Google Lat Long: September 2009

Hasbro, maker of 'Monopoly' game, launches the Design your own Building Competition

September 29, 2009

[Cross-Posted from the Official SketchUp Blog]Monopoly City Streets

Google SketchUpGoogle 3D WarehouseMonopoly City Streets blog

Learn to build 3D models with SketchUp by watching video tutorials and related YouTube videos. Download and work through a few examples using these self-paced tutorials: Introduction to SketchUp, Starting a Drawing Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

From SketchUp, choose "Share Model" and upload your 3D building to the Google 3D Warehouse (you must have a Google account to sign in).

In the upload window, add the tag "monopolycompetition09" and make sure that you've checked "Allow 3D Warehouse users to contact me about this model" so we can contact you if you win!

Within 48 hours, your model/entry will appear in the Competition Collection in the Google 3D Warehouse.

Buildings can be any size and any shape

Buildings must not have photo-textures; they must be painted with solid colors

The file size limit is 2 MB

The file format should be .SKP

Keep it simple. Or not. The judges will be looking at all designs – simple and complex.

Go crazy. Remember, the MONOPOLY world is a fun place. Make your building the same! Go wild and have oodles of fun doing it.

Upload as many designs as you want. The more you submit, the greater the chance of your design winning!

For some inspiration, check out some sample creations already in the Google 3D Warehouse Competition Collection.

Monopoly City Streets blogPosted by Tasha Danko, SketchUp Product Marketing Team

Where in the world is... (Answers)

September 25, 2009

As always, great job figuring out the answers to all the questions. I hope you had fun deciphering the clues. Here are the answers in case any stumped you. For even more fun exploring the new imagery, here is a KML outlining all the areas receiving new data.
1) Once a political capitol, now a financial capitol, MapMakers in this city rapidly growing have cried for updated imagery and we have delivered.

-- Karachi, Pakistan

2) With updated imagery over this city, you can see leftovers from the Texas Tech - Virginia game.

-- Jacksonville, FL

3) This former "closed city" just got a GeoEye-1 update.

-- Sevastopol, Ukraine

4) The wettest area of the continental United States has gotten an update. (Hint: it's a Rain Forest)

-- Olympic National Park, Washington

5) This beloved stadium, which was built for the 1978 World Cup, is still in pretty good shape from the looks of it. There's even a go-kart track in the parking lot!

-- Cordoba, Argentina

6) Ever wonder where Aluminum comes from? Africa's second largest Aluminum production site has gotten new imagery.

-- Maputo, Mozambique

7) This great palace was constructed between 1857 and 1859, but was mostly destroyed by allied bombing in World War II. Finally re-built in the 90's, this site is now a major tourist destination.

-- Mandalay Palace, Myanmar

8) Though you can't do any shopping here from your desk, you can now view South America's largest open-air market with increased clarity.
-- La Cancha in Cochabamba, Bolivia

9) Connected to civilization by an ice road and a gravel runway, this diamond mine is difficult to operate.

-- Diavik Diamond Mine, Canada

Following is a more complete version of the updates in this data push:

Americas:
United States: Bradford County (FL), Broward County (FL), Baker County (FL), Dade County (FL), Holmes County (FL), Charlotte County (FL), Monroe County (FL), Seminole County (FL), Union County (FL), Washington County (FL), Highlands County (FL), Duval County (FL), Levy County (FL), Glades County (FL), Marion County (FL), Hendry County (FL), Osceola County (FL), St John's County (FL), Lake County (FL), Putnam County (FL), Boston Metro Area (MA), Brooklyn (NY), Cleveland (OH), Santa Rosa (CA), Ventura County (CA), Mission Viejo (CA), Kitsap County (WA), Washington State, Bosie (ID), Cheyenne (WY), Wichita (KS), St Louis (MO), Minneapolis (MN), La Crosse County (WI), Porter County (ID), Kenton County (KY), Campbell County (KY), Aiken County (SC), Wayne County (NC), Lenoir County (NC), Currituck County (NC), Armstrong County (PA), New Haven (CT), Hartford (CT), Portland (ME), Garret County (MD), Allegany County (MD), Washington County (MD), Howard County (MD), Montgomery County (MD), Prince George's County (MD), Anne Arundel County (MD), Harford County (MD), Cecil County (MD), Kent County (MD), Queen Anne's County (MD), Talbot County (MD), Caroline County (MD), Saint Mary's County (MD), Wicomico County (MD), Worcester County (MD),
Canada: Diavik, Ivujivik

Brazil: Impz, Maraba

Argentina: Mendoza, Cordoba

Bolivia: Cochabamba

Chile: Iquique

Europe, Middle East, & Africa:

Spain: Hondarribia

Portugal: Porto Santo, Madeira

Ukraine: Sevestopol

Russia: Kamyshin, Ust-Illimsk, Norilsk

Algeria: Medea

Libya: Tobruk

Morocco: Tetouan, Khouribga

Burkina Faso: Ouagadougou

Niger: Madaoua

Nigeria: Lagos, Port Harcourt

Zambia: Kitwe, Ndola

Mozambique: Maputo, Nampula

Asia & Oceania:

Pakistan: Karachi

Myanmar: Mandalay

China: Lhasa, Shihezi, Hami, Zichuan, Liazhou

New 2.5m base imagery for: Parts of New Zealand.

Posted by Matt Manolides, Senior GIS Specialist

This week in @googlemaps

September 25, 2009

Here are the tweets that were the most popular this past week in case you missed anything. This was also a big week for us because we reached the 20,000 follower milestone. Send a tweet to @googlemaps if you have a suggestion for how we should celebrate and thank all our followers!

Insanely awesome Twitter Trends Map with clustered topics by location: http://bit.ly/PNOZi

Introducing Place Pages for Google Maps — everything about one place on one page http://bit.ly/VHMix

Beautiful hand-drawn map of Edinburgh. Zoom in on stairs o' death, late nite pizza & more http://bit.ly/JadMZ

I don't speak Chinese but really want to visit China after seeing these gorgeous maps/photos from NatGeo http://bit.ly/1YWi11

RT @umapper - Nicely implemented map of Dubai Metro: http://bit.ly/30kKB9 #dubai

Wild card: Can anyone match the enthusiasm of this @googlemaps user in Japan? http://twitpic.com/ii9cc

Posted by Julie Zhou, Chief Maps Twitterer

One place, one page

September 24, 2009

When you're looking for information about a restaurant down the street or a museum across the country, you sometimes find relevant information is scattered across the web. Instead of doing the research all over the web, wouldn’t it be great to see all the information for that place in... one place?

Starting today, you can do that with Place Pages for Google Maps. A Place Page is a web page for every place in the world, organizing all the world's information for that place. And we really mean every place: there are Place Pages for businesses, points of interest, transit stations, landmarks, and cities all over the world. To find a Place Page, click on "more info" in your Google Maps search results or "more info" in the info bubble on the map.

If I'm visiting Sydney, I can visit the Place Pages of popular destinations like the Opera House, Aquarium, and Garden Palace to see photos, find nearby public transit, and even discover related maps users have created with landmarks in Australia. For businesses, I can check out "More Details" to see where all the information is coming from or even edit to add my own information or reviews. For example, if I look at the Place Page for my favorite chocolate shop, Burdick Chocolate Cafe in Boston, I can see relevant photos, read all the user reviews, browse the menu, see their hours, and even find out what transit lines take me there.

We think Place Pages will make searching much easier (and hopefully more fun!) for our users, but we're also excited about what it means for business owners. By default, users looking for local businesses can easily view ratings for your business, reviews, related maps, find nearby transit options showing them how to get to you, and take a look at your business with a Street View preview - and it's all on one page. If you claim your listing with the Local Business Center, you'll be able to make sure there's even more rich content on the Place Page, like photos, YouTube videos, hours of operation, types of products or services offered, and several other categories you can submit. You can even add a coupon that will appear on your Place Page to really entice potential customers. By editing your Local Business Center listing your place page will automatically be updated.

Another nice benefit of Place Pages for Google Maps is that they will come with a friendly URL that will make it easy to remember and link to. For example, you'll find the San Francisco Place Page at google.com/places/us/california/san-francisco-city. We're working on rolling this out for all Place Pages; right now we include cities and most businesses; if your business isn't included just yet, we're working on it!

If you want to learn a bit more before trying it out for yourself, you can read our post on the Official Google Blog - then start exploring all sorts of places!

Posted by Avni Shah, Senior Product Manager, Place Pages team

Map Maker graduation, Part III

September 24, 2009

Our ability to explore maps relies on having access to quality data. Much of our world has yet to have access to accurate digital mapping data. This is why we originally created Google Map Maker, and why we're excited today to announce 19 new countries and territories to that have made the leap from being drawn on Google Map Maker to being pushed on Google Maps:

Algeria, Angola, Congo, Faroe Islands, French Guiana, Guyana, Haiti, Kazakhstan, Liberia, Morocco, Namibia, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Qatar, Suriname, Swaziland, Tunisia, Turks and Caicos Islands, Western Sahara

as well as 11 that were added in July:

Bahamas, Bermuda, British Indian Ocean Territory, Fiji, Greenland, Laos, Mali, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena

Almaty, Kazakhstan

Paramaribo, Suriname

Georgetown, Guyana

Noumea, New Caledonia

Thanks to all of the wonderful Map Maker contributors. We hope more of you will join us in mapping your world. Here's a full list of Map Maker countries now on Maps.

Posted by Anand Srinivasan, Vishwajith Krishnamurthy and Jessica Pfund, Map Maker Team

Where in the world is ...

September 23, 2009

It's been a month since out last imagery update and I know you're all hungry for more data, so today we've finished pushing out some great imagery to Google Earth. Below are a few hints that should help you find some of the new imagery. Happy hunting!

1) Once a political capitol, now a financial capitol, MapMakers in this city rapidly growing have cried for updated imagery and we have delivered.

2) With updated imagery over this city, you can see leftovers from the Texas Tech - Virginia game.

3) This former "closed city" just got a GeoEye-1 update.

4) The wettest area of the continental United States has gotten an update. (Hint: it's a Rain Forest)

5) This beloved stadium, which was built for the 1978 World Cup, is still in pretty good shape from the looks of it. There's even a go-kart track in the parking lot!

6) Ever wonder where Aluminum comes from? Africa's second largest Aluminum production site has gotten new imagery.

7) This great palace was constructed between 1857 and 1859, but was mostly destroyed by allied bombing in World War II. Finally re-built in the 90's, this site is now a major tourist destination.

8) Though you can't do any shopping here from your desk, you can now view South America's largest open-air market with increased clarity.

9) Connected to civilization by an ice road and a gravel runway, this diamond mine is difficult to opperate.

Posted by Posted by Matt Manolides, Senior GIS Strategist

SketchUp 7.1 is here

September 22, 2009

[Cross-posted with the SketchUp Blog]bugling elkGoogle SketchUp 7.1LayOut 2.1Large Model Handlingthis articleBetter File Exchangedata liberationdifferent pieces of softwareModeling in Context

Get Photo TextureGoogle Maps Street View
Nearby ModelsBringing in a geo-location snapshot
Upload ComponentDimensioned Drawings in Google SketchUp ProLayOut 2.1...and if that's not enough, have you got an idea for what we should do next?

Google SketchUp Product Ideasdiscussion forumsPosted by John Bacus, SketchUp Product Manager

Explore our changing climate in Google Earth

September 22, 2009

Today we're launching a new series of narrated Google Earth tours all about climate change as part of Google's effort to make climate information accessible leading up to the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December. This series brings together scientific geo-data about our world under a changing climate -- in a manner that can be explored interactively. The data includes temperature and precipitation projections and the rising risks to food security, water stress, coastal zones, health, and much more.

You can view the first released tour, Confronting Climate Change, narrated by Al Gore that takes you through some of the worst impacts expected due to our changing climate, and points us towards the upcoming tours introducing the range of solutions for confronting it.

This is just the first of a series of tours that we will be rolling out in the next few weeks. You'll see both global overview tours as well as case studies where you can zoom in to certain parts of the world for a deeper look at what non-profit organizations and communities are doing to cope with climate change.

Posted by Karin Tuxen-Bettman, Google Earth Outreach

Ocean Now: Diving the Gemelas Seamounts

September 21, 2009

[National Geographic has recently begun their Ocean Now expedition to Cocos Island and the Gemelas Seamounts west of Costa Rica. We've invited National Geographic explorer Sylvia Earle to author this guest post to share stories about her submarine dives on the DeepSee to coincide with the update to our Ocean Expeditions layer, which features this expedition. --Ed.]National Geographic Ocean NowHanse Explorer ArgoArgoDeepSeeTopSee

We’re all having a lot of fun out here, and accomplishing a lot of good scientific observations—actually, a few breakthroughs! We were able to go out to two seamounts that have never been looked at with a submarine before. You can’t dive them, because they’re too deep.

The only way they’ve been sampled before is by fishermen. There’s plenty of evidence of that, because during the four dives that we made on them during the past week, we could see literally miles of fishing line wrapped around and around and around these beautiful undersea mountains.
We even saw a big grouper that had a hook still attached in its mouth, and a long line that had been there so long that growth was on the line. He was an awfully skinny grouper, because I think he had trouble feeding. It really breaks your heart to see what happens when derelict fishing gear causes problems for the creatures here. Not just those immediately caught, but those that suffer beyond the time of the fishing.
Generally, though, it’s good news: we have seen lots of fish, corals that are recovering from El Niño years when much of the coral dies. Here’s the thing: During the last strong El Niño, about 90 percent of the coral here at Cocos died. Jorge Cortés, the chief Costa Rican scientist on this ship, who has studied this area for many years, points out that if 90 percent of a rain forest died, people would be up in arms. They would be so concerned! When 90 percent of the coral reef dies, people are concerned, but they don’t react with quite the same passion that they do when something on the land happens that everybody can see.
Underwater, our job partly is to demonstrate the problems that are occurring, and why it matters to everybody—why what happens to the ocean affects you wherever you are, and also how what we do affects the ocean in a way that is important for us to understand. The ocean gives us the oxygen we breathe. Most of the oxygen we inhale comes from the sea. The water that falls out of the sky largely originates in the sea. So you don’t have to be living by the sea to be living by the sea, because the sea really governs life, everybody’s life. It’s really important for us to understand that, so that we can do a better job of taking care of the ocean that takes care of us.

Posted by Sylvia A. Earle, Explorer-in-Residence, National Geographic

Desktop discovery following Ocean Expeditions in Google Earth

September 21, 2009

Today we've updated our Ocean Expeditions layer in the Ocean folder in Google Earth. Each ship icon represents the most recent post from either a live expedition or one within the last 6 months (look for the yellow-filled ship icon) or the post from the beginning of a historical expedition (look for the blue-filled ship icon). We have over 40 Ocean Expeditions including historical tracks from National Geographic's Ocean Now Pristine Seas Expedition, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, MBARI, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, the Cousteau Society, the Census of Antarctic Marine Life, and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

We recently added the US Coast Guard Healy arctic icebreaker expedition (see images), followed the Scripps Seaplex expedition to the Pacific garbage patch, and tracked Roz Savage on the second leg of her solo global row from Hawaii to Tarawa, a Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean midway between Hawaii and Australia, where she arrived September 9th. You can click on any expedition and from that balloon, download the entire expedition by clicking the right arrow in the bottom right of the balloon. Follow along as scientists and explorers discover hydrothermal vents, coral reefs and strange, deep sea creatures.

In particular, check out our new live expeditions:

National Geographic has recently begun their Ocean Now expedition to Cocos Island in Costa Rica. From their ship blog, you can read about their mission to explore this pristine reef area, the first post from explorer Enric Sala, and you can follow their latest photos and videos in geographic context from their Expedition Maps site using Google Maps and the Google Earth plugin. Watch a video of explorer Sylvia Earle's sub dive where she met "Georgina", a hawksbill sea turtle.
The Antinea Foundation is sponsoring the Changing Oceans Expedition, a ten-year journey through the world's most important marine areas allowing scientists to do Research, communicators to Educate and anyone to follow along virtually online. You can come along using Google Earth (download the kml pointer here) or on the expedition website, where they have the embedded Google Earth plugin. Those on the expedition will explore, study and fully share ocean discoveries, day by day, moment by moment, through this new, interactive media. Over the course of a decade the Changing Oceans Expedition ship, Fleur de Passion, will sail to 100 of the ocean's most important sites, from the shores of the Mediterranean to the farthest reaches of the South Pacific, spending 2009 in the Mediterranean Sea, the Adriatic, and in Croatia.

Open this kml in Google Earth and discover for yourself. Check back to the blog soon to hear directly from someone currently on one of the featured expeditions - Sylvia Earle herself!

Posted by Pete Giencke, Michael Rubinstein, & Jenifer Foulkes, the Ocean in Google Earth team

Visiting Korea with Google Earth

September 18, 2009

One of my favorite places in Korea is the Insa-dong art district. Whenever I have guests I take them there to show off Korean traditional goods and galleries, but now I can show all my overseas friends and coworkers Insa-dong as well as many other tourist highlights around the country.

If you've dreamt of traveling to beautiful Korea, you can now turn on the "Korea Tourism" layer under the Travel and Tourism folder in the Google Earth Gallery to make a virtual visit or get a jump-start on planning your trip. The Korea Tourism Organization has worked to develop this Korea Tourism layer, which allows you to discover rich information about landmarks and attractions all over the country. You will see some of the country's highlights, which include temples, palaces, amusement parks, springs, shopping places, and much more. You can also enjoy virtual tours, create an itinerary, or turn on other interesting travel-related layers such as Panoramio, Wiki, or 360cities to help plan your trip. Be sure you don't miss out on Dongdaemun gate, 63 City, and Namsan Hanok Village.

Posted by Sun-Gi Hong, Google Korea

This week in @googlemaps

September 18, 2009

Are you not (yet) one of the 19,000 people following @GoogleMaps on Twitter? Well, you won't have to miss out on all the fun -- although we do still hope you'll follow us if you're a fellow Twitterer! We're starting out a weekly recap of our 5 most popular tweets (based on re-tweets and link clicks) so you can catch up on some of the interesting tips, stories, updates and announcements that we've shared during the week, 140 characters at a time. To make things a little more fun, we'll also throw in a "wild card" that gives you a glimpse into life here on the Google Maps team or gives an idea of the types of things that entertain & interest us. Without further ado, here are this past week's top tweets:

Save your most recent 100 searches in Google Maps & take 'em wherever you like http://bit.ly/3SBsX

Details not quite right? In most countries, you can edit a location in Google Maps directly. Find out how http://bit.ly/mapedits

Some of our favorite Google Maps mashups to display your GPS tracks and discover trails in your area: http://bit.ly/w1zAK

Is your water safe to drink? This @nytimes map finds water polluters near you http://bit.ly/4FkVAw

Telegraph.co.uk loves Street View artist Bill Guffey too. See their photo gallery comparing paintings to real images http://bit.ly/9dszp

Wild card: Friday Fun: Takin' over our lobbies (w creative use of ladders) one 12-foot maps poster at a time http://twitpic.com/hbdyj

Posted by Julie Zhou, Chief Maps Twitterer

Spreading the word about Local Business Center

September 17, 2009

Last week I was in Anaheim, CA as a new partner with Sysco's iCare program, helping restaurant owners claim their Google business listings with Local Business Center. One interaction that really stuck out in my mind was with Geof Gaines who owns Coffee Depot - the self-described largest coffee house in the world - in Riverside, CA.The hours in his unclaimed business listing were incorrect, and he wanted to add videos to show off the musical acts that perform at his shop. After he verified his listing by phone, he got access to Coffee Depot's dashboard and was immediately able to see that in mid-July, the number of people who found his listing jumped dramatically and has been steadily high ever since. He thought back and realized that the spike happened at the same time that a local paper had written about his business. Now he's planning to closely monitor his listing's dashboard to see how various marketing and publicity tactics perform.

We want a lot more businesses to be able to have this "Aha!" moment, getting insights on data that they could never see before. So, building upon our Favorite Places celebration of local businesses back in June, we're launching new efforts to make sure that business owners know about Local Business Center, and that users know how to take full advantage of the statistics in their dashboard.

First, all Local Business Center users in the U.S. who opted into receiving newsletters will now receive a monthly email report on how their business listings performed on Google in the previous month, including how many times the listing was seen, how many people clicked to the business' website, and more.

We'll also provide tips for optimizing business listings, such as advice on adding photos, uploading videos, and creating coupons (coming up in the next newsletter!). We'll also highlight successful businesses of the month and let businesses know about other Google products and offers that can help grow their business. You can find August's newsletter here, but make sure you're on the list to automatically receive future installments by opting in to newsletters in your account. Once you sign up, watch for the latest newsletter with your own customized business stats and all sorts of tips to be arriving soon.

Second, with lots of positive feedback on our Local Business Center introduction video, we decided to make a 30 second version to air in places where business owners are looking. We launched it earlier this week on television with Google TV Ads, and on various websites across Google's content network. In the video, you'll hear an overview of all that the Local Business Center has to offer, directly from Carter Maslan, our Director of Product Management for Local Search. So keep your eye out for the video (and pass it along to any business owners you know!).

Businesses can claim their listing and get started at google.com/lbc. It's been great to get to talk to people like Geof and other business owners, and to hear their feedback. If you have any interesting ideas for other types of outreach or partnerships, let us know.

Posted by Ryan Hayward, Product Marketing Manager

Discover new places with related maps

September 17, 2009

Now that I've lived in San Francisco for almost a year, I've hit most of the big tourist attractions, but still don't quite feel like a local. There are still plenty of neighborhoods I've yet to explore, a list of restaurants I'm still dying to try out, and a whole lot of scenic views I haven't discovered. I've been using Google Maps from the day I moved here to get the lay of the land, find my way around, and master public transportation. Now that I'm a little better oriented, I've started figuring out different ways that Google Maps can help me explore.

I've found that searching for user-created maps can be a great way to get local flavor. When I do a regular search for "ice cream," I'll get a list of ice cream places in the city. But, when I click Show search options and then select "Related maps," I can find user-created maps showcasing their own favorite ice cream spots, complete with reviews and flavor recommendations. Doing a "Related maps" search for "scenic views" returned maps showing city spots with awesome views that I never knew existed. It's a great way to create your own customized city tour, taking advantage of local knowledge and user recommendations.

And, if a user has created a map that you particularly like, click their username to check out their Maps profile. There, you can find out if they've created any other maps you might be interested in. You can also share your recommended places with the world by creating a public My Map, that will show up in other users' search results. To learn more about My Maps, visit the Google Maps User Guide.

Posted by Sarah Gordon, Tips Guru

Make History with the National September 11th Memorial & Museum

September 11, 2009

[cross-posted from the Official Google Blog]
30 West BroadwayMake HistoryNational September 11th Memorial & MuseumLocal ProjectsGoogle Maps APIsite

App EngineMake HistoryPosted by Jill Szuchmacher, New Business Development

Google Earth 5.1: Think fast

September 9, 2009

When we released Google Earth 5 earlier this year, we packed it full of amazing new features. We opened up two-thirds of the planet to exploration by letting you dive into the oceans; with historical imagery, we added the ability to go back in time to see how our planet has changed over the years; with touring, we made it easy for anyone to create and share guided, narrated stories; and with 3D Mars, we made it easy to leave Earth's orbit and explore the Red Planet.

But here at Google, we've realized that one of the most important features of all is speed. One of our key design principles is "fast is better than slow." So for the newest version of Google Earth, we've been hard at work making it faster.

We've made a lot of adjustments under the hood, like improving memory utilization so we can show more buildings, layers, and user content. We improved our shaders (that's graphics-speak for small programs that run inside your graphics processor) to make the atmosphere draw faster. We also worked to reduce stuttering (known as frame drops) to provide an even smoother experience as you fly around the globe. When we draw imagery, we now use compression technology to use less memory and graphics resources. We know that waiting for a program to start-up can be really frustrating, so we improved our start-up time by 25%. In our Google Earth API (which allows developers to include Google Earth right in their websites), we have made API calls significantly faster, which means that our developers can now do even more.

What does all of this mean to you? A faster, smoother experience when you're flying around the globe. Download the latest version (Google Earth 5.1), head on over to Paris, and turn on the road layer without fear of slowing things down. Or turn on one of the Rumsey Map layers from our gallery and see the world as it was drawn by Cassini in 1790 without missing a beat.

We've also made another exciting change with the release: our browser plug-in is automatically included when you install Google Earth (PC-only for now.) This means that once you've downloaded Google Earth 5.1, you can explore all of the exciting Google Earth sites that our developers have made without having to mess around with another installation. You can learn about endangered marine species, or perhaps practice landing a lunar rover before your next big expedition. Now these and many more Google Earth web applications are just a click away.

Download the latest version of Google Earth at http://earth.google.com, and fly around the globe faster than ever before.

Posted by Peter Birch, Product Manager

Mapping for disasters with UNOSAT

September 9, 2009

Seasonal floods are currently affecting West Africa. Senegal, Niger, Burkina Faso, Benin, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Mali, Liberia and Guinea are all experiencing significant damage to infrastructure and agriculture due to heavy rainfall causing floods in numerous locations. More than 350,000 people have been impacted thus far.

Based on requests from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, theSpace Charter - created to acquire imagery in the wake of disasters - was activated, and UNITAR/UNOSAT started satellite mapping. UNITAR/UNOSAT is formally recognized by the Space Charter as “Charter User Intermediary” -- this status grants the privilege “to act as gateway for request submissions on behalf of UN users related with humanitarian actions”. Imagery from Space Charter members was sent to UNOSAT within a few hours after being taken. A dedicated technical team immediately started the analysis, and turned this near real-time satellite imagery into useful information products, which were disseminated to a range of users in the field, at national & regional offices, and in headquarters. This rapid mapping production chain ensures all relevant parties simultaneously receive the same crucial information as quickly as possible.

One important component in this process was the use of the Google Map Maker data to clearly map the transport networks, allowing emergency managers to plan and implement relief assistance. For example, they could avoid roads that are marked on the maps as likely to be flooded by comparing satellite flood layers with road layers.

Satellite image derived flood map showing current situation in Niger - flooded areas in red.

Courtesy: UNITAR/UNOSAT & International Charter Space and Major Disasters

We've been pleased to hear positive feedback directly about this combination of imagery with Map Maker data directly from those in the field -- as one simply stated, "Thumbs up!"

Posted by Einar Bjorgo, Head, Rapid Mapping, Applications and User Relations, UNITAR/UNOSAT; France Lamy, Program Manager, Google.org

College football anyone?

September 4, 2009

Ahhh, fall: the morning air gets crisp, the leaves start to change to their autumnal hues... and most importantly, gridirons across the land are again alive with the pomp and pagentry of college football! This weekend marks the beginning of the 2009-2010 college football season. To celebrate the joyous renewal of pigskin rivalries, we've created this KML file marking the home stadiums of the 245 NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) teams. So whether you'd like to take a trip down memory lane and re-visit the stadium of your alma mater or if you'd like more information about the next opponent of your favorite team, we've got the file for you. We've included a quick overview of each school, a link to school news, the name and an image of their mascot, and their home stadium. Oh, and be sure to turn on '3D Buildings' for full effect.

Download the KML here.

FUN FACT: While authoring this file we noticed that, as you meander across the country, you'll notice an abundance of Bison, Bulldogs, and Tigers and a paucity of Bearcats, Jackrabbits, and Horned Frogs. How many unique mascots can you find?

We hope you enjoy visiting the stadiums and learning more about the schools, stadiums, and their geospatial distribution.

Posted by Adam (go Spartans!) Hughes, Sr. Strategist, Google Apps, and Pete (go Gophers!) Giencke, GIS Data Engineer

Hasbro, maker of 'Monopoly' game, launches the Design your own Building Competition

Where in the world is... (Answers)

This week in @googlemaps

One place, one page

Map Maker graduation, Part III

Where in the world is ...

SketchUp 7.1 is here

Explore our changing climate in Google Earth

Ocean Now: Diving the Gemelas Seamounts

Desktop discovery following Ocean Expeditions in Google Earth

Visiting Korea with Google Earth

This week in @googlemaps

Spreading the word about Local Business Center

Discover new places with related maps

Make History with the National September 11th Memorial & Museum

Google Earth 5.1: Think fast

Mapping for disasters with UNOSAT

College football anyone?

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