Google Lat Long: January 2010

Imagery & maps in the wake of the Haiti Earthquake

January 13, 2010

Update (7pm): The layer is now available -- see more details in this post.
Yesterday a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, causing significant destruction and devastation. Since then, we've received numerous requests from relief organizations and our users to share recent satellite imagery of the country. One of our imagery partners, GeoEye, has just provided us with post-earthquake imagery from Haiti. We're working on making it available as a KML overlay in Google Earth as soon as possible; in the meantime, here is snapshot of the imagery we'll be providing. The image was taken at approximately 10:27am Eastern today and this photo shows Port-au-Prince.

We will update this blog post as soon as the layer is available.

We hope that Google Map Maker can also play a role in disaster relief efforts. We originally opened Haiti on Google Map Maker in response to hurricanes that hit the region over a year ago. Since then, many committed individuals have contributed rich data for the country, and now maps of Haiti appear on Google Earth and Google Maps. Today, we have made this Map Maker data for Haiti available to the UN in its raw form for the earthquake relief efforts. If you have any local knowledge to share, please help us continue to build a better map of Haiti with Google Map Maker. The latest, up-to-date Map Maker information will be immediately accessible through the Google Maps API as a map tile set and through this Mapplet.

Posted by Dylan Lorimer, Product Manager and Jessica Pfund, Google Map Maker team

Finding your way in 18 new countries

January 13, 2010

In certain parts of the world, getting around is a challenge. Not only are cities in emerging economies evolving rapidly, oftentimes there are no online services to help people navigate.

One of the most requested features on Google Maps in Asia and Eastern Europe is driving directions. Google Map Maker users in these countries have been busy adding detailed data like turn restrictions, road priorities, speeds and one-ways. Using that rich data, we've been able to launch driving directions in 18 Eastern European and Asia-Pacific countries. You can now navigate using Google Maps in Albania, Belarus, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, French Polynesia, Guam, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Nepal, New Caledonia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.

Routing from Lahore to Karachi or Bucharest to Minsk has never been so easy! Next time I visit my favorite city, Hanoi, I'll be able to get around with ease.

Map Maker was created with a vision of enabling users to contribute high quality, up-to-date, routeable maps data. With this launch, for many of these countries, this is the first time users have had any directions. This has become a reality only because of our passionate users.

If you live or are visiting one of these countries, do give it a try and tell us what you think on Twitter at @googlemapmaker. As always, these are your maps - in case you don't find a road, a turn or one-way is incorrect in your neighborhood, you can map it at mapmaker.google.com.

Posted by Vishwajith Krishnamurthy, Software Engineer, Google Map Maker

Latin America Mapping Competition Winners

January 11, 2010

Latin America Mapping CompetitionCampus Party in Mexico City

Timelapse of Rosario, Argentina where most roads were mapped in one day for the Latin America mapping competition.

Hundreds of mappers entered the competition. Here are the winners:

Individual Prize
Winner: Daniel Mugaburu
"I've mapped several cities in Peru (my country of origin) because I know it very well, and a lot of areas need urgent updates. I've been mapping for almost one year already and I plan to keep on doing it. My motivation has always been helping others to find streets, hospitals, etc... in order to increase their life quality."
Born and raised in Peru, Daniel currently lives in Connecticut, USA.

Team Prize
Winner: The "Ukrainian Team" consisting of 8 mappers in Austria, France, Peru and the Ukraine who used Gmail, Google Wave and Google Docs to coordinate their mapping efforts.

City Prize
Winner: Lima, Peru
La Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos will receive the 100 laptop donation.

Congratulations to all the Latin America Mapping Competition winners, and we invite mappers everywhere to participate in the Global Mapping Competition benefiting UNICEF that runs through January 31st.

Posted by Jennifer Mazzon, Maps Community Organizer

Find us at the National Retail Federation Big Show in NYC next week

January 8, 2010

Shoppers are increasingly turning to Google.com and Google Maps to find, learn about, map, and get directions to retail locations. We offer several tools that help retail businesses connect with these shoppers, such as Local Business Center to make sure your listings are accurate and contain many relevant details, and embeddable Google Maps to power your online store locator.

That’s why several of us from Google will be attending, presenting, and demonstrating products next week at NRF 2010, the National Retail Federation’s annual convertion and expo at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City. We’ll be speaking at a session on Tuesday (January 12) at 11:30am (EXPO Hall, 3D04) called Helping Shoppers Find You.

We’ll also have a booth in the Expo Hall (Booth #365) so attendees can chat with us directly about Google Maps and Local Business Center. Any question is fair game! Look for the Google logo on our booth wall and a big map of Manhattan at the floor of the booth. We hope to see you there.

Posted by Andrew Chang and Ryan Hayward, Product Marketing Managers

Look who's modeling!

January 7, 2010

[Cross-posted from the Google SketchUp Blog]Google Model Your Town Competition400 pins in the world map

training on how to modelofficial groupGet Started page@modelyourtownPosted by Allyson McDuffie, Model Your Town Competition Team

Shaking things up

January 7, 2010

Armed with this information in real-time, I was able to share the details in real time with my jealous (and some not-so-jealous) friends still in the Midwest.

Posted by Pete Giencke, GIS Data Engineer

At around 10:00am in Mountain View, our building shook. Really shook. Coming from the Midwest, earthquakes have always intrigued me (I wondered things like: Does it really feel like you're standing next to a freight train? Answer: Yes). So being the earthquake-phile (or earthquake-noob) I am, I immediately jumped into Google Earth to check out what had happened. Thanks to the real-time USGS Earth feed, I was able to quickly find out the details. Opening up the 'Gallery' folder and clicking on 'Earthquakes' I was able to see that it was a magnitude 4.1 earthquake, with an epicenter just across the bay -- yikes!

The USGS also maintains their own KML file, which contains links to even more details. Here's that file embedded in the browser-based Google Earth plug-in:

Google Map Maker Ambassadors -- party on!

January 6, 2010

All around the world, our Google Map Maker users have been in high-gear over the past six weeks, becoming Map Maker Ambassadors by organizing local events to spread the word about how people can map the places they know and love. Supported by Google, these dedicated mappers have secured event locations at local universities, translated presentations and brochures, publicized the events and coordinated with the local mapping community.

Power-mapper Mihai organized a Map Maker event in Bucharest, Romania in mid November:

Serbia mapper Jovica organized a Map Maker event at Novi Sad University in early December:

Ulziisaikhan & Tsengel organized several "Map Maker Fairs" in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia in December:

Tilek Mamutov, a Dublin-based Googler and a top Map Maker user in Kyrgyzstan organized two Map Maker events in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and Almaty, Kazakhstan in late December:

And to ring in the new year for mappers in Pakistan, super mappers Faraz and Jabran, with help from fellow mappers Omer and Khurram organized a mapping party in Lahore on January 2nd (more pictures here):

Here's a big shout-out and thank you to our Google Map Maker Ambassadors, and we're looking forward to similar events being organized in Kerala, India (February 5th) and elsewhere. In the meantime, check out the Google Map Maker Global Mapping Competition benefiting UNICEF that runs through January 31st.

Posted by Jennifer Mazzon, Maps Community Organizer