley, this site is home to the largest community on its continent.
-- McMurdo Station, Antarctica

8) With tales of great treasure, a German geologist led an expedition up the face of this very
large mountain in 1883.
-- Cerro Aconcagua, Argentina

9) On the verge of being devoured by the Sahara, this town, which was once a center of learning, is a Moorish architectural jewel.
-- Chinguetti, Mauritania

10) Now visible in Google Earth, this enormous dam will not be fully functional until 2011.
-- Three Gorges Dam, China


The following is a more complete version of the major areas we've updated in this data push:

New high resolution:
Americas:
- Canada: British Columbia, Catham (ON), London (ON), Guelph (ON), Meadford (ON), Thornburry (ON), parts of Division 15 and 6 (MB), Peterborough (ON), Catham (ON), Vancouver Island (BC), Sainte-Marie (QC)
- USA: Sitka (AK), Warren County (TN), Dayton (OH), Greenville (SC), Kingsport (TN), Lufkin (TX)
- Mexico: Tehuacan, Poza Rica, Cordoba, San Cristobal, Tulancingo, Comitan, Guanajuato, Texmelucan, Valle Hermoso, Etzatlan, Ocotlan, Bernal
- Bolivia: Camiri, Monteagudo, Paracti
- Cuba: El Cobre, Puerto Padre, Santa Lucia, Trinidad, Manicaragua, Placetas, Rodas, Guines, Artemisa, Guanajay, Consolacion del Sur
- Colombia: Barrancabermeja, Cartaga, Magangue, Piedecuesta, Ipiales, Plato, Pajuil, Pitalito,
- Costa Rica: Manuel Antonio, Cartago, San Ramon
- Brazil: Santa Maria, Taubate, Angra dos Reis, Alagoinhas, Garanhuns, Santa Cruz do Sul, Catolina, Cruz Alta, Congonhas, Rolandia, Leopoldina, Itaqui, Panambi, Rio Pardo, Piraju, Santa Quiteria, Ibirama, Orleans, Cristalina, Garanhuns, Arapiraca, Armacao dos Buzios, Peruibe, Vacaria
- Guatemala: Puerto Barrios, Coban, Iglesia, San Marcos, Soloma, Chiquimula
- Honduras: Puerto Cortes, Tela, Catacamas, Santa Rosa, El Progreso
- Nicaragua: El Viejo, Bluefields, Boaco
- Panama: Puerto Armuelles, Boquete, Santiago, Gatun
- Paraguay: Horqueta, Sapucai
- Argentina: Junin, Zarate, Gualeguay, Mercedes, Balcarce, Purmamarca, Esquina, Baradero, Justo Darat, Aguilares, Alvear
- Chile: 2.5m imagery for the northern half of the country

Europe, Middle East & Africa:
- Spain: Guadalajara, Almunecar, Almagro
- Italy: Trani, Corato, Pizzo, Artena
- Portugal: Costelo Branco, Ovar
- Wales: entire country
- Norway: Kristiansand
- Finland: Muurame
- France: Bourdeaux, Istres, Montbeliard
- Sweden: Angelholm, Sodertalje
- Romania: Lasi, Brasov, Ploiesti, Bralia, Hunedoara, Deva, Lugoj
- Russia: Belovo, Anapa, Novgorod
- Serbia: Subotica, Novi Pazar
- Hungary: Szeged, Tiszaujvaros, Kecel, Kiskoros
- Greece: Janina, Lamia, Kavala, Makri, Pilos, Monemvassia, Kastro, Astipalea, Leros, Symi
- Poland: Swarzedz, Lapy
- The Ukraine: Poltava, Kerch, Feodosiia, Torez, Khotyn, Chernihiv
- Belarus: Dzerzhinsk, Smorgon, Borisov, Ivanovo, Barslaw, Miory
- Bulgaria: Velingrad, Peshtera, Chirpan, Rakovski, Omurtag, Kotel
- Croatia: Metkovic, Sibenik
- Estonia: Tartu, Viljandi, Voru, Pechory, Jovega, Poltsamaa, Johvi, Rakvere, Keila
- Lithuania: Pabrade, Pakruojis
- Latvia: Talsi, Gramzda
- Slovenia: Trebnj
- Bosnia and Herzegovina: Capljina
- Cape Verde: almost entire country
- Turkey: Trabzon, Diyarbakir, Eskisehir, Samsun, Adapazari, Sivas, Turgutlu, Anamur
- Tunisia: Jamnah, Arhir, Taguermess, Gabes, Sfax, Chebba, Bekalta, Kasserine, Metlaoui, Tozeur
- Somalia: Eyl
- Sudan: Umm Ruwabah, Sinjay, Shuwak
- Syria: Idlib, Manbij, Ariha, As Suwayda
- Moldova: Chisinau, Rybnica
- Algeria: Constantine, Annaba, Tindouf, In Salah, Tiaret, Collo, Jijel, Guelma, Tlemcen, Kenadsa
- Central African Republic: Iawa, Goubali
- Chad: Sarh, Mongo, Ati, Oum Hadjer
- Niger: Agades, Ayorou, Tassessat
- Angola: Kuito
- Oman: Muttrah
- Siera Leon: Bo, Daru
- Malawi: Blantyre, Zomba
- Morocco: Oujda, Kenitra, Beni Mellal, Larache, Berrechid, Oualidia, Sidi Slimane, Midelt, Khenifra, Ifrane
- Mauritania: Atar, Terjit, Chinguetti, Oualata
- Mali: Kolondieba, Yanfolila, Sikasso, San, Segou, Dire
- Guinea: Kankan, Kouroussa, Faranah, Dabola, Dinguiraye, Labe
- Ethiopia: Weldiya, Wikro, Debark
- Democratic Republic of the Congo: Mwene-Ditu, Kananga, Mweka, Mbanza-Ngungu, Buta
- Djibouti: Obock
- Libya: Banghazi, Tobruk, Darnah
- Faeroe Islands: Hvalba, Sumba, Gjogv
- Eritrea: Keren, Tessenei
- Mozambique: Tete
- Burinka Faso: Garango, Kaya, Djibo, Orodara, Gorom-Gorom
- Benin: Dijougou, Dassa-Zoume, Kouande
- South Africa: 2.5m imagery for the entire country
- Namibia: 2.5m imagery for the entire country
- Botswana: 2.5m imagery for the entire country
- Zimbabwe: 2.5m imagery for the entire country
- Lesotho: 2.5m imagery for the entire country
- Swaziland: 2.5m imagery for the entire country

Asia & Oceania:
- Japan: Mt Fuji, Sasayama, Mukaigatao, Biei, Tochigi
- Taiwan: Chia-li, Ma-tou
- Thailand: Hat Yai, Ubon Ratchathani, Pattani, Warin Chamrap, Mukdahan,
- Kazakhstan: Shakhtinsk, Kulsary, Saran, Atbasar, Kokchetav, Aksay
- Laos: Wat Phou
- Armenia: Abovyan, Kirovakan
- Thailand: Nai Muang, Ban Dong Tong
- Georgia: Sukhumi, Khashuri, Kareli
- China: Three Gorges Dam, Guiping, Chin-men
- Vanuatu: Port-Vila
- Azerbaijan: Agdam, Agdzhabedy, Gobustan, Kuba, Kusary, Sheki, Zakataly
- South Korea: Euijeongbu, Cheonan
- North Korea: 2.5m imagery for the entire country
- Australia: 2.5m imagery for New South Wales & part of Western Australia

Updated Imagery:
Americas:
- Canada: Vancouver (BC), Sarina (ON), Brantford (ON), Birmingham,
- USA: Seattle, Dallas, Chicago, part of New York City, Round Rock (TX), Marble Falls (TX), Polk County (FL), Mecklenburg County (NC), Montgomery County (OH), much of eastern PA
- Mexico: Zacatecas, Aquascalientes, Durango, Merida
- Guatemala: Guatemala City
- Honduras: Tegucigalpa

Europe, Middle East & Africa:
- England: Brixham, Paignton, Oxford, Nottingham
- Spain: Malaga, Marbella, Zaragoza
- Italy: Genoa, Rimini, Palermo
- Greece: Kalamaria, Messolonghi, Patra
- Bulgaria: Plovdiv
- Moldova: Chisinau, Beltsy
- The Ukraine: Dnepropetrovsk
- Morocco: Tanger, Fes, Meknes, Rabat, El Jadida, Safi, Agadir
- Guinea: Conakry
- Somalia: Mogadishu

Asia & Oceania:
- China: Beijing, Haikou, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Nanjing
- South Korea: Daegu

Updated Terrain:
- Montbeliard, France
- Fort Saskatchewan, Canada
- Portugal
- Antarctica

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The 2008 Global Torch Relay

Posted by Brittany Bohnet, Google Maps Special Projects

Today we launched an embeddable map and Google Earth layer that enables users around the world to follow the path of the 2008 Torch Relay as it traverses the globe. The torch will travel through cities, oceans, and even the world’s highest mountain, Mt. Qomolangma (Mt. Everest).


By going to http://maps.google.com/torchrelay, you can view an animated trail that starts in Olympia, Greece and follows the torch from country to country. Click on the torch icon to see route information (as it becomes available) and learn more about each city.

The map will update according to the current city location, displaying a red line for each part of the path that has already been traveled.

On the go? Take this map with you to any website with our embeddable API code. You can even customize it to match your page.


If you'd like a more interactive exploration of the torch experience, download our Google Earth layer and watch the path unfold. Easily jump from one city to the next within the info bubble, or point your mouse over any 3D city name to jump to a specific place. For an even better virtual experience, press the play button in the sidebar and sit back to watch the relay in action.



Don't forget to save these links--we'll continue to update the map until the torch journey reaches Beijing again in August for the opening ceremony.

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Last summer, somewhere in the Adirondacks...

Posted by Iljya Kalai, Bachelor of Mathematics Candidate, University of Waterloo

Last summer, I used the contour lines on a topographic map to find my way around the Adirondacks. When I joined Google Seattle as an intern in the fall, I was hoping to do something that would impact everyday users. I was given the same responsibility and freedom that a full-timer enjoys, and armed with this, I set out to add contour lines to Terrain Maps -- not just in the Adirondacks, but across the globe! Now when you view Terrain Maps, you'll see contour lines, making it easier to determine the slope of the land.

Contour lines depict elevation change by connecting points of equal elevation. Where contour lines are close together, you can expect a steep slope; where they are spread out, you can expect flatter terrain. They help highlight the elevation of areas like cities or plains where shading alone doesn't capture gradual changes in elevation.

Now, at a glance you can see the height of the world's peaks, or plan your next camping trip. Contour lines can even help you find a flatter bike route for your daily commute, which is key if you live in a city like Seattle. And with this release just in time for my next internship this summer, I'm looking forward to hiking Mt. Rainier.

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Where in the world is...

Posted by Matt Manolides, GIS Specialist

Greetings, geo fans! Today we've launched a significant amount of new imagery throughout the world. The updates include new imagery of all seven continents, touching over 86 different countries. As always, I'm leaving hints here, and I'll post answers and a more complete listing of the updates tomorrow. Good luck!

1) The fans of 'Sweet Lou' get to see his three cities updated.

2) This town has the longest railway station name in the UK.

3) Sir Rutherford Alcock was the first foreigner to climb this mountain in 1860:


4) This major U.S. city was granted "town" status on February 2, 1856.

5) A major tourist destination and UNESCO World Heritage Site, this city is also home to one of the richest silver mines in the world.

6) Founded in 1514, this town was the departure point for the Francisco Hernandez de Cordova (1517) and Cortez (1518) expeditions.

7) With over 100 buildings, including a bowling alley, this site is home to the largest community on its continent:


8) With tales of great treasure, a German geologist led an expedition up the face of this very large mountain in 1883.

9) On the verge of being devoured by the Sahara, this town, which was once a center of learning, is a Moorish architectural jewel.

10) Now visible in Google Earth, this enormous dam will not be fully functional until 2011:

Read More

Good data drives transit directions

Posted by Joe Hughes, Software Engineer

I'm happy to say that we've just added public transit directions for Perth, Australia, Białystok, Poland, and New Jersey Transit to Google Maps. Australia and Poland now join eight other countries where Google offers trip planning and detailed transit schedules in select cities.

Transperth's Oren Vandersteen announced the Perth launch over at the Google Australia blog, and it was gratifying to hear how simple he found the process:

"To my surprise, I was able to produce a valid Transit Feed for testing that same day! The Google Transit Feed Specification that Google had defined was simple enough that I was able to easily translate our schedule information into the required data feed."

The Google Transit Feed Specification (or GTFS) is one of my projects at Google. It's a community-developed format for sharing the transit information that riders care about. GTFS grew out of our initial work with TriMet and the other early Google Transit partners, and it continues to be developed by a community of transit agency engineers and independent software developers.

The goal of this open format is to make it as easy as possible for transit agencies to publish up-to-date official schedules and route maps in a machine-readable form, so that sites like Google can inform people about the transit options in their area. Many people don't realize how convenient and cost-effective their local transit services can be, and tools like Google Maps transit directions can help people discover how transit could work for them.

The GTFS format is published under the Creative Commons Attribution license, which means that anyone is free to use or extend the format. In fact, an unprecedented number of agencies are now making their transit information—the exact same information that Google Maps uses—available to all developers in this form. I've already seen very creative things built using these public feeds, and I hope that they will continue to enable innovative new transit applications.

For our part, we're still working with lots more agencies to bring even more detailed transit information to you, and we've got several other exciting things up our sleeves for this year - so stay tuned!

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Street View: expanding our horizons

Posted by Bradley Bossard, Software Engineer

Just over a month ago, we brought you a dozen new cities in Street View, and now I'm excited to say we're topping that. We've added imagery for 13 new metropolitan areas - and a national park! We have expanded our coverage in 6 of our existing cities. Among the new areas are:

• Albuquerque, NM
• Anchorage, AK
• Austin, TX
• Cleveland, OH
• Fairbanks, AK
• Little Rock, AR
• Madison, WI
• Nashville, TN
  
• Rockford, IL
• Richmond, VA
• Spokane, WA
• St. Petersburg, FL
• Tampa, FL
• Yosemite National Park, CA

Now you can visit landmarks like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH:


View Larger Map

And did you know that there's a full-scale replica of the Parthenon in Nashville?


View Larger Map

Taking a look at the famous El Capitan in Yosemite National Park can inspire (or intimidate!) you as you prepare for a hike:

View Larger Map

In addition to these 14 new areas, we've expanded our coverage in Denver, Houston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Now you can visit the majestic Redwoods — try panning up to get the full effect:


View Larger Map

Remember, Street View images like the ones above can easily be embedded in websites and blogs, so go ahead and share your favorites. And for the developers out there, Street View is now a part of the Google Maps API!

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A fitting send-off

Posted by Andy Connolly, Visiting Faculty, University of Washington

As Stefan Geens noted on Ogle Earth, the sky can provide real fireworks. In this case, one of the most powerful explosions ever witnessed happened to be timed to provide a wonderful salute to the passing of Arthur C Clarke earlier this month. The gamma ray burst, GRB 080319B, is situated in the middle of the Bootes constellation and is the most luminous burst recorded in the 40 years that satellites have been detecting gamma ray bursts. In fact, it was so intense that the optical component of the explosion was even visible to the naked eye.

Stefan created a KMZ file for GRB 080319B that overlays follow-up images of the sky taken just 20 seconds after the gamma rays were detected. Load the file in Sky in Google Earth and you can compare the before images from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which were taken a couple of years ago, with the optical flash from the gamma ray burst to see the dramatic brightening. Stefan crafted these overlays himself, but with a network link, it is possible to stream images and announcements of events in real time and share them with anyone around the world. Alternatively, if you find something interesting in Sky in Google Maps, just click "Link to this page" right above the map and post the link for others to view. Imagine harnessing all of the small telescopes in the world to follow up any unusual event instantaneously by announcing them on Sky — from Earth crossing asteroids to supernovae to gamma ray bursts. That would make the largest astronomical observatory ever seen!

The VOEventNet layer in Sky is a prototype for this sort of service. It uses live feeds from the Gamma-ray Burst Coordination Network to give the burst location and information on the latest detections and from the GRBlog to provide details from follow-up observations. Like all gamma ray bursts, the initial detection of GRB 080319B was reported in VOEventNet. Science never sleeps, so researchers have moved on to the next set of detections, looking for the next observation that will give astronomers insight into the physics that powers these massive explosions in deep space.

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