Google Lat Long: July 2009

Visualizing greenhouse gas emissions

July 31, 2009

United Nations Climate Change Secretariata map that visualizes greenhouse gas (GHG) emissionsnegotiation of a new climate change agreement in Copenhagen

The greenhouse gas map allows you to gradually move from a very high-level view (e.g. the changes in emissions between 1990-2006 in the screenshot above) to a detailed analysis down to country level. You can also visualize any combination of emission categories (e.g. energy, industrial processes etc.), greenhouse gas type (e.g. CO2, CH4, etc.), and year (or the change from base year to 2006), via drop-down menus.

For instance, a visualisation of the aggregate greenhouse gas emissions from energy sources of European countries in 2006 looks like this:

Hovering your mouse over a country marker shows total emission values for that country, and clicking on the country itself brings up a detailed analysis based on the settings for the global map (see example below for Germany).

You can notice some interesting trends from this data. As time goes by, emissions for each sector can go up or down for many reasons - for example, changes in efficiency, or use of different energy sources. One of the sectors, LULUCF ("land use, land-use changes, and forestry"), is not like the others - it can have negative emissions or, as they say, can act as a 'sink'. LULUCF helps to account for the carbon that's stored in trees, plants and soil: greenhouse gases could be released when forests are burned or cut down, or captured when existing forests grow or new forests are set.

We, along with UNFCCC, hope that the map will underscore the importance of global climate agreements that aim to decrease greenhouse gas emissions. You can read more on the UNFCCC website.

Update (8/5/09): Note that Sweden's emissions in the LULUCF sector are overstated in the UNFCCC database underlying the GHG map. The database currently contains the latest submissions of all Annex I countries up to September 2008. Sweden has submitted revised data in February 2009. The database for the GHG map is scheduled to be updated with the revised data in October 2009. All the latest country submissions can be found here. And finally, many thanks to Jonah Jones for help designing the user interface.

Posted by Benjamin Kott, Green Business Operations (London) and Simon Ilyushchenko, Site Reliability Engineer (Mountain View)

Welcome to Boston: the MBTA on Google Maps

July 30, 2009

For my thirteenth birthday, one of my aunts gave me a gift I won't soon forget: a day in Boston. I grew up north of the city and, as a child, often visited the Museum of Science, Newbury Street, the Swan Boats, and elsewhere with my family, but my aunt's gift acknowledged the maturity and meaning associated with becoming a teenager. On a Saturday morning, she drove my cousin and me to Alewife Station and handed us MBTA tokens (there were no Charlie Cards at the time).

From that point on, I must have spent time nearly every weekend heading into Boston, riding the Commuter Rail from my hometown of Andover to North Station. In high school, the T carried me to concerts in Central Square and Kenmore Square. When I studied at Boston University, the Green Line ran through our main corridor, and again and again the trolleys, subways, and buses transported me around town. Like any regular public-transit commuter, I witnessed delays, congestion, and post-snowfall on-board slushiness, but the overall benefits of public transportation far outweighed any of those grumblings. To this day, whenever I'm home, after morning coffee with my dad, I take the MBTA into the Google Boston office in Kendall Square.

Now, all those routes that I -- and millions of other riders -- have traveled over the years can be planned with Google Maps. Today at South Station, we accompanied the Massachussetts Bay Transportation Authority to announce the availability of the MBTA's commuter rail, subway, bus, and ferry schedules through Google Transit, joining nearly all major U.S. transit agencies and more than 400 cities around the world in making their transit data available.

For locals and visitors alike, Google Transit makes it easier to search and discover public transportation options that get them into, around, and out of Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, Quincy, Somerville, and the surrounding areas -- or to travel to and from other MBTA-linked cities like Brockton, Gloucester, Lowell, Providence, and Worcester.

One of the great benefits of Google Transit is that it helps people discover the availability of public transit by showing a MBTA itinerary as an alternative to driving directions in Google Maps. But when you know that public transit is your first choice, you can also head to maps.google.com/transit for a complete trip planner, accessible both from your web browser and your mobile phone. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Don't worry about parking (and parking costs) when going to a Red Sox game at Fenway Park
Consider taking public transport to and from Logan International Airport
Navigate your way to one of Boston's municipal courts when summoned for jury duty
Spend a summer afternoon, when the weather invites, at Carson Beach, Revere Beach, or Singing Beach
If you're one of the many students moving to Massachusetts for college in the fall, test the best transit routes in advance so you'll feel like a local expert upon arrival
Scope out 360-degree street-level views of the bus and subway stops in advance of your trip, using Street View

Google Transit also connects the MBTA's services with other local agencies already on Google Transit, like Lexington Lexpress, the MetroWest Regional Transity Authority, and Rhode Island Public Transit Authority, so it's easier to know where and when these services connect.

The Transit team here at Google appreciates all those who have been part of bringing public transit data to Google Maps in the region, such as the high-school student who worked to get the Lexpress on board, the "Put the MBTA on Google Transit!!!" Facebook group, and of course the team at the MBTA involved in making this happen. We all have our memories of coming and going, and I'm certain there are people of all ages in and around Boston who realize there's a city waiting for them to explore. Visit maps.google.com/boston to get started.

Posted by Sean Carlson, Global Communications & Public Affairs

Zoom photo navigation in Street View

July 24, 2009

One of the missions of the Street View team is to help users navigate the world's geographically located photos. We have just launched Street View Smart Navigation which provides 3D navigation between Street View panoramas. We have also recently added the option to browse user-contributed photos that match Street View images. Now we're bringing these concepts together to make it easier to explore photos through Street View.

For example, our Street View car has captured a nice shot of Big Ben:
View Larger Map

However, our Panoramio users have uploaded an impressive variety of shots of Big Ben taken from different angles, at different times of day, and zoomed into different regions. To link all these images into Street View, we are launching a new feature that lets you navigate between similar user-contributed photos, which is especially useful when one photo is a zoomed-in region of another. Perhaps the best way to explain a photo feature is to show you some images -- take a look at the following sequence:

When an image is first shown in the photo viewer, a small set of the zoom polygons are shown indicating that there are close-up photos available to explore:

Subsequently, moving the mouse around in the window highlights the best polygon near the mouse location. Similar to the smart navigation feature, double clicking on the shaded rectangle jumps you to the corresponding photo. After one or more jumps, the back button appears next to the photo title to give you the option to move back through the selected sequence of photos. We've put together a quick demo video so you can see it in action before trying for yourself:

We hope that this new feature will allow you to explore a large diversity of photos in an entertaining and intuitive way!

Posted by Daniel Filip, Computer Vision Tech Lead, Google Zürich

Lots of layers in Google Maps for mobile 3.2

July 22, 2009

Many of the features in Google Maps involve adding layers of information to your map: the 'More' button (like Wikipedia and

Transit), Traffic, My Maps and search layers (little red dots onyour map).

We're now adding lots of this same functionality to your

mobile phone. With Google Maps for mobile 3.2 for Symbian S60 & Windows Mobile phones (and soon on other platforms too!) you can now access and interact with this content by tapping "Layers" in your main menu.

One of my favorite things about this new version is that I can log into Google Maps for mobile with my Google Account and see the My Maps I've created on Google Maps (like my favorite spots in London) and then line that information up against other layers -- like where my friends are currently with Latitude. Fun!

Check out the Google Mobile Blog to learn more.

Posted by Mat Balez, Product Manager, Mobile

Just keep searching

July 22, 2009

Have you ever wished you could see multiple searches in Google Maps, or search for directions and see businesses along the route all at the same time? Now, you can!

Suppose you would like to drive the famous Road to Hana while you are on vacation on Maui. You search for directions to Hana from where you are staying in Wailea. Since it's a long drive, you also search for gas stations, so you know where you can fuel up on the way, and supermarkets, so you can pick up snacks for the trip. After the second search, you'll notice a blue bar at the bottom of the left panel. Click on it to expand the widget, which allows you to turn on both searches as well as your route to Hana. The markers are color-coded, so you can tell which search is which.

A quick glance at the map shows that there are quite a few grocery stores along the way and that one of your last chances to fill your gas tank is in Paia. You can even load up a My Map of points of interest along the way.

Consider another scenario, where you want to meet a friend for dinner on your way to downtown San Francisco. You search for transit directions from where you are on 24th and Valencia to Downtown SF, and then search for two of your favorite restaurants, Bar Jules and Walzwerk. Clicking on the blue bar at the bottom of the left panel reveals both searches for the restaurants as well as your route downtown. You can click on the checkboxes to turn each search on and off.

It looks like Walzwerk is closer to your path, so you decide to tell your friend to meet you there. And if she isn't completely sold on the convenience of your plan, you can tell her that they have fantastic spätzle and German pilsner.

Posted by Nhu Vuong, Software Engineer

SketchUp goes to the Moon

July 21, 2009

[Cross-posted from the SketchUp Blog]
With the launch of Moon in Google Earth today, you can now explore our nearest celestial neighbor from within Google Earth. Beginning in 1959, we began to send probes and landers to the lunar surface, and most of them remain there to this day.

Many of these objects have been modeled in Google SketchUp, and are based on drawings, photographs, and dimensions. One model that has a prolific presence on the Moon comes from Google 3D Warehouse model contributor, Pagan. This user modeled theApollo Lunar Module and it is featured at each of the Apollo mission landing sites, as well as in the guided tours.

To view these models in Google Earth, first switch to Moon via the planetary drop-down menu at the top of the screen.

Next, expand the "Moon Gallery" in the left Layers panel.

From here you can virtually visit a variety of artifacts, spacecrafts, and mission landing sites by double-clicking on any of the models listed. Here are some examples of what you can find:

Lunar Rover

Lunokhod 1 and Luna 17

Apollo 11 Landing Site

You can also view these models in SketchUp by downloading them from our Moon Objects collection in the Google 3D Warehouse. Happy exploring!

Posted by Nicole Drobeck and Mason Thrall, 3D Data Specialists

Fly yourself to the moon

July 20, 2009

On July 20, 1969, two human beings landed on the moon for the first time. Forty years later, that accomplishment still stands as an unmatched moment in the history of human exploration. It was a truly wondrous event that captured imaginations worldwide -- nearly a billion people (one quarter of the Earth's population at the time) followed it moment-by-moment on live TV or radio, around the globe.

Today, on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, Google is proud to announce the release of Moon in Google Earth, bringing you one step closer to understanding the experience of standing on the moon. It brings the Apollo stories out of the history books, recreating them in an immersive and interactive 3D environment.

To see for yourself, all you need is Google Earth 5.0 (if you already have it, no upgrade is required). Just click the planet button on the top toolbar of Google Earth, and choose Moon. You'll be flown to the Moon, at which point you have all the same usual Google Earth controls -- drag your mouse on the globe to fly around, and use the Layers panel in the lower-left corner to discover content. Double-click any Layers item to fly to it.

Each of the Apollo landing missions is chronicled in detail through pictures and stories. We've even embedded video footage from Spacecraft Films that covers the most well-known moments on the surface. There are also immersive lunar surface panoramas, composed of photos taken by the astronauts themselves, presented for the first time in a 3D "Street View" style interface:

The Human Artifacts layer contains locations and trivia on every robotic spacecraft that's ever landed on or crashed into the moon. Those that did land successfully are represented by 3D models, such as Luna 9 from the USSR:

You can turn on the Historical Maps layer to see maps that NASA itself used in the Apollo missions. Or just fly around and explore the 3D terrain:

If you get lost, that's no problem... just pull up the Guided Tours layer. There you'll find author Andrew Chaikin (A Man on the Moon) and Apollo 11 astronaut and author Buzz Aldrin (Magnificent Desolation) co-narrating an immersive fly-through tour of the Apollo 11 landing site. Harrison H. Schmitt, Apollo 17 astronaut and Fusion Technology Institute faculty member, is also on hand to describe his experience as the only geologist to have walked on the Moon.

The tours are like a movie, but better... when you pause, you can actually look around with the camera! See the Google Earth User Guide for more info.

Moon in Google Earth was made possible by Google's Space Act Agreement, which allowed NASA Ames researchers to help us develop much of its content. We're also grateful to JAXA, Japan's space agency, for donating a global terrain dataset of the Moon.

We hope that you enjoy Moon in Google Earth. Explore it today, in observation of the 40th anniversary of one of humanity's finest moments.

Posted by Michael Weiss-Malik, Product Manager, Moon in Google Earth

Turn the page, travel the world

July 17, 2009

Last year we had a post about authors using Google Maps to tell stories, and pondered whether that was foreshadowing other examples to come. Now author John Higham has taken that to the next level by incorporating Google Earth into his book as a way to illustrate his (literal) journey. 360 Degrees Longitude – One Family’s Journey Around The World tells the story of John's year-long trip across the globe with his wife and children, and he's created a KML to serve as an interactive narrative that puts the family's adventures in visual & geographic context. As John explains it, "while we were traveling around the world time and time again I felt awe at the difference between the perception of reading about a place and experiencing it in the flesh. When I wrote the book, I wanted the reader to have as much of a sense of 'being there' as possible. Using Google Earth was the answer."

At the beginning of the book, the readers are directed to the Google Earth layer, which John considers a 'travel companion'. The KML includes photos, videos, and additional tales to accompany each chapter in the book. You can read more about John's use of Google Earth or find the KML file in the Google Earth gallery.

Posted by Elaine Filadelfo, Lat Long Blog Team

You're invited...

July 16, 2009

This Monday we'll be making a special announcement about Google Earth at the Newseum in Washington DC. The event will last from 11am to 12:30pm and will feature Google speakers, special guests, and product demos.

The Newseum is open to the public and ticket information can be found here. If you can make it, it would be great to see you there.

We're looking forward to it - hope to see you Monday!

Posted by Aaron Stein, Lat Long Blog Team

Introducing a collection of favorite places from around the world

July 15, 2009

[Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog]design shoparchitectural bookstorecabarether favorite placesBlue Bottle CafeChez PanisseBi-Rite CreameryWhitechapel Galleryher favorite placesTate ModernCurzon Soho cinemahis favorite placesMoscow ConservatoryMaly TheaterTCHOestimatedGoogle Local Business Centergoogle.com/favoriteplacesm.google.com/fav

Posted by Michaela Prescott and Katie Mandel, Product Marketing, Google Maps

Where in the World is ... (Answers)

July 14, 2009

formAmericas:herePosted by Ujaval Gandhi, Senior Geo Data Strategist and Jason Clark, GIS Data Engineer

Where in the World is ...

July 13, 2009

We've been hard at work processing imagery for everyone to enjoy, and we've just released a major update. To help you find some of the interesting places getting imagery updates here's a short quiz with a few hints in it to help you out. We will be back soon with the answers and a complete list of updated areas.

1) This large seaport is also known as 'The Pearl of the Mediterranean'.

2) Daring professional divers entertain the tourists by jumping from high cliffs into the sea below in this famous resort city.

3) This long barrier island has been the landfall point of many hurricanes in the USA.

4) This group of more than 740 islands in South Atlantic Ocean hosts a large populations of penguins, seals and albatrosses.

5) 100 kilometers away from the highest peak in Spain, this island gained prestige from UNESCO when part of its geographic territory was designated a World Biosphere Reserve.

Posted by Ujaval Gandhi, Senior Geo Data Strategist and Jason Clark, GIS Data Engineer

Official geo Twitter accounts

July 13, 2009

Have you seen us on Twitter? The Official Google Blog has just posted a list of Google's Twitter accounts. Below are the active geo-related accounts:

twitter.com/GoogleMaps - uses, tips, mashups, and news for Google Maps
twitter.com/GoogleEarth - announcements, tips and tricks for Google Earth

twitter.com/EarthOutreach - Earth & Maps tools for nonprofits & orgs
twitter.com/SketchUp - Google SketchUp news
twitter.com/3DWH - SketchUp's 3D Warehouse
twitter.com/Modelyourtown - 3D modeling to build your favorite places
twitter.com/GoogleSkyMap - all about the Android app for the night sky

We enjoy sharing frequent updates of the geo world with you, and we hope that you find our tweets useful.

Posted by Julie Zhou, Chief Maps Twitterer

The results are in, and they are beautiful

July 10, 2009

[Cross-posted from the Official Google SketchUp blog]Google SketchUp 2009 International Student Bridge Modeling Competition42 collectionswinners pageJason WongTobias MerkNicholas FalboPosted by Allyson McDuffie, SketchUp for Education Program Manager

Special Site for President Obama's visit to Ghana

July 10, 2009

[Cross-posted from the Google Africa Blog]
President Obama's visit to Ghana has caused a wave of excitement on the web, with searches for "Obama" increasing by 150% in Ghana over the last week. In recognition of this occasion, we have teamed up with the Ministry of Tourism in Ghana to create a special site for President Obama's visit. This adds to the existing wealth of information on the Ministry's official site which highlights places of interest, restaurants and accommodation, as well as festivals, eco-tourism, and much more.

Using Google's geo products, the site includes a pictorial tour in Google Earth of key landmarks along the historical slave route in Ghana, such as Gwollu in North West Ghana, where people created a refuge from the infamous slave raids. The tour also visits Salaga Market, a major slave market where wells and cemeteries have now been turned into shrines, and the Slave River at Assin Manso, where the slaves had their last bath prior to leaving Africa's shores. The tour ends at Cape Coast Castle in the Central Region, now a UNESCO World Heritage monument, with the final Doorway of No Return.

Using Google Maps, the site shows places that President Obama and the First Lady will visit during their trip to Ghana. The map will provide fresh updates on events as they happen, including links to videos via YouTube that will keep the map fresh and interesting. Locations include Kotoka International Airport, the President's arrival point; the Osu Castle, where President Obama will meet the President of Ghana, Professor Atta Mills; and Cape Coast Castle and the Conference Centre in Accra, where the President will meet Ghanains.

We have already partnered with other tourism authorities on the continent, including in Egyptand South Africa, to showcase some of Africa's extraordinary natural beauty and cultural heritage in Google Earth. As Ghana welcomes the first African-American U.S. president, we're very excited to work with the Ministry of Tourism to help raise awareness about Ghana's unique tourism offerings.

Posted by Estelle Akofio-Sowah, Country Manager, Ghana

Google Earth Enterprise launches version 3.2, with APIs, historical imagery and sub-surface terrain

July 9, 2009

Cross-posted from the Google Enterprise blog
We're constantly adding useful and interactive functionality to our enterprise products, andGoogle Earth Enterprise is no exception. Today we're announcing the latest release of Google Earth Enterprise: version 3.2. Google Earth Enterprise allows customers to build private globes on their secure networks using the same technology that powers the public Google Earth. Version 3.2 delivers new features that allow government agencies and other organizations to apply the recent advances in the public version of Google Earth, such as historical imagery and underwater terrain, to their own data and operations.

Version 3.2 gives Google Earth Enterprise users the option of using a browser to view and interact with their private globes using the Google Earth API. This delivers the same fast, familiar, 3-D navigation that users get from Google Earth – but within a web browser rather than the standard client.

Another new addition is historical imagery in Google Earth Enterprise, making it easy for employees to view how a place or region has changed over time. Many of our customers have archives of imagery of a property or point of interest taken over a series of days, years – even decades. The 3.2 release allows customers to time-stamp the imagery, tracking changes over time to provide a handy historical reference.

With the new release, customers also have the option to build Mercator imagery tiles for any 2-D maps they create with Google Earth Enterprise. Mercator is a commonly used conformal projection for viewing tiles in the browser. The new release allows customers to easily overlay their tiles on top of Google's basemap for a 2-dimensional mashup of their own internal data and Google's. (Thanks again to Gerardus Mercator and his great work on the Nova et AuctaOrbis Terrae Descriptio ad Usum Navigatium Emendate in 1569!)

We've also added support for Enterprise users to process their own sub-surface terrain data, also known as bathymetry – something we shared in the public Google Ocean launch in February 2009. Using the Earth API or latest Google Earth Enterprise client, you can now navigate below sea level to visualize that data in your organization's globe too.
enterprise-operations@google.comSee what Google Earth Enterprise has to offerPosted by

Take a ride with LA Metro in Google Transit

July 9, 2009

The Los Angeles region is widely known for its extreme traffic, and a study released just this week by the Texas Transportation Institute reports that LA has the most significant congestion in the United States. It goes on to estimate that commuters in LA spent 485 million hours idling in traffic, wasting 367 million gallons of gas.

However, Los Angeles also has an extensive public transit network, operated by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro), and today we're excited to introduce them as the newest addition to Google Transit. Metro operates 5 rail lines and nearly 200 bus lines within Los Angeles County, logging an average of 1.5 million weekday boardings.

As a part of Google Transit, Metro's itineraries will now appear as an alternative with the "Public Transit" link when a user searches for driving directions within their service area to remind commuters of the availability of public transit. Turning on the Traffic layer in Google Maps to get an idea of what congestion awaits may provide even more motivation to try take advantage of Metro!

Los Angeles welcomed 4.7 million international visitors last year, so the ability to use the familiar Google Maps interface in a native language is another great benefit to tourists and potential Metro passengers. This announcement of Metro's participation in Google Transit also comes just a few weeks after they published their GTFS data to their developer site, so we hope to see more creative applications take advantage of the developer tools Metro provides.

Whether Metro's inclusion in Google Transit helps people discover the availability of public transit in LA, or makes it easier for people to plan their transit itineraries, we're excited to have such a large agency on board and hope it will help beat some of the infamous LA traffic.

Posted by Jessica Wei, Strategic Partner Development Manager, Google Transit

The blue circle comes to your desktop

July 9, 2009

If you've used Google Maps for mobile, you'll be familiar with My Location. With single click of a button, your approximate location is shown on the map with a blue circle. Wouldn't it be great if that same feature was available in Google Maps on your desktop or laptop computer?

Today we're excited to announce exactly that, the launch of My Location for Google Maps.

When you visit Google Maps with a supported web browser, you'll see a new My Location button in the top left corner of the map. Simply click the button to center the map to your approximate location. If your location can be determined accurately enough, it's shown with a blue circle, just like on Google Maps for Mobile. Click the button again to remove the blue circle, or to re-center the map after you've moved it away.

My Location is a great way to start exploring the map around you, and perfect for working out where you are when you're away from home. For example, if you've just arrived in an unfamiliar city, My Location is a handy way to view the map around you, even if you don't know the street address. You can find things to do nearby or work out the best way to get where you need to go. Even when you're somewhere familiar, My Location is a convenient way to open the map 'on the right page'.

To obtain your location, Google Maps takes advantage of the W3C Geolocation API standard. The Geolocation API is a new feature available in the latest web browsers which allows any website to access your current location. If you use Internet Explorer, you might be familiar with My Location in Google Toolbar, which is able to provide your location in Google Maps, but this is limited to Internet Explorer. Using the new Geolocation API allows My Location to work in any browser that provides the feature. Currently, you can use My Location in Google Maps if you use Google Chrome, Firefox 3.5 or any other web browser with Gears installed. We hope to support other browsers soon too. You won't see the My Location button on browsers that don't support the feature.

So how does it work? When you activate the My Location feature, Google Maps asks your web browser for your location. Typically, your browser uses information about the Wi-Fi access points around you to estimate your location. If no Wi-Fi access points are in range, or your computer doesn't have Wi-Fi, it may resort to using your computer's IP address to get an approximate location. As you'd expect, the accuracy of My Location varies with your location, and in some cases, Google Maps may not be able to provide a location at all.

Google takes privacy very seriously, so your location will never be used without your permission. The first time you use My Location on Google Maps, you'll be asked to confirm that you're happy to share your location with Google Maps, and you can always undo your decision. See the help center article on Privacy and My Location for more information about how your location is used.

So visit Google Maps, click the My Location button, and start exploring the map around you!

Posted by Steve Block, Software Engineer and Noam Ben Haim, Product Manager

Help customers find their way with new Google Maps gadget

July 7, 2009

Last week, I looked up directions to the hotel in Sacramento that I had booked for the 4th of July weekend. As I had never been to that part of the state before, I was puzzled by the directions offered by their website - I wasn't whether I was approaching from the North, South, East or West or where the major highways were. What I needed were step-by-step directions from my exact starting point to the hotel that I could easily print and go.

With the new directions gadget from Google Maps, any business can offer just that. This simple gadget allows webmasters to add customized Google Maps directions to their business locations. With the directions gadget, you no longer need to type and update multiple sets of text directions. Let's face it: customers are only looking for directions from their specific location.

Google has made this process easy for you. The gadget allows you to pre-fill the "To" field with one or multiple addresses. Customers are then able to print their directions with a single click. And if they would prefer not to drive, the gadget also provides walking and public transit directions.

Second, if someone entered a vague starting address, they would have the option to specify a more exact address, which will then fly into the "From" field.

Providing directions from Google Maps is very flexible; in addition to run-of-the-mill addresses, you can give your customers directions to everything from a generic ZIP code to a specific set of latitude-longitude coordinates for any of your locations.

Example destinations:
123 River St, Woods, MA
90210
42.06782° N, 71.756963° W

You can also give your address an alias, or a name that everyone will understand, particularly if your business has more than one location. You can do this by putting the alias in parentheses just after the address:

42.06782° N, 71.756963° W (Grandma's House)

Take a look at how Legoland California, Emeril Lagasse, and Harvard University are using the gadget. And then test and create your own directions gadget here. For the many locations outside of the US, the gadget is available in 23 different languages.

Posted by Julie Zhou, Associate Product Marketing Manager

Improving real estate search on Google Maps

July 6, 2009

The web is becoming increasingly indispensable to people looking for a new home to buy. For example, you can use Street View to check out the neighborhood before driving to an open home; use driving directions to find out exactly how to get there; and Transit to work out what your new commute might be if you went ahead and moved house.

We want to keep making it easier for people find the real estate information they're looking for and have it returned to them in a useful way. So, from today, if you enter a query like <<homes for sale in san francisco>> on Google Maps, you'll see that we make it easy for you to see all your results on a map with a one-box that will take you to real estate listings. Previously, you had to specify "real estate" from the search options menu, but now we're making it easier to find available listings

You'll notice that we've made some other enhancements that will improve your real estate searching experience. We've added lots of markers that will show not only the ten most relevant listings with pins on the map, but also show a small circle on every other listing in that area using the search results layer, so you can get a really good idea of the distribution of properties for sale. You can click on each marker and each small circle to get more detailed information about the property.

This feature means you can now conduct a real estate search around a specific neighborhood, or see at a glance all the properties close to a BART stop. You can also pan the map to another area entirely to see listings there if you decide that another part of town is more your speed.

Finally, feedback from users has told us that it's more helpful for the address of a property to be in the headline of a listing rather than the number of beds and bathrooms as we were previously showing, so we've updated this too.

We've also expanded the feature to cover real estate in Australia and New Zealand properties for rent and sale, and made it easier to provide property listings for inclusion.

Check out maps.google.com/realestate to check out more information on how Google Maps can be a useful tool in your real estate search.

Posted by Andrew Foster, Product Manager

A festive Fourth with Google Maps

July 2, 2009

I'll be heading to the nation's capital to celebrate Independence Day this weekend, so I've been browsing the many maps that the Washington Post has put together to help people take in the festivities. If you'll be in DC too, you can find a map of the various events going on throughout the holiday weekend and a map of fireworks shows throughout the entire region. My friends and I plan to take in the fireworks over the National Mall, so we're consulting this map to determine the very best viewing location.

Of course, DC isn't the only place to celebrate the Fourth. Here's a list of maps of parades, fireworks shows, and events from other places around the country (thanks to the Google Maps Mania blog for finding some of these!):

If your town has a map that you want to share, let us know by sending it to @googlemaps on Twitter. If you're planning your own Fourth of July celebration, you can make your own My Map to show friends how to get to your BBQ or where exactly in the park you plan to meet to catch the fireworks.

Posted by Elaine Filadelfo, Lat Long Blog Team

Featured Modeler: John from Dursley, England

July 1, 2009

[Cross-posted from the Official Google SketchUp Blog]3D models of Dursley

Google EarthGoogle SketchUpGloucester Cityz-fightingBuildings of England

photo site

DursleypressBBC

Posted by James Therrien, Google SketchUp Team

Visualizing greenhouse gas emissions

Welcome to Boston: the MBTA on Google Maps

Zoom photo navigation in Street View

Lots of layers in Google Maps for mobile 3.2

Just keep searching

SketchUp goes to the Moon

Fly yourself to the moon

Turn the page, travel the world

You're invited...

Introducing a collection of favorite places from around the world

Where in the World is ... (Answers)

Where in the World is ...

Official geo Twitter accounts

The results are in, and they are beautiful

Special Site for President Obama's visit to Ghana

Google Earth Enterprise launches version 3.2, with APIs, historical imagery and sub-surface terrain

Take a ride with LA Metro in Google Transit

The blue circle comes to your desktop

Help customers find their way with new Google Maps gadget

Improving real estate search on Google Maps

A festive Fourth with Google Maps

Featured Modeler: John from Dursley, England

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