Google Lat Long: July 2008

Tip of the week: Getting where you need to go

July 31, 2008

It has turned out to be a busy summer for the Google Maps directions team up in Seattle. Between last week's launch of walking directions, this week's redesign of the printed directions page, the redesigned Google Maps interface, and the recent Avoid Tolls feature, it's getting hard to keep up! We wanted to step back for a moment and give you an overview of the most common tasks for getting directions through Google Maps. Here's a brief tutorial from Ryan, one of the directions team engineers:

Posted by Elaine Filadelfo, Lat Long Blog Team

Avoiding tolls

July 31, 2008

This week we've added an 'Avoid tolls' option to Google Maps driving directions. When you are getting directions, click the 'Show options' link in the left panel of the screen and you'll see a new option to avoid tolls:

When half your wallet is already going toward gas, it's nice if you can save some money for ice cream instead of dumping it all off at the toll booth.

Posted by Dave Barth, Product Manager

Power to the print

July 30, 2008

Google Maps can help get you where you want to go, but let's face it, you can't be online all the time. Sometimes you really just need a good old-fashioned hard copy, so we're making it easier to print exactly the information you want: text directions, maps for any step, and - for the first time - Street View images.

Printing Directions with More Maps and Street View

drive to a hotel in Tribeca from JFK Airport

p for your entire route and specific ma

Chances are, however, that you don't need that much detail for every single step, so hover directly over each step to turn that map on or off.

images For instance, below at step 14, we're on Chambers Street facing west and the directions tell us to turn right on to Church Street -- and we now have an idea of what that will look like.

Printing Street View DirectlyNatural History Museumfind the entrance in Street View

Posted by Andrew Gove and Jonathan Siegel, Software Engineers

New, blue, and better than ever

July 29, 2008

Less is more.

Before

After

With the new look for Google Maps, you can do all of the same things, but without the extra clutter. Find businesses (creamery near palo alto), addresses (6605 Delmar Blvd, St Louis, MO), and more (root beer in sf) from one search box. You might also notice the map is a tad bigger, and that it's easier to get full screen maps:

I hope the new design makes it easier to find everything you need. And incidentally, if you're ever in St. Louis, stop by 6605 Delmar. Particularly if you like root beer.

Posted by Neal Kanodia, Software Engineer

Memories of the Amazon

July 25, 2008

Chief Almir SuruiAmazon Conservation Teamaccount of our trip
Fun with Gigapan GigapanwebGlobal Connection Projectrobotic unitthree panoramas
From Marcelo Quintella, Product Manager, Google Brazil:

From Mark Aubin, Software Engineer, Google Earth:
"Seeing two Amazonian Indians from opposite sides of the Amazon meet and embrace for the first time was a powerful moment for me. They communicated easily with smiles and embraces, but speaking proved quite challenging. Wuta (left), a cartographer for ACT Suriname, speaks Tiriyó. Chief Almir's father, Maribop Surui (right), speaks Tupi-Monde, the native language of the Surui. As Maribop spoke, Almir translated to Portuguese, then Vasco would translate to English, and then Skappie, Wuta's Surinamese colleague, would finally speak Tiriyó to Wuta. Despite this game of 'telephone' I could see from their faces that they shared a common bond that goes very deep." (Photo courtesy of Andrea Ribeiro)

From Amit Sood, Google Europe:
"As our training session started off, I scanned the room to gauge the students' levels of knowledge. It was clear that some students are more comfortable than others. A few minutes into the session I noticed a group of four women sitting quietly, staring at their monitors and not participating in the training exercises. I investigated, and learned that they were not familiar with the mouse or the other strange equipment that is such an everyday part of my life. A fellow instructor, Eduardo, focused his attention on them while I continued the training. At the end of the day I witnessed something that made me feel both proud and sad: all four women were chatting away on the Internet, searching, moving the mice as if it were something they had always known. Smiles all around, no sense of apprehension: The Net had found four more addicts."

There were no cameras around to capture that particular moment, but here is a nice one of Amit during the training (and me, on the far right):

If I've piqued your interest and you want to learn more, Rebecca Moore, Manager of Google Earth Outreach, has posted her thoughts about the trip on the Official Google Blog.

Posted by Sean Askay, KML Evangelist, Google Earth Outreach

Two new case studies

July 23, 2008

A couple months ago, I told you about a site we created to highlight organizations and their great uses of Google Maps. Because there are so many amazing examples out there, we've added two more case studies to our gallery.

Both The New York Times and Tripadvisor have created many innovative mashups -- from tracking The New York Times' Frugal Traveler on his national roadtrip, to mapping crime in New York City, to creating applications that millions of people use to rate restaurants. Take a look at this video to see what else Tripadvisor has done:

Visit our case study site to learn more about what these groups are doing with the Google Maps API.

If you've created a great Google Maps mashup, we'd love to hear about it! Let us know by filling out this form, and you could even be featured in one of our upcoming case studies.

Posted by Cathy Tang, Product Marketing Manager

Pound the pavement

July 22, 2008

It's summer in the Northern Hemisphere, and when it's not too hot, it feels like a waste of gorgeous weather to get behind the wheel or hop in a cab. Doubly so when you're traveling to a city you'd love to explore, and you're pretty sure that you could walk from your hotel to the aquarium, if only you could figure out the way. You could try to use driving directions from Google Maps, but city centers are always a maze of one-way streets and no-left-turns. These driving directions from a local hotel to the Seattle Aquarium require numerous contortions in order to obey one-way streets and find a route under the freeway, taking you out of the way of where you could go by foot:

Starting today, you can tell Google Maps that you want walking directions, and we'll try to find you a route that's direct, flat, and uses pedestrian pathways when we know about them. Just get directions as you normally would. If you're going 10 km or less (some call this 6.2 miles), we'll show you a link that you can click to get "Walking" directions:

Our walking directions for the same hotel-to-aquarium route ignore the direction of one-way streets and make use of a pedestrian-only path under the freeway. This route is more than half a mile shorter than if you were to drive:

If public transit directions are available for Google Maps in your area, you'll seen an improvement to them as well. We used to point to your destination from the nearest transit station, but unless you could fly these directions needed some tweaking.

Now, we'll give you step-by-step directions for the portion of your trip on foot:

Walking directions are a new feature for Google, and while I'm pretty excited about it, there are some rough edges that compel us to release it in "beta." Walking directions work well for short trips in urban areas, but we don't always know if a street has a sidewalk, or if there's actually a special pedestrian bridge for crossing a busy street. There are still a lot of pedestrian pathways we don't know about, and they might save you some time if you find them. We're working on collecting new data on pedestrian pathways and on more effective ways to solicit your feedback, so that we can steadily improve this feature and get you where you need to be as efficiently as possible.

Walking is a great way to learn about a place, to get around, and to get some exercise when the weather is nice. You'll notice shops, parks, and public art that you've been accustomed to zooming past, and come away feeling like you've really gotten the insider's take on a neighborhood or city. Of course, don't get too caught up in enjoying the sights! Please be careful, and be particularly attentive in high traffic areas. Just like if you were driving, follow road signs and signals along your route, and use good judgment about streets that can't be walked (there are many useful websites containing safety tips for pedestrians).

Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'll get out of the office for twenty minutes and take a stroll.

Posted by Andy Schwerin, Software Engineer

Summer camp, Google Earth style!

July 21, 2008

Last week, 18 Googlers brought their 9-12 year old kids to our Mountain View headquarters to spend their week learning with Google Earth and all the other geo tools. By the end of the week, the "Geo Camp" participants had mastered Google Earth, Maps, and Docs, and used these tools to research environmental issues, virtually tour the planet (and universe), and collaborate to build sophisticated presentations on habitats around the world.

I'm not sure who had more fun -- the teachers or the kids! As the week came to a close, we asked them all to reflect back on what they had learned, and I just can't help but share some of their responses:

I didn't know I could ____ with Google Earth

fly (Matt, 6th grader)
see all the rides at Disney World (Gwen, 4th grader)
learn about endangered animals (Aditya, 7th grader)

The coolest place I saw was....

the Space Needle (Jack, 7th grader)
the Empire State Building (Jake)
the entire universe (Andrew, 6th grader)

When I'm a grownup, I'll use Google Earth to...

find a place to go on vacation (Nick, 5th grader)
share global awareness about different countries to other people (Esha, 9th grader)
look at other galaxies, and see if there's traffic (Aditya, 7th grader)

If I worked on the Geo team, I would...

build more SketchUp buildings (Erik, 5th grader)
create a ship simulator in which you could be the captain of a ship (Ashna)
make a driving feature so people could pretend to drive on roads (Warren, 7th grader)

Posted by Tina Ornduff, Google Earth Education team

Design your dwelling

July 16, 2008

For those of you looking for an excuse to have some fun with SketchUp, I've got great news: we're joining forces with Dwell Magazine to launch a friendly competition to Design Your Dwelling. Get the details (including the secret site location!) over on the SketchUp blog. Posted by Tasha Danko, SketchUp Team

Our city in 3D

July 16, 2008

Posted by Barney Krucoff, GIS Manager, District of Columbia, Office of the Chief Technology OfficerIt is the right thing to doBecause every neighborhood can benefit from 3DWe get better 3D performance from the cloud and we don’t pay for itWe want to communicate with our residentsmore than 200 geospatial data sets

Where in the world is... (Answers)

July 15, 2008

Posted by Matt Manolides, GIS Specialistyesterday's quiz--Quebec
2) Once the seat of great political power, this red fortress is now a major tourist attraction.
--Alhambra, Granada
3) Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, this city was lost to the world for 1700 years.--Pompeii

4) Passing by a famous golf course and luxurious mansions, this stretch of road is a tourist attraction in its own right.

--17 Mile Drive, Pebble Beach (California)

5) Legend has it that Hercules founded this major European city.
--Barcelona

6) This city within a city plays host to an Opera House, Planetarium, Science Museum, Oceanographic Park, and beautiful gardens.

--City of Arts & Sciences, Valencia (Spain)

7) When we updated imagery of this city, we got complete coverage of another country with it.
--Rome & Vatican City

8) This city hosted General MacArthur's South West Pacific Headquarters during WWII.
--Brisbane

9) Some of my Googler co-workers can enjoy the views from this very tall building.

--Taipei 101, Taipei

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

Updated Imagery:
Americas:
- USA: San Diego, San Francisco metro area, Wenatchee (WA), New Mexico.

- Canada: Quebec, New Westminster (BC).

Europe, Middle East & Africa:

- England: Bristol
- Spain: Barcelona, Costa del Sol, Granada, Murcia, Valencia, Cuenca, Toledo, Caceres, Zaragoza.

- Portugal: Braga, new base imagery for entire country

- Italy: Rome, Naples

- Germany: Freidburg, Munich

Asia & Oceania:

- Australia: Brisbane, Great Barrier Reef

- Taiwan: Taipei, Taichung

New 2.5m base imagery for: The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Taiwan, Tasmania, and parts of Mexico, China, and Australia.

Cities in 3D program in action

July 15, 2008

Posted by Naureen Kabir, Geo Content PartnershipsintroducedCities in 3D Programexpanded

Amherst, MA: Taking a stroll down Main Street. In the distance, you can see the Southwest Towers on the University of Massachusetts campus.

Greenville, SC: Looking out at the Greenville skyline from South Spring Street.

McMinnville, TN: Night-time view of downtown McMinnville, where you can browse through art galleries and museums.

Nanaimo, British Columbia: Taking in the view as you fly past the Strait of Georgia.

Nashville and Davidson County, TN: A close-up view of the State Capitol, as buildings from across the entire country stretch into the distance.

Jamestown, NY: Go shopping along the downtown storefronts.

Washington, DC: The U.S. Capitol building in the heart of the nation's capital, with 3D models from all across the city surrounding it.

If you follow the link on each city's name, you'll get to learn more from them about the partnership, and check back here tomorrow to hear from the GIS Manager for Washington DC about his views on 3D data.

We look forward to working with many more organizations, including local governments, educational institutions, and community groups to get local 3D data published on Google Earth. Please contact us if you'd like to share your 3D data with us!

Where in the world is...

July 14, 2008

Posted by Matt Manolides, GIS Specialist

4) Passing by a famous golf course and luxurious mansions, this stretch of road is a tourist attraction in its own right.

5) Legend has it that Hercules founded this major European city.

6) This city within a city plays host to an Opera House, Planetarium, Science Museum, Oceanographic Park, and beautiful gardens.

7) When we updated imagery of this city, we got complete coverage of another country with it.

8) This city hosted General MacArthur's South West Pacific Headquarters during WWII.

9) Some of my Googler co-workers can enjoy the views from this very tall building.

Learning about Earth

July 11, 2008

Posted by Chikai Ohazama, Director of Product ManagementCyclone Nargis disaster response planningRumsey historical mapsthe number of downloads of the new Nine Inch Nails album around the world

We've also seen interest in and usage of Google Earth grow as people find even more new and interesting ways to convey information in its geographic context through the Google Earth.

We're constantly working to fine-tune the Google Earth experience to provide the most useful geographically organized content for all of our users. Yet I often get questions from friends and family about what they're seeing in Google Earth and how to best explore all that one can find there. I'm sure many users ask themselves these very questions when they first launch Google Earth.

With that in mind, I thought these pointers might be helpful:

Controlling what you see in Google Earth
To present information in Google Earth, a file format called KML is used to display data in a geographic context. Groups and individuals can create KML files which appear as "layers" on top of the satellite and aerial imagery that form the base layer in Google Earth.

After you launch Google Earth, you'll see a sampling of these layers. This is a preview of the range of content available in the product. To turn particular layers on and off, just go to the "Layers" panel in the left navigation window, click the "+" sign to expand a given list and check or uncheck the box for a layer.

Understanding what content comes from Google
We've heard that users sometimes are confused as to what information in Google Earth is supplied by Google and what is provided by users, organizations, or other third parties. Google supplies a base of information in Google Earth through our licenses with content partners; this includes information for borders, terrain, roads, business listings, weather, and traffic.

Separate layers, which appear on top of this base information, feature educational and informational content from third parties such as National Geographic, NASA and The New York Times. Each of these layers has its own icon (such as the familiar yellow rectangle for National Geographic), which is displayed in connection with the content when the layer is checked on. Layers for content created and submitted by users of certain other Google services, including YouTube, Panoramio, and the Google Earth Community, also appear on top of the base information.

Certain layers will automatically be turned on when you open Google Earth. With all the interesting content out there, we thought this would help users discover new content from any of these third-party sources. You can turn these layers on or off by following the instructions above.

Creating content for Google Earth
Google Earth is not just for browsing information supplied by others. Users can join the Google Earth Community and contribute their own content. This is incredibly powerful because it allows users to share their expertise and knowledge with the millions of people who use Google Earth.

To get started, create an account in the Google Earth Community. This allows you to participate in discussions about content that your fellow users may have added to Earth. Next, go to the location where you'd like to post information and check out this tutorial video.

After you have created a placemark, you can easily share it with others on the Google Earth Community. Just right click (CTRL click on the Mac) on the placemark and chooseShare/Post. Just follow the subsequent instructions to post information about this placemark in the Google Earth Community. The Google Earth Community content submitted by users may appear as blue "i" icons or orange dots in Google Earth.

If you're ready to take it to the next level, you can create a KML file to appear as a layer in Google Earth. To get started, take a look here. If you're proud of what you've done, share it with us! We might show it off in the Google Earth Gallery which highlights various layers created for Google Earth.

Hopefully this helps give you a better understanding of just how Google Earth works, and the wide range of ways you can interact with it. Keep an eye out for additional "tips and tricks" features on the LatLong blog about to learn more about how to take advantage of all the features of Google Earth (and Google Maps too!).

Tour Japan in 10 minutes

July 10, 2008

Posted by Michael Rubinstein, GIS Specialist, Google Earthyesterday's Webcam.travel announcementJapan National Tourist Organization

Visit before you visit

July 9, 2008

Posted by Philipp Hirtz, Engineering Manager, Google EarthWebcams.travelWebcams.travel

See which campuses received an A+

July 9, 2008

Posted by Allyson McDuffie, SketchUp for Education Program Manager

Google 2008 International Model Your Campus Competitionamazing models3D Warehouse

Johns Hopkins University (Student Technology Services & Digital Media Center; United States)

Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (China)

University of Wisconsin-Madison (Department of Engineering; United States)

Missouri University of Science and Technology (Department of Physical Facilities; United States)

Nicolas Copernicus University (Department of Biology and Earth Sciences; Poland)

Stockholm University and KTH (Department of Computer and Systems Sciences; Sweden)

Cardiff University (Department of Information Services; United Kingdom)

Bournemouth University (The Business School; United Kingdom)

Peking University (School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science; China)

Tour the Tour de France with Street View

July 4, 2008

Posted by Daniel Ratner, Mechanical EngineerTour de Francegoogle.com/tourdefrance2008ground-filling

View Larger Map
Coliseum in Nimes, found within Stage 14 from Nimes to Digne-Les-Baines

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Nearing the finish line in L'Alpe-d'Huez, found in Stage 17 from Embrun to L'Alpe-d'Huez, arguably the most physically demanding stage of the whole race

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The Eiffel Tower and Seine river in Paris, passed in Stage 21 from Etampes to Paris' Champs-Elysees, the final stage of the race

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This feature, seen on a car in the town of Pipriac within Stage 3 from Saint-Malo to Nantes, complements our previously launched face blurring feature

Of course, there's only one way to conclude a blog post about the Tour de France -- with an image of the finish line!

View Larger Map
The Arc de Triomphe, at the western end of the Champs Elysee. If you zoom in, you can look at the detailed sculputres on the frieze

How I spent my summer vacation

July 3, 2008

Posted by Donna Axelson, Summer FellowGoogle Teacher AcademyGoogle For Educators
There are many reasons why I'm loving my time here, but one of the main ones is learning about and being able to pass on all the engaging ways educators can use the Geo products to help students learn about their world. Even though it may be summer vacation, the Google for Educators site can help teachers prepare some great lessons for the upcoming school year, and parents can take a browse to find fun ways to keep their kids learning over the summer!

Sightseeing in South Africa

July 1, 2008

Posted by Philipp Hirtz, Engineering Manager, Google EarthGoogle EarthSouth Africa Tourism2010 FIFA World Cup