Google Lat Long

Community Celebration in Peru

August 31, 2010

[Cross-posted from the SketchUp blog]Google International Model Your Town CompetitionJorge De Albertisfive finalistshistorical buildings IE 7053 Reino De Espana Public School

Click hereWatch a video of an interview of Jorge at the University of Lima.

The Latin America International Film FestivalvideoPicasColectivo Circo

Posted by Allyson McDuffie, SketchUp for Education Program Manager

Street View and The Wilderness Downtown

August 30, 2010

Some of us now live far away from the places where we grew up, and I’ve often found something quite evocative and wistful about looking at photos of the streets where I used to live. A few of us decided to capture this feeling of nostalgia in an interactive music experience that we developed for the web.

The music experience, called “The Wilderness Downtown,” was created by writer/director Chris Milk, with the band Arcade Fire and several of us at Google. Drawing upon Street View in the Google Maps API as well as features made possible by HTML5, we created what we hope is a unique and deeply personal experience of traveling down the streets where you grew up. All this is set to Arcade Fire’s new song “We Used to Wait” off their newly released album “The Suburbs.”

“The Wilderness Downtown” was made possible by recent developments in modern web technologies and modern browsers, and was built with Google Chrome in mind. As such, it’s best experienced in Chrome or an up-to-date HTML5-compliant browser.

You can launch the project and learn more about it on our Chrome Experiments site at www.chromeexperiments.com/arcadefire. Enjoy the trip down memory lane!

Posted by Aaron Koblin, Google Creative Lab

Defending the rivers of the Amazon

August 30, 2010

From time to time we invite guest posters to share their views on items relevant to the use of Google Earth. Here we have a post from Google Earth Outreach grantees Amazon Watch and International Rivers, two U.S.-based organizations that support Brazil’s Movimento Xingu Vivo Para Sempre. Amazon Watch and International Rivers have used Google Earth to animate what could happen if the Belo Monte Dam Complex were built on the Xingu River in the Amazon. We’ve offered them some space to share their work and thoughts with our readers.

Please note: This is a complicated issue with many facets, and the views of this poster do not necessarily represent the official viewpoint of Google Inc.; we support the use of Google Earth for visualizations to create dialog.

Download the “Defending the Rivers of the Amazon” Google Earth tourInstituto Socioambiental“A Message from Pandora”follow the linkPosted by Atossa Soltani, Executive Director, Amazon Watch and Aviva Imhof, Campaigns Director, International Rivers

Remembering Hurricane Katrina

August 27, 2010

Before coming to Google, I worked at a non-profit organization that responded to Hurricane Katrina by sending mobile health clinics to the Gulf Coast, where there was critical shortage of medical and mental health care providers. I traveled through the region regularly for nearly two years following the storm and each time I would visit the same spots, trying to get a sense of how they were recovering. In some places I saw rapid change and in others hardly any.

Since moving to California I haven’t been able to get back to the Gulf, but I think about that time often. I was excited back in 2008 when we made Street View imagery of New Orleans available, and I’ve kept track of updates to our overhead imagery of the area in Google Earth and Maps.

With the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaching, my mind has been with the hardworking and resilient residents of coastal Louisiana and Mississippi. I used the Historical Imagery feature in Google Earth to look back at some of the places I used to visit, and created these slideshows to show the change over time.

These by-now-familiar images of the Lower Ninth Ward are no less heartbreaking today than they were when we first saw them.

The Biloxi Bay Bridge, which connects Biloxi to Ocean Springs, MS, was heavily damaged in the hurricane and had to be rebuilt. The new bridge opened to traffic in November, 2007.

Posted by Kate Hurowitz, Lat Long Blog Team

Go East!

August 27, 2010

The Google Earth and Maps Imagery team has just finished rolling out new imagery across the globe, including a significant amount of aerial imagery in Eastern Europe. It's been a while since we had a big update in that part of the world, and there are a ton of fantastic sights for all you armchair geographers out there to explore. Break out the Slavic dictionary, crank up the techno, and start zooming in!

Wawel Castle, Krakow, Poland

Airport/Racetrack, Dolna Mitropoliya, Bulgaria

Struga, Macedonia

High Resolution Aerial Updates:
USA: Pittsburgh, Kane County (IL)
Poland: Krakow, Tarnow, Nowy Sacz, Bielsko-Biala, Zory, Chorzow, Krosno, Kolbuszowa, Chorzow, Czestochowa, Kielce, Radomsko, Belchatow, Skarzysko-Kamienna, Kielce, Starachowice, Radom, Ostrowiec, Pulawy, Zamosc, Jelenia Gora, Swidnica, Glogow,
Czech Republic: Vysocina, Jihomoravsky, Olomoucky, Moravskoslezsky
Macedonia: entire country

Countries receiving High Resolution Satellite Updates:
Cuba, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Murkina Faso, Nigeria, Benin, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Angola, Botswana, South Africa, Madagascar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Jordan, Israel, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Iran, Pakistan, India, China, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, The Philippines, Japan, North Korea, Mongolia

Countries receiving Medium Resolution Satellite Updates:
Myanmar

These updates are currently only available in Google Earth, but they'll also be in Google Maps soon. To get a complete picture of where we updated imagery, download this KML for viewing in Google Earth.

Posted by Matt Manolides, Senior Geo Data Strategist

Guidance and Updated Policies for Writing Reviews

August 25, 2010

Three years ago we launched reviews for places on Google so that you could share your opinion of any place in the world. Your reviews help other users find places that are right for them.

We encourage you to continue sharing your experiences and opinions -- both good and bad. At the same time, we want to ensure that the information posted in reviews is useful and relevant for everyone. So today, we’ve updated and clarified the guidelines and policies for writing reviews. These guidelines help to make sure that reviewers understand how to write thoughtful reviews, that readers will find them informative, and that the content of the reviews provide useful feedback for Google Places business owners. We’re also sharing more information about when and why some reviews may be removed from a Place page. Below is a quick summary of the updates. Be sure to review the updated policy for more details.

Tips for writing great reviews
There isn’t an exact formula to writing a great review. Reviews are best when they reflect the unique opinion and viewpoint of an individual. You can share as much or as little information as you’d like: you might choose to describe the intricate details of a restaurant’s decor, or simply recommend your favorite dish. In the updated policy, you’ll find several best practices to consider when reviewing a business. These tips can help you convey your personal opinions clearly and effectively.

Does Google remove reviews?
The short answer is yes. Reviews are intended as a way for people to share useful and relevant information. That encompasses a wide range of opinions, most of which are permitted by our policy. However, in instances in which a review is in violation of our policy, we will remove the review. It’s important to remember that negative reviews aren’t against our policy. We encourage you to share your honest opinions about a business. And if you’re a business owner, you can directly respond to reviews to share your side of the story.

The process for reporting a review that violates our policies hasn’t changed. You can still report a review using the Flag as inappropriate link found next to each review submitted through Google Maps. When a review is flagged, we'll check to determine if the review violates our guidelines and take action accordingly.

This policy update is our latest step in our ongoing effort to improve your experience with business reviews. We hope you continue to voice your experiences, thoughts and opinions of the places you visit!

Posted by Stephen Seyboth, Product Manager

Street View Imagery Available in Building Maker

August 24, 2010

[Cross-posted from the SketchUp blog]Google Building Makeradd your own photos to Building MakerStreet View on Google Maps

Google Building Maker

Community Celebration in Peru

Street View and The Wilderness Downtown

Defending the rivers of the Amazon

Remembering Hurricane Katrina

Go East!

Guidance and Updated Policies for Writing Reviews

Street View Imagery Available in Building Maker

Labels

Archive

Feed

Company-wide

Products

Developers