Google Lat Long: February 2011

Pedaling to new places with Street View

February 28, 2011

Street View enables you to visit places around the world virtually, from the scenic Champs-Elysées in Paris to bustling Times Square in New York City. We’re able to collect imagery of most of these places with a car, but when we find an interesting place that a car can't reach, we get more creative.

In 2009 we introduced the Trike, a modified bicycle outfitted with Street View equipment, to visit these locations, from towering castles to picturesque gardens. The Trike team has been pedaling around the world, and today we’ve added more of these unique places to Street View in Google Maps.
With the Trike we’re able to take you inside the grounds of historic locations like the Château de Chenonceaux in Civray-de-Touraine, France.

In addition to historic sites, you can also view beautiful outdoor scenery of places like the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin.

You can now see 360-degree panoramic images of these gardens at the San Diego Art Institute, as well as several other gorgeous spots in Balboa Park in San Diego, California.

To continue exploring these and other beautiful and historic places around the world, we encourage you to visit Street View in Google Maps. If you are the owner of a private property and would to make your location available for users to explore in Street View, please visit this site to learn about our partner program.

Posted by Jeremy Pack, Software Engineer

You’re invited to fly to the red carpet

February 25, 2011

Academy AwardsGoogle Earthvideodownload this KMLRed CarpetHollywood and Highland CenterKodak TheatreOscar Search TrendsPosted by Natasha Danko, Google Earth Product Marketing Manager

Imagery Update - Week of February 21st

February 25, 2011

Google EarthGoogle Maps

Westminster Abbey, London, UK

Trim Castle, Trim, Ireland.

The Biltmore Estate, Asheville, NC.
Follow Your WorldHigh Resolution Aerial Updates:Countries/Regions receiving High Resolution Satellite Updates:download this KMLGoogle EarthPosted by Eric Kolb, Geo Data Strategist

5 great user-created maps chronicling Egypt

February 24, 2011

During the crisis in Egypt, third-party Geo developers helped the international community understand the situation and keep persons affected by the crisis safe through the use of innovative new tools. These same tools can be replicated by anyone in any crisis situation. In the developer examples below, three things jump out as particularly striking: How quickly these maps were built and put into action, some within hours of the first protests; how developers (many contributing independently) from all over the world worked together to get these maps up and running; and how geo-context has become extremely important for the international community in understanding and responding to any crisis, be it natural or man-made.

NY Times - Mapping the Protest in Cairo Day by Day

Al Jazeera - Mapping the Day of Wrath

Google EarthHypercities Egypt

MiBazaarGeoEye Tahrir Square Imagery

historical imageryEgypt Protests in Google My Maps by Storyful.com

http://maps.google.com/getmapsGoogle Map Makerselect countries and territoriesPosted by Carlos Cuesta, Geo APIs Product Marketing Manager

Join us on the bridge for International Women’s Day 2011

February 24, 2011

[Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog]
sponsorship programWomen for Women InternationalJoin me on the Bridgemapevent toolkit

International Women’s Day 2011 site
Update 4:50PM: Added YouTube video.

Posted by Claire Hughes Johnson, VP, Global Online Sales and Chair, Google Women’s Professional Community

Mission Blue: Follow an Expedition off Easter Island, Chile

February 22, 2011

Mission BlueGoogle EarthNational Geographic News Watch blogMission Blue

Click on the blue ship icon near Easter Island in Google Earth
to see the most recent post from the expedition.
download the expedition KMLGoogle Earth GalleryThinkQuestPosted by Pete Giencke, GIS Data Engineer

Geography as art

February 18, 2011

While maps are often considered guides to get from here to there, on the Google Maps and Earth team, we’re constantly thinking of innovative ways to express geographic information. From helping you see the world from a street-level perspective with Street View, to enabling you to dive into the Ocean layer in Google Earth, new geographic visualizations are top of mind for the team. With that mapping mindset, Group Product Manager Lior Ron was struck by the abstract landscape paintings he saw at the Sausalito art festival.
Ben Joyce’s painting of San Francisco caught his attention: “The color scheme, brush strokes, and the open frame prompted my imagination freely to think about San Francisco and what I love about this city. What a wonderful way of visualizing spaces!”

San Francisco at Night by Ben Joyce
Ben describes his work as Abstract Topophilia: “The affective bond between people and place. The Love of Place,” and explains how cities like San Francisco inspire his artwork: “There is great beauty and intrigue in the layout of a city - from your everyday drive to work, to the historical creation of the streets, to your personal relationship with the town."
When Lior shared Ben’s work with some teammates, we too were fascinated by the bold color schemes and dramatic visualizations of geographic information, and were thrilled to learn that Ben has consulted Google Earth to create his city artwork. To share these creative visualizations with the team, we invited Ben to show some of his artwork in our team building, with depictions of cities ranging from Florence to Moscow.

Moscow by Ben Joyce
When we first hung up the paintings, we omitted location descriptions and opened a contest for the team: who could identify all of the paintings first? Google Earth Community Program Manager Robin Ziegler identified all of the locations about 30 hours after we started the challenge, and even plotted all of the paintings in Google Earth. Here you can see how Robin aligned Ben’s painting of Miami with the corresponding imagery in Google Earth.

Ben’s artwork will stay in our team’s building for the next three months, and will continue to remind us of the creative potential of geographic information.
Posted by Emily Henderson, Administrative Assistant, Google Maps & Earth

Explore our U.S. Presidents on a map

February 18, 2011

U.S. Presidents ShowcaseGoogle Earth

U.S. Presidents mapresources

Explore the White House, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial and other historical monuments in 3D and have students explain how architecture is used to honor people, concepts and establishments

View a 3D model of Valley Forge National Park in Google Earth

View a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation signed by Abraham Lincoln and map the areas where slavery ended, as well as the areas that were not initially covered by this executive order

Discuss the famous painting “Washington Crossing the Delaware” by German American artist Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze and use the ruler tool in Google Earth to measure the width of the Delaware River

exploring and learningPosted by Tina Ornduff, Geo Education Program Manager

Mapping favourite romantic movie scenes

February 16, 2011

Last weekend, I was enjoying my favourite movie, Love Actually, which is a very appropriate movie to watch during the most romantic week of the year! The majority of this movie was filmed in and around my hometown of London, and as the ending film credits started rolling up the screen, I had a "eureka" moment. "I love this movie and I love Street View and Google Maps, so why not combine the two?" My virtual voyage of discovery began.
For those who like this movie, join me in this film tour across London. For those who haven’t seen the movie, I hope this blog post will help show how geography can help you to feel connected to something you are passionate about, such as places mentioned in your favourite songs or poems.
You may recognise this location as the London area home of the character "Jamie", played by Colin Firth, who meets his true love Aurelia while working on his novel in the south of France.

This next location is where Juliet, played by Keira Knightley, marries her husband Peter at the The Grosvenor Chapel‎ in Mayfair. Mark, Peter's best friend and a long suffering holder of unrequited love for Juliet, videotapes the ceremony.

When Juliet watches the video of the ceremony, focused entirely on her, she realises that Mark has feelings for her. Mark needs to get some fresh air, and this My Map I created shows the actual route Mark took for his walk.

This next spot, in Notting Hill, is where my favourite scene of the movie takes place. Yes, that's the one - where Mark holds up a series of cards to communicate his deepest feelings for Juliet.

This is where the film begins to build. The film’s British Prime Minister David, played by Hugh Grant, finally finds the courage to declare his feelings for Natalie, played by Martine McCutcheon. Knowing only the name of her street, her arrives to find what "must be the longest street in the world.” Driven by his desire to be with Natalie he starts to knock on every door, and eventually finds Natalie at number 102.

I hope this tour has inspired you to go and geographically organise what matters to you, just as this Jane Austen enthusiast did when she created a Google Earth project to geographically organise locations mentioned in Austen's novels.
Posted by Phil Verney, Program Manager, Google Earth & Maps

Using My Maps for your summer sublet

February 16, 2011

[Cross-posted from the Google Student Blog]

Today's guest author is Katie Corner, an Electrical and Computer Engineering student at University of Colorado, Boulder and a Google Student Ambassador. Check out more tips from students on the Google Student Blog, or submit your own to share.
maps.google.com

After adding a number of specific locations to your map, you can also customize and edit the map to fit your style preferences. To access your map thus far, click on the “My Maps” link in the top left corner of the page, and select the map you are interested in editing. By clicking the “Edit” button, you are now in editing mode on the map and can easily make changes to the names of locations or the style of icon. To make a change to a specific place, just click on that location. On the map, an editable box appears where you can easily make changes, such adding as some notes about the place.

The end product is a unique map showcasing why your sublet is the right option to pick. Here’s an example I used for an apartment in Boulder, Colorado.

Stand out in your next apartment rental posting with My Maps today!

Posted by Katie Corner, University of Colorado

Act Locally in Sudan with New Imagery & Maps

February 15, 2011

After years of conflict, Southern Sudan overwhelmingly opted to secede from the country's north. Many challenges lie ahead as the newly independent state negotiates the rocky path towards independence. We believe that access to high-quality, up-to-date and locally relevant maps will assist humanitarian organizations working in the region.

We are encouraging users to add their local knowledge to this mapping effort through a campaign to build a better map of Sudan. Recent satellite imagery is key to building up-to-date maps, and we are continuously acquiring fresh and historical imagery of Sudan. Our latest imagery update is now live on Google Map Maker, Google Earth, and Google Maps, with nearly fifty percent of the UN priority areas over Southern Sudan covered with high resolution imagery. Thanks to our satellite partner GeoEye, we will continue to acquire and publish high resolution imagery of the remaining UN priority areas, as well as to refresh areas that we have previously covered as the need arises. This new imagery, such as the one over Melut, will directly benefit the many organizations working in Sudan and ultimately support the building of a solid basemap of Sudan to achieve long-term socioeconomic objectives.

Town of Melut (before 2/16/2004, after 1/30/2011). In Melut, there is a humanitarian hub where many services are delivered to at risk populations, including food, water, health care, education, and more. Given the varying needs of each of these services, maps can provide a variety of planning benefits for expansion, staff safety, and emergency procedures.

Google is also contributing to various humanitarian efforts, including the Satellite Sentinel project, by helping to build an active and self-sustained Sudanese mapping community -- locally and among the Sudanese diaspora. This community will help improve maps of Sudan by using Google Map Maker, a product that combines the power of mapping with community engagement.

Dedicated mappers have started building the foundation for a Sudan mapping community, resulting in high quality maps of Sudan. But this is a long term process that requires deep commitment from various stakeholders and community groups. To join the Sudan mapping efforts, and offer feedback, please join our Sudan community mailing list or visit our team site.

France Lamy, Program Manager, Google.org

Pin your love on the map

February 14, 2011

(Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog)

Valentine’s Day card

www.mapyourvalentine.comPosted with love by Aaron Weissman, Google Maps & Earth Team

Geotagging photos with Panoramio and Google Latitude

February 4, 2011

[Cross-posted from the Panoramio Blog]Nexus SGoogle LatitudePanoramioGoogle Latitude HistorySettings

Thanks to Google Latitude, my photos were geotagged just after uploading them in Panoramio. The day was great, snow was perfect, weather was amazing and when I arrived home my photos were already geo-positioned.

For more information about this feature please check our help content and as always we will be happy to hear your feedback in the Panoramio forum.

Posted by Gerard Sanz, Panoramio Community Manager

Take a trip to the Super Bowl with Google Earth

February 4, 2011

Lombardi trophycommercialsGoogle EarthhereUpdate: Go Steelers! -Nicholas Whitaker, Chief Steelers Evangelist

It’s Groundhog Day!

February 2, 2011

[Cross-posted from the SketchUp Blog]Groundhog DayGobbler’s Knob

Punxsutawney Phil in Google EarthThis year, Phil emerged at 7:25 AM and did not see his shadow! Despite the major winter storm stretching across 2,000 miles of the continent, it sounds like we’ll be enjoying an early spring!here

Google Hotpot now on Google.com and around the world

February 1, 2011

[Cross-posted from the Hotpot Community Blog]
Back in November, we introduced Hotpot, a new local recommendation engine powered by you and your friends. Using Hotpot is simple: you rate places on google.com/hotpot—restaurants, hotels, cafes—and add friends on Hotpot whose opinions you trust. Then the next time you perform a search, Google will serve up personalized results, listing places based on your tastes, as well as recommendations from your friends.

We’ve watched Hotpot grow and change over the last couple months, and today Hotpot is really going places: to a Google search box near you and around the world.

You can now enjoy Hotpot recommendations in your regular search results on Google.com. So say you’re looking for a restaurant in Barcelona. Go to Google and search [restaurant barcelona]. If a friend has rated a particular restaurant, you might see their rating and what they had to say about it—as well as their name and photo—directly beneath that restaurant’s listing. To see all recommendations by your friends, click “Places” on the lefthand side of the page, and choose “Friends only.” Remember, you’ll need to be logged in to your Google account in order to see recommendations.

Seeing place recommendations based on your tastes and those of your friends across more Google searches will make results more relevant to you and maybe lead you to discover a new gem. If you don’t have Hotpot friends yet, you can invite them to share all the places they love with you by using the “Friends” tab on google.com/hotpot.

But Hotpot will only be half the fun if you can’t share it with all your international friends. So starting today, we’re making Hotpot available in 38 new languages—including Chinese, French, German, Italian, Korean, Polish, Russian and Spanish—allowing people to share their favorite places in their native language.

Start rating and sharing recommendations with Hotpot everywhere, anytime: at google.com/hotpot, on Google Maps, using Google Maps for Android with an easy widget, and on our new iPhone app.

Happy rating!

Posted by Lior Ron, Product Manager

Check in with Google Latitude

February 1, 2011

[Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog]
introduced Google LatitudeLatitudeConnecting your location with places

See where your friends are on a map and where they’re checking in.
Not your typical check-ins

Notifications: Turn on check-in notifications in Latitude’s settings and get a notification to check in at a nearby place once you arrive. Never forget to check in again.

Automatic check-ins: Choose to automatically check in at specific places you designate, and you’ll be checked in when you’re there. You can talk to friends or finish your bagel without fumbling with your phone.

Check out: Once you leave, Latitude knows to automatically check you out of places so friends aren’t left guessing if you’re still there.

Explore your world one check-in at a time
Place page

Latitude check-ins are built right into Google Maps and Place pages.
Help Centergoogle.com/latitude

Choose options for individual check-ins or turn on and off notifications in the Latitude settings.hereLatitude app for iPhoneJust the beginning...
use or share your location however you likePosted by Joe LaPenna, Software Engineer, Google Latitude Team

Street View takes you inside museums around the world

February 1, 2011

We’re always excited to share new Street View imagery with users, whether a botanical garden in South Africa or ski slopes in Canada. While Street View has enabled users to visit places all around the world virtually, the demand to show a broader range of popular locations has been great. Today we’re entering new territory with our experiment to take Street View technology indoors.
The Art Project, developed by a group of art-loving Googlers, is a collaboration between Google and 17 of the world’s most acclaimed museums. Select works of art chosen by these partners are now available for you to explore through Street View in Google Maps, and the Art Project site offers an immersive experience to explore museum information, floor plans, more than 1000 high-resolution pieces, and Street View imagery. Learn more about the Art Project on the Official Google Blog.
To take you inside magnificent spaces like the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, our team needed to update the way we go about gathering Street View images.

The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
Street View imagery is typically collected using cars and we’re able to utilize the ample roof space and interior storage of these vehicles for all of our equipment. To take Street View technology indoors, we needed to fit all of the equipment on a much smaller vehicle, a push-cart lovingly dubbed Trolley.

Pictured with Trolley: Daniel Ratner, Mechanical Engineer and Matt Williams, Program Manager at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Trolley is outfitted with a few components that are key to collecting indoor imagery: a panoramic camera to collect 360-degree views, lasers to capture distances to walls, motion sensors to track Trolley’s position, a hard drive to store data, and a laptop to operate the system.
With this adapted equipment, we were able to gather the imagery and bring it into Google Maps, and you can now drag Pegman directly onto museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City to explore their impressive European Paintings wing.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, United States
You can also enter museums when you’re already looking at Street View imagery of the museum exterior. You’ll notice new double-arrow navigation links from the nearby streets leading you inside, as you can see here for the Palace of Versailles.

Palace of Versailles, Versailles, France
Once inside the museum, you can navigate around rooms freely with the navigation arrows or simply click on a distant spot to jump to a closer view. Movement between floors can also be done with ease by selecting a different level from the new control panel below the Street View compass and zoom controls.

Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany
We’re excited to introduce this new imagery in Street View, and will continue to improve and develop this indoor experience. To explore these museums directly through Street View in Google Maps, visit maps.google.com/museums, and to view high-resolution artwork and learn more about the museums, check out the Art Project at www.googleartproject.com.
Posted by Jonathan Siegel, Software Engineer

Pedaling to new places with Street View

You’re invited to fly to the red carpet

Imagery Update - Week of February 21st

5 great user-created maps chronicling Egypt

Join us on the bridge for International Women’s Day 2011

Mission Blue: Follow an Expedition off Easter Island, Chile

Geography as art

Explore our U.S. Presidents on a map

Mapping favourite romantic movie scenes

Using My Maps for your summer sublet

Act Locally in Sudan with New Imagery & Maps

Pin your love on the map

Geotagging photos with Panoramio and Google Latitude

Take a trip to the Super Bowl with Google Earth

It’s Groundhog Day!

Google Hotpot now on Google.com and around the world

Check in with Google Latitude

Street View takes you inside museums around the world

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