The official blog for Google Maps
Matt Harding: Around the World, one dance at a time with Google Maps
April 29, 2013
Today is
International Dance Day
, a celebration of a universal art form that spans cultures and countries. But dancing isn’t just limited to holidays. Since 2003,
Matt Harding
has famously been dancing his way across the globe with people from all walks of life and sharing to millions on his
YouTube channel
. His mission is simple: Dance. Dance with everyone. Dance everywhere. Dance to spread joy.
Matt’s journey began with a serendipitous,
single dance step
in Hanoi. While traveling through Southeast Asia, his friend encouraged him to dance for the camera—and he just kept dancing. At first, he was amused by the idea of capturing himself dancing in front of famous landmarks and in famous cities around the world. Since then, Matt’s videos have evolved beyond a single man dancing; his videos now focus on individuals that gather together to share in the fun of dance, as you can see in his
2012 YouTube film
.
The joy that goes into Matt’s work is apparent—and well documented. However, there’s also a fair amount of planning involved to choreograph his efforts. Matt relies on
Google Maps
for comprehensive, accurate and useful tools to execute and track his steps.
Before he sets off on each adventure, Matt uses Google Maps to scout various locations. Using
Street View
and photos in Google Maps, he finds landmarks and points of interest around the globe that are prefect dance spots. For instance, he came across Piazza del Popolo while exploring Rome with Street View. These tools come in handy to help Matt choose a backdrop to highlight his assembly of exuberant, local dancers.
Piazza del Popolo in Rome -
View Larger Map
Scouting is only part of the process. Once Matt has coordinated a group in a city, he helps everyone get to the designated destination by creating a customized
My Map
and sharing it with the participants so they can easily navigate to the planned meetup location. The end result is something everyone around the world can relate to.
Follow Matt as he continues to travel the world on his site http://www.wherethehellismatt.com.
Keep dancing!
Posted by Dave Kim, Google Maps Marketing Manager
Building Better Maps in Southeast Asia
April 24, 2013
Have you ever found yourself standing on the western bank of the Chao Phraya river in Bangkok, looking for a way to get across to the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha? Or perhaps you’ve spent time scouring a map of Jakarta to find Indonesia’s famous National Monument. In order to make it easier for locals and visitors alike to find what they need and get to where they want to go, today we are publishing more comprehensive and accurate maps for Thailand and Indonesia.
View Larger Map
These updated maps are part of a project called
Ground Truth
that began in 2008 as part of our ongoing quest to provide people everywhere with the most comprehensive and accurate maps. Through this project, we use high-quality map data from authoritative sources around the world and then apply a mix of advanced algorithms, supplemental data (including satellite, aerial and Street View imagery), and human input to help create a map that mirrors the real world as closely as possible.
For example, the updated map for Thailand now provides more comprehensive information about the Bangkok city center shown below. So next time you happen to find yourself needing to cross the Chao Phraya River, you’ll be able to see that many ferry routes across the river are now mapped in greater detail, with route names shown and piers clearly marked. You can also pinpoint nearby points of interest, such as the Grand Palace and other sites like Wat Pho (the Temple of the Reclining Buddha).
View Larger Map
We’ve also added many other kinds of new information to the map, including improved local-language labels and detailed coverage for prominent places like universities and hospitals. For example, the new map shows building outlines, department labels, and colored highlighting for campus grounds at the Gadjah Mada University, one of Indonesia’s largest universities.
View Larger Map
Today’s update also makes our maps more comprehensive by bringing more of Thailand and Indonesia’s natural geography online for everyone to see. The country of Indonesia spans more than 17,000 islands; with today’s update, many of these islands — including Komodo Island, home to some world-famous
dragons
— are appearing on Google Maps for the first time.
View Larger Map
Of course, the world is always changing, and we want Google Maps to change with it. If you happen to notice something on the map that needs updating, you can let us know by clicking the “
Report a problem
” link, which is visible today in the lower right corner of your screen when you’re browsing the map of Thailand or Indonesia. We’ll review your comments and make the appropriate changes to the map; you’ll often see the updates take effect within just a few minutes or hours of the time we verify your feedback!
Today’s updated maps are just another milestone on our never-ending journey to bring you the most accurate and comprehensive maps of the entire world. We hope Google Maps will help you explore your way through Bangkok, Bali, Bandung, and more!
Posted by Brian McClendon, VP Google Maps and Google Earth
Celebrating the 50th country on Street View
April 23, 2013
Whether you're planning a summer vacation to visit
the Colosseum
or exploring potential neighborhoods for your next move, Street View gives you instant access to the places you want to see -- even before you leave the house. We launched Street View
in 2007 in five U.S. cities
to give you what we called a “feet on the ground” experience and have since been growing the program to make it more comprehensive, accurate and useful for everyone.
Today, we’ve reached 50 countries with the launch of Street View in Hungary and Lesotho and are significantly expanding our coverage in Poland and Romania, among other locations around the world. This is also the
largest single update
of Street View imagery we’ve ever pushed, including new and updated imagery for nearly 350,000 miles of roads across 14 countries.
Now you can take a virtual stroll through the historic center of Budapest, right along the Danube (the river that carves the city in two). See the
Hungarian Parliament building
or the famous
Chain bridge
.
View Larger Map
Budapest, Lánchíd (Chain bridge)
Other Hungarian treasures to be discovered include the
Széchenyi thermal bath
, the largest medicinal bath in Europe, as well as the wonders of
Buda castle
.
Lesotho, an enclave surrounded by South Africa, is the only independent state that sits entirely 1,000m or more above sea level. Explore some of the mountainous imagery captured by our Street View cars, including
the winding roads
and
lakes
.
View Larger Map
Leribe District, Lesotho
Other sights include the
Lesotho Evangelical Church
, which is one of Africa's oldest Protestant churches, founded in 1833 by missionaries from Paris, and the
traditional architecture
in Nkesi, Maseru.
We’re also refreshing and expanding existing Street View coverage in France, Italy, Poland, Romania, Russia, Singapore and Thailand. And, we’ve added new special collections of a host of picturesque spots—using our
Street View Trike
technology -- that include Portugal’s
Pena National Palace
, or the
Sha Tin Che Kung Temple
in Hong Kong or the
Kilkenny Castle in Ireland
.
View Larger Map
Kilkenny Castle, Ireland
From the first handful of
U.S. cities
, to the now thousands of cities and villages worldwide, we’ve spent the past six years updating Google Maps for you. From
Antarctica
to
Australia
, from
South Korea
to
South Africa
, from the
snow-capped peaks of Everest
to the
Great Barrier Reef
, you can navigate more than 5 million miles of the world, without ever leaving home. So spin the globe and take a walk through any one of the 50 countries now on Street View.
Posted by Ulf Spitzer, Program Manager, Google Street View
Welcoming the United Kingdom to Google Map Maker
April 11, 2013
More than 40,000 people around the world are making contributions and improving Google Maps through
Google Map Maker
each month. Now it’s your turn to help, whether marking the trails through
Brecon Beacons National Park
in Wales, adding all your favorite shops in London’s
Soho Square
, or improving driving directions to
St Ives
in Cornwall. Drawing from your knowledge about world famous tourist destinations or the streets of your hometown, you can now use
Google Map Maker
to make the map of the United Kingdom (along with Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey) more comprehensive and accurate than ever before. Once approved, these improvements will appear across
Google Maps
,
Google Earth
, and
Google Maps for Mobile
.
UK Googlers and community members are kicking off today’s launch with a MapUp workshop in England’s Bletchley Park. As you can see from this work-in-progress, contributing to Google Map Maker can quickly transform a simple map into a more detailed and accurate representation of a city’s local treasures.
Bletchley Park, UK: Before and After
Krzysztof Przygoda
, a Poland native who’s actively contributed to the map of that country via Map Maker, has since relocated with his family to the UK. Now, he’s looking forward to enriching the maps of both his homeland and his new stomping grounds. Krzysztof is particularly eager to map the narrow network of paths that wind through his new neighborhood, with the goal of improving directions and navigation for local cyclists and pedestrians in Gloucester.
If you’re familiar with or fond of particular places throughout the United Kingdom, we invite you to join our collective effort to add to the Google Map of this great country too! Get started by engaging with the ever-growing
community of mappers
, exploring the
Map Maker Help Center
, or just
dive right in
and begin mapping your world today.
Posted by Satish Mavuri, Program Manager
Find treasure with Google Maps
March 31, 2013
Archeological analysis has confirmed that our Google Maps Street View team has indeed found one of history’s long lost relics: a treasure map belonging to the infamous pirate,
William “Captain” Kidd
.
The map was found on a recent expedition in the Indian Ocean, as part of a deep-water dive to expand our
underwater Street View collection
. Captain Kidd was rumored to have buried his treasure around the world, and tales of a long-lost treasure map have lingered for generations.
When Dr. Marco Meniketti, an independent archaeologist, confirmed that this was Captain Kidd’s 315 year-old map, we were very excited. However, as seen in the video, the map contains a variety of encrypted symbols and is not readily decipherable. We need your help to decipher these symbols and find Captain Kidd’s treasures; therefore we’ve decided to digitize the map and make it accessible to everyone.
Our digital version allows anyone to explore Captain Kidd’s long-lost treasure map
To access Captain Kidd’s treasure map, click
here
or on the “Treasure” button in the top right corner of Google Maps. If we all work together, we can solve the mystery.
Be sure to follow the
Google Maps G+ page
as we work together to decipher the clues to Captain Kidd’s buried secrets.
Tatsuo Nomura, Software Engineer, Google Maps
Update:
4/1 6
:44a (JST)
Due to our nascent nano-scanner technology we weren't able to scan to the closest zoom levels. If you come across a blank map, zoom out to get back to the treasure map.
Update:
4/2 12:16p
(PDT)
Upon further analysis of the hidden clues in the map, we've confirmed that the map does not belong to the famous pirate William Captain Kidd but was instead created by a Google engineer as a joke. April Fools!
Visit the
Google Maps G+ page
to follow the clues to these hidden letters
Imagery on Google Maps of Fukushima Exclusion Zone Town Namie-machi
March 27, 2013
From time to time we invite guests to post about items or interest and are pleased to have Mister Tamotsu Baba, Mayor of Namie-machi, Fukushima, Japan, join us here. - Ed.
Namie-machi
is a small city in Fukushima Prefecture sitting along the coast of the Pacific. We are blessed with both ocean and mountains, and known as a place where you can experience both the beauty of the sea and the forests. Tragically, however, since the nuclear accident caused by the
Great East Japan Earthquake
of March 11, 2011, all of Namie-machi’s 21,000 townspeople have had to flee their homes.
Two years have passed since the disaster, but people still aren’t allowed to enter Namie-machi. Many of the displaced townspeople have asked to see the current state of their city, and there are surely many people around the world who want a better sense of how the nuclear incident affected surrounding communities.
Working with Google, we were able to drive Street View cars through Namie-machi to capture panoramic images of the abandoned city exactly as it stands today. Starting today, this
Street View imagery
is available on Google Maps and the
Memories for the Future site
, so anyone from Namie or around the world can view it.
View Larger Map
Here is one of Namie-machi’s main streets, which we often used for outdoor events like our big Ten Days of Autumn festival that saw 300 street stalls and 100,000 visitors.
View Larger Map
Many buildings, like this one in the foreground, collapsed during the earthquake, and we still have not been able to remove them. We are also unable to repair damaged buildings and shops nor prepare them for the potential impact of further aftershocks.
View Larger Map
This image shows an area located one kilometer inland from the Pacific Ocean. In the distance you can see
Ukedo Elementary School
. Nearby Ukedo Harbor once proudly boasted 140 fishing boats and 500 buildings, but suffered some of the worst tsunami damage. After being set off-limits, we have not been able to clean up the wreckage on the side of the road, including the many fishing boats that were washed several kilometers inland.
Ever since the March disaster, the rest of the world has been moving forward, and many places in Japan have started recovering. But in Namie-machi time stands still. With the lingering nuclear hazard, we have only been able to do cursory work for two whole years. We would greatly appreciate it if you viewed this Street View imagery to understand the current state of Namie-machi and the tremendous gravity of the situation.
Those of us in the older generation feel that we received this town from our forebearers, and we feel great pain that we cannot pass it down to our children. It has become our generation’s duty to make sure future generations understand the city’s history and culture—maybe even those who will not remember the Fukushima nuclear accident. We want this Street View imagery to become a permanent record of what happened to Namie-machi in the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster.
Finally, I want to make a renewed commitment to recovering from the nuclear hazard. It may take many years and many people’s help, but we will never give up taking back our hometown.
Posted by Mr. Tamotsu Baba, Mayor of Namie-machi, Fukushima, Japan
(Cross-posted and translated from the
Google Japan Blog
)
Create, collaborate and share advanced custom maps with Google Maps Engine Lite (Beta)
March 27, 2013
Maps are useful for visualizing and sharing information about places around the world. For enterprises,
Google Maps Engine
has been providing businesses with professional tools to help them organize large datasets, make decisions, and give their customers important details about their locations and services.
Of course, experts aren’t the only ones who love to make maps. Today we're launching
Google Maps Engine Lite (Beta)
, so any mapping enthusiast can now create and share robust custom maps using this powerful, easy-to-use tool. You can import small spreadsheets of locations onto a comprehensive map, visualize those places through a variety of styling and drawing options, and organize and compare up to three different data sets for your non-business purposes.
Here are a few examples of maps that’ve been created with the new lite edition of Google Maps Engine.
The MAPA Project
, a nonprofit dedicated to African conservation, used Maps Engine Lite to map the locations of “shark spotters” — trained observers who watch the water for sharks — along the False Bay coastline in South Africa. Spreadsheets of Shark Spotters locations and recent white shark sightings were both imported to create the map below. Learn more about how to recreate this map through
this tutorial
.
View larger map
Here’s another close-to-home use of this advanced custom mapping tool. I enjoy checking out local hikes with my dog, Amos, so I created a map using trail heads from
San Francisco Bay Area Hiker
and information about the different pet requirements on each route. The resulting map also denotes which hikes require a leash, and is great for sharing with my friends and other dog-loving hikers in my community.
If you have already created My Maps, you can import your existing
My Maps
, layering them with still more information to make them more detailed and helpful than ever before. These My Maps will continue to be available for people who want to create simple custom maps, and will eventually be incorporated into Google Maps Engine Lite.
Import your My Maps to Google Maps Engine Lite
While there is plenty to play with today, Maps Engine Lite is still in beta and available in English only, and we are eager to learn more about how people use it as we continue to build out more capabilities for the Maps Engine products.
To try Google Maps Engine Lite for your own custom mapping needs, visit
mapsengine.google.com/map
.
Posted by Beth Liebert, Product Manager
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