Google Data » Deanna Yick

Go East!

Deanna Yick — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:30:00 +0000

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

Deanna Yick — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 23:00:00 +0000

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

Dive into the ocean with Google Earth for Android

Deanna Yick — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 22:45:00 +0000

Especially during the summer months, staring out into the ocean leads to daydreams of sailing the open water, freedom and exploration. Now you can take three-quarters of this vast planet - the ocean - with you on your mobile device by downloading the new Google Earth 1.1 for Android.

With the release of this feature, you can escape the hustle and bustle of life on land and discover the marine world using Google Earth on your mobile device. For example, check out the landscape and terrain in Monterery Bay Canyon, which is larger than the Grand Canyon, by zooming in on Google Earth below the ocean surface just off the coast. Once underwater, you can use the “look around” button to tilt the view and see the extent of this great undersea canyon.

The latest version of Google Earth for Android also introduces the “Explore the Ocean” layer, which features hundreds of photos and videos from more than 100 contributors who are excited to share their stories of the sea. Plan or get a sneak peek of your next vacation during your daily commute by clicking on any of the little blue icons. The gold highlighted icons represent content from the Mission Blue Hope Spot initiative.

For those of you running Android 2.2, there are some more treats in store. Google Earth now supports Flash in balloons, so if you have the Flash player installed on your mobile device, you can watch videos right in the balloon. We’ve also made the program easier to navigate; for most devices, you can now use two fingers to “look around” and change your viewpoint, as an alternate to using the on-screen button. This makes it even easier to tilt your view to see mountainous landscapes or underwater canyons.

Google Earth for Android 1.1 is available in the Android Market today for most Android devices running version 2.1 or later. Explore the ocean anywhere.

Posted by Jenifer Austin Foulkes, Product Manager

Heroic Defenders of Wildlife organization maps oil spill cleanup efforts

Deanna Yick — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 18:35:00 +0000

For a period of several months, 50,000 to 60,000 barrels of oil per day flowed from the site of the Deepwater Horizon well straight into the Gulf of Mexico. After the initial explosion on April 20th, the first reports of oil sightings on the coastlines began on June 1st. People living and working along the shoreline spanning Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida saw clumps of crude oil on their local beaches. That was followed by reports of birds, dolphins, fish and sea turtles covered in slick black oil.

In the aftermath of the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history, environmental groups across the country have been rallying in support of both immediate coastal reparation and long-term solutions for the damage the Gulf Oil Spill has wreaked on the ecosystem. With those goals in mind, Washington, D.C.-based Defenders of Wildlife, an organization dedicated to protecting species and the habitats on which they depend, is doing everything it can to raise awareness and action for greater cleanup and conservation.

The organization is working to educate policymakers about the importance of protecting wildlife and securing a moratorium on further offshore drilling. In addition, Defenders of Wildlife has been issuing ongoing reports on the number of birds, sea turtles and marine mammals found covered in oil along the coast. As many as 400 different species of animals are projected to be impacted by the environmental nightmare. Since massive cleanup activities are being led by a number of environmental groups, Defenders of Wildlife also decided to use their powerful mapping platform called the Conservation Registry to track the collective efforts of all the various groups into one comprehensive map.

Oiled Wildlife Ticker, updated each day to track the numbers of animals that have been impacted by the spill

This Gulf Oil Spill Recovery map was created using the Google Maps API and the Google Earth API. It allows any users, whether they’re part of a non-profit group or concerned citizens who want to report what they observe in their backyards, to upload stories, photos and video to the common shared map. The result is an impressive illustration of all the projects - from beach cleanups to air monitoring surveys to sediment sampling - going on in the region to help rescue and restore affected species and their habitats. The map also shows numerous steps that the Obama Administration is taking to mitigate the near- and long-term impacts of the spill. As the map evolves, you’ll be able to see how the marine environment and coastlines recuperate from collaborative efforts by average people, non-profit organizations and government agencies.

Through this video, our most recent Google Earth Hero, Defenders of Wildlife, shares more about the creation of the Gulf Oil Spill Recovery application. Their hope is that it will not only help people visually understand the scope of the spill and recovery work, but also spur volunteers into taking action and getting involved themselves. Additional data contributed by Defenders of Wildlife, news and user videos can also be found on the Google Crisis Response oil spill recovery site.

Posted by Tanya Keen, Google Earth Outreach Program Manager

A Big Thank You to our Growing Community of Bike Map Contributors

Deanna Yick — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 16:20:00 +0000

When we added U.S. biking directions to Google Maps back in March, we were eager to see the response from the cycling community. Through our partnership with the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, we had detailed bike lane and trail information for 150 cities; and for the rest of the country, we recommended routes based on other data such as the size of the road, speed of traffic and hill steepness. On one hand, it would’ve been ideal for our directions feature to know about all the bike lanes and trails in the country. But on the other hand, we were aware that biking directions were one of our most-requested features and we wanted to provide information for bicycling fans as soon as possible.

So rather than wait, we decided to launch biking directions in “beta” and ask our community of bicycle-bound users for their help improving our bike maps. Through our “Report a problem” tool, any user can send us corrections or recommend improvements, and receive notifications from Google when their report has been resolved. We always knew the cycling community would be a passionate bunch, but the response to both our biking directions feature and our call to join in the effort to improve our bike maps has surpassed our happiest expectations.

More than 10,000 people have submitted about 25,000 suggestions for improvements to our bike maps. With their help, we’ve added bike lane and trail data for an additional 80 cities since our initial launch. This is an exciting and humbling response from the Google Maps community. It’s like having 10,000 new members of our bike maps team, contributing their time and energy to make Google Maps more useful for everyone.

These contributors have impacted biking directions across the nation - in small and large ways. Here are some examples of suggestions we’ve received:

One user simply pointed out to us, “Wall Township Bike path - http://www.wallrec.com/bicycling.htm.” Our response to that short and sweet message? Here it is:

Some else sent a note saying, “CSUS - there has been a bike/foot traffic tunnel that connects elvas ave to College town dr for about 6 years. it is located between 64 & 65 st.” Well, that’s handy to know! Done:

And yet another user shared, “Cycle/hiking path continues to the East across Switzer and connects with the path that is currently shown on google maps ~2.5 miles to the ENE at 130th and Metcalf Ave. Details on Overland Park website http://www.opkansas.org/Resource_/PageResource/Maps-And-Stats/Maps/Adobe-Acrobat-PDF-Maps/bike_route_plan.pdf Thanks.” Awesome! Overland Park is now looking pretty good for cyclists:

This is how we’ll build a great cycling map: Bit by bit, getting better with every tip and suggestion that users share about the lanes and trails they’ve ridden.

We want to say “Thank you!” to all those who’ve answered our call for bike map contributions. Clearly our users are passionate about helping to make our maps better, so we’re working hard to make the improvement process even easier and to speed up the processing time for user contributions.

In the meantime, happy biking! Just remember that our biking directions are still in beta, and to always use your judgement - don’t ride down any road that makes you uncomfortable. And if we’ve recommended a road that shouldn’t be used by the average bicyclist, let us know!

Posted by Dave Barth, Product Manager

Making our new building home

Deanna Yick — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 16:50:00 +0000

This past June, our Geo team finally outgrew our space, so it was time to move to a larger building on campus. To make sure our new building really felt like a home away from home, some of us got involved in the design planning and made it our mission to surprise everyone with a unique, inviting and very Googley new place to work.

We gave the new building a quintessentially Geo feel by putting map-themed artwork in the lobby and halls. We also decided to make quirky, fun places like the “Moon room,” complete with the Earth rising on the wall, moon rocks to nap on, crater-laden carpet and twinkling stars above.

Then we added a Liquid Galaxy for Googlers and visitors to explore Google Earth on eight stunning LCD panels. Given that it’s right next to the café, we recommend that you use the Liquid Galaxy before eating, because swooping and zooming around in Google Earth in an immersive panorama can get a little intense.

Despite all of these geographic references, we heard that the new building’s layout had everyone confused! After plastering the walls with building floor plans and “You are here” stickers, we decided on two more creative solutions. First, we designed two “hiking trail” style sign posts for each floor so that folks could quickly find meeting rooms, which we named after famous explorers!

Second, we devised a contest for teams to design “road signs” to hang above their cubes, notifying visitors and lost team members where to find them. Teams had a couple weeks to craft and submit their design for a little friendly competition. While all the signs were being printed and hung, we encouraged everyone in the building to vote for their favorite signs. My personal favorite is the double-sided one created by the Google Earth team.

Photos courtesy of Brian Kiley.

Now, after seeing all the fun signs hanging throughout the building, teams that didn’t participate in the contest are rallying for a second round of sign design. All in all, the dust has settled, and everyone seems quite happy with our new digs.

Posted by Tai Kuncio, Administrative Assistant

Google Earth Enterprise 4.0 now available

Deanna Yick — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 15:30:00 +0000

[Cross-posted from the Google Enterprise Blog]

The Google Earth Enterprise team has long focused on bringing the innovative features of Google Earth and Maps to businesses, enabling them to create their own mapping applications from their existing data archives. Over the years we’ve released new features that have expanded the options for rapid, secure dissemination of geospatial data with Google Earth Enterprise (GEE), and with today’s release of GEE 4.0, we’re happy to announce support for two more important capabilities: mobile-based access to GEE systems, and Google Earth Enterprise Portable Solution. We’re also excited to let you know about the latest versions of the Google Earth Enterprise Client and Plug-in.

Mobile Access to your Globes
In February we released a native Google Earth client for Android
to the Android Market. With GEE 4.0, the Android Google Earth client has been updated to support direct connections to customers’ globes, which permits their end-users to view their organization’s 3D globe, including all imagery, terrain, and vector layers, with support for custom vector search.

Google Earth Enterprise Un-Plugged
Some of you might have heard during a recent Directions Media Webinar that many of our GEE customers need to provide their end users with access to geospatial data for situational awareness, even when those users are in environments with limited or no Internet connectivity. To support this, GEE 4.0 introduces a new feature that permits authenticated end users to extract portions of a published GEE globe -- including all imagery, terrain, vectors, KMLs, and search -- and serve the data locally from their own laptops or other storage devices using a native, cross-platform, light-weight Portable Earth System.

Check out this video to see how the portable capability works.

Google Earth Enterprise Client 5.2
GEE 4.0 also has full support for the new Google Earth 5.2 client, with its many great new features, such as elevation profiles, native MGRS support, client-side data regionation, and the new embedded web-browser.

Google Earth Plug-in Updates
In addition to performance improvements, the latest release of the Google Earth Plugin includes support for historical imagery databases and the ability to connect to multiple globes simultaneously.

Existing customers can find GEE 4.0 upgrade information by logging into the Google Enterprise Support Portal.

Posted by Posted by Dylan Lorimer, Google Earth and Maps Product Manager

Beachcombing for New Imagery

Deanna Yick — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 18:00:00 +0000

If you're anything like me, you can't get enough of beaches during the summer months. There are few activities as relaxing as sitting by the water, reading a book, and enjoying a cool beverage. This week's imagery update includes a number of great beaches, so if you live nearby, you may want to go soak up some sun. Just remember to bring your sunscreen!

Chicago, Illinois beach

Goa, India beach

Atlantida, Uruguay beach

Of course, it's only summer in the Northern Hemisphere, so be sure to put Uruguay on your list for future travel rather than flying over there now!

High Resolution Aerial Updates:
USA: Chicago, Stockton, Modesto, Nez Perce (ID), Barre (VT), Orange County (NC), Polk County (FL), Hardee County (FL), Okeechobee County (FL)
Uruguay: Salinas, Atlantida

Countries receiving High Resolution Satellite Updates:
Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Peru, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, Morocco, Libya, Egypt, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Uganda, Congo, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa, Madagascar, Jordan, Syria, Turkey, Russia, Iran, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, China, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, The Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand

Countries receiving Medium Resolution Satellite Updates:
Canada, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya

Right now these updates are only available in Google Earth, but will be in Google Maps soon. For a complete picture of where we updated imagery, download this KML for viewing in Google Earth.

Posted by Matt Manolides, Senior Geo Data Strategist

Respond to reviews for your business on Google Place Page

Deanna Yick — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 14:15:00 +0000

Whether you’re looking for a great lounge to hang out with your friends or a trusty shop to repair your bicycle, the web is a great place to discover and learn about local businesses and services. Some of the listings on Google Maps showcase reviews to help prospective customers make informed decisions and find the places that are just right for them. Reviews on Google Maps are assembled from a variety of sources on the web to give you the best possible overview of what people are saying about a specific place. We also encourage users to share their opinions by writing reviews directly on the Place Page of any place they’ve visited, be it a local business, tourist attraction or the like.

Starting today, if you’re a verified Google Places business owner, you can publicly respond to reviews written by Google Maps users on the Place Page for your business. Engaging with the people who have shared their thoughts about your business is a great way to get to know your customers and find out more. Both positive and negative feedback can be good for your business and help it grow (even though it’s sometimes hard to hear). By responding, you can build stronger relationships with existing and prospective customers. For example, a thoughtful response acknowledging a problem and offering a solution can often turn a customer who had an initially negative experience into a raving supporter. A simple thank you or a personal message can further reinforce a positive experience. Ultimately, business owner responses give you the opportunity to learn what you do well, what you can do better, and show your customers that you’re listening.

Before writing your first response, we recommend reading our handy tips on how to respond to reviewers. Then take a stab at responding by following these instructions. If you have not yet verified ownership for your business on Google, please visit Google Places to claim your listing.

Posted by John Maguire, Google Place Page team

Find a place for fun in sun with our latest imagery

Deanna Yick — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:45:00 +0000

It's time for another imagery update, and we have a great batch of new data that will help you scout out vacation spots where you can enjoy the height of summer. In our last update, we highlighted an ancient Egyptian temple; and this time, we've got updates of another Sphinx, an exhilarating hydroplane race, and of course, a beautiful summer resort where rest and relaxation await.

Las Vegas

Hydroplane racing

Baja California resort

High Resolution Aerial Updates:
USA: Seattle, Sacramento, San Jose, Las Vegas, Des Moines, Waukegan (IL), Boston, Portland (ME), Tallahassee, and the Florida counties of Sarasota, Levy, Hernando, DeSoto and Martin
Canada: Banff, Alert Bay
Netherlands: Soest, Maarssen, Bussum, Vlaardingen

Countries receiving High Resolution Satellite Updates:
Mexico, Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Mali, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Burundi, Kenya, Somalia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, South Africa, Madagascar, Turkmenistan, Kazahkstan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, China, Mongolia, Russia, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia

Countries receiving Medium Resolution Satellite Updates:
Canada, Nepal

Right now these updates are only available in Google Earth, but will be in Google Maps soon. For a complete picture of where we updated imagery, download this KML for viewing in Google Earth.

Posted by Matt Manolides, Senior Geo Data Strategist

Take the high road or the low road with Earth view in Google Maps

Deanna Yick — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:50:00 +0000

Draggable driving directions is one of our most popular features in Google Maps. By simply clicking on a route and dragging it, you can choose an alternate - perhaps more scenic or more familiar - route to your destination. This feature wasn’t available when Earth view launched in Google Maps earlier this year, but we’re happy to announce that draggable driving directions are now in Earth view as well. After getting directions, just grab the blue route line with your mouse and drag it onto alternate highways or streets. The route will update automatically, redrawing your path in 3D as you move your mouse.

As an example, one of my favorite trips to make is to Yosemite Valley from my home in San Francisco. For those of you familiar with this route, there’s a steep shortcut called Old Priest Grade that saves time but can be challenging for larger vehicles. Here is the recommended route taking the grade:

By grabbing the blue line with your mouse cursor and dragging it within the map, you can quickly and easily pick a different route. In this case, I prefer to go around Old Priest Grade and take the gentler Highway 120.

The next time you plan to drive, whether it’s a short day trip to park you’ve never visited or a weekend road trip with your buddies, make sure to check the route and switch it up if you’d like. You can change these same directions to Yosemite, or click-and-drag any driving route you create!

Posted by Peter Birch, Product Manager

Rain or Snow, Now You Can See Weather in Google Earth

Deanna Yick — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:35:00 +0000

It’s the middle of summer, but for those of us who long for the return of cold winter weather and warm cups of cocoa, throw on your favorite poncho and check out the weather in Google Earth 5.2. The latest version projects images of rain and snow over the areas with those weather patterns as it’s actually happening! First enable the clouds layer, then zoom in to a particular location where it might be raining or snowing. I’m willing to bet London is a likely spot, even these days, or the Lone Star state (pictured below) which is in the midst of tropical storm season. Currently, our precipitation data cover some areas in North America and Europe; you can see if it’s available in certain places by enabling the radar layer.

This is a fun and useful tool for anyone planning to travel or who wants to check a specific area where a friend of relative might be visiting or living. For example, in preparation for my recent trip to the American southwest, I decided to check on the status of Hurricane Alex a few days in advance:

Via Google Earth, I could see that the hurricane was entering Mexico and Texas. Zooming close to ground, I saw that the Texas coastline was getting a bit of rain:

Luckily, I missed the hurricane by a couple of days!

You, too, can make like a meteorologist and track wet weather patterns ranging from light drizzle and snow to hurricanes and blizzards in Google Earth. Feel free to give it a try!

Posted by Quarup Barreirinhas, Software Engineer

Alex Trebek, Teachers and Googlers Unite at the Google Geo Teachers Institute

Deanna Yick — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:25:00 +0000

What do Alex Trebek, teachers and Googlers have in common? Last week, these individuals and groups all came together at the Googleplex in Mountain View, CA to celebrate exploration and learning.

Google hosted its first Geo Teachers Institute, an intensive two-day workshop in which 150 educators received hands-on training and experience with Google Maps, Google SketchUp and Google Earth, including features like Mars, Moon and SkyMaps. Attendees from around the globe not only learned how these products work, but also discovered tips and resources for introducing these tools to students and using them to conceptualize, visualize, share and communicate about the world around them. Through this event, teachers were hopefully inspired to bring the world's geographic information to students in compelling, fresh and fun ways.

John Hanke, VP of Product Management, addressing the audience of educators

As part of our continued effort to collaborate with teachers and help students get a better sense of places across the globe, we also announced that Google Earth Pro is now available to educators for free through the Google Earth for Educators site. Educators from higher educational and academic institutions who demonstrate a need for the Pro features in their classrooms can now apply for single licenses for themselves or site licenses for their computer labs. A similar program exists for SketchUp Pro through the Google SketchUp Pro Statewide License Grant, which is currently being provided via grants to 11 states, and available to all others at the K-12 level at no cost.

In conjunction with these exciting Geo-related events and announcements, the Geo Education team also thought it’d be timely and fun to test Googlers’ geographic knowledge by hosting the company’s first ever Google Geo Bee. With help from National Geographic, 68 teams relived their school years and took a written geography exam, competing for a spot on stage with Alex Trebek, who hosted the main event. The competition was based on the group version of the National Geographic Bee for students, which Google has sponsored for the past two years. Questions included those like “Which country contains most of the Balkan Mountains, which mark the boundary between the historical regions of Thrace and Moesia?” and “Ben Nevis, the highest peak in the United Kingdom, is located in which mountain chain?”

The winners of our Google Geo Bee: Ian Sharp, Marcus Thorpe and Rob Harford

The final three Google teams (the Tea-Drinking Imperialists, the Geoids and the Titans) all showed off their geographic literacy and answered a plethora of diverse and complex questions. In the end, it was the Tea-Drinkers who emerged the winners when they figured out that Mecca was the answer to the clue, “Due to this city’s location on a desert trading route, many residents were merchants, the most famous of whom was born around A.D. 570.” And they didn’t just walk away with bragging rights; thanks to Sven Lindblad from Lindblad Expeditions, they also won an amazing adventure trip to either the Arctic, the Galapagos or Antarctica.

Through all of these education efforts - for teachers, students and grown-up Googlers alike - we hope people of all ages never stop exploring.

Posted by Tina Ornduff, Geo Education Team

Google Places team answers questions via YouTube

Deanna Yick — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 18:45:00 +0000

When Google Places was reintroduced with its new name and additional features earlier this year, we thought it’d be an opportune time to experiment with a new way of engaging with our users. So we launched a Google Moderator page and invited business owners who use Google Places to ask and vote on questions and submit product ideas. Our team also committed to answering the top posts via video.

Many takes later, we’re excited to share eleven new videos that are now live on the Google Places YouTube Channel. While we’re aware that the film quality could be improved, we hope you enjoy putting faces to the names of our forum guides, seeing some of our team’s personalities reflected in the videos, and even getting to hear from a Google intern.

Video responses are a new method of interaction for us, so we’ll track viewership, business owners’ reactions and other factors to determine if this is a useful project we should continue. In the meantime, feel free to watch our most popular video to date about ranking from local product manager Jeremy Sussman, or any of our other video responses.

Report a Problem
Changing the Street View imagery on your Place Page
Aggregated Reporting of listings
Home-based Businesses
Duplicate Listings
Support Resources
Fields on a Place Page
Using Lat-Long to provide a specific location
Multi-Language Listings
Finding listing on Google & Percent Completion

Happy viewing, and we hope these videos are helpful, informative and interesting for all you business owners using Google Places!

Posted by Brianna Brekke, Sr. Strategist, Google Places

Sit back, relax, and explore: new seatback maps with Virgin America

Deanna Yick — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 15:05:00 +0000

One of my favorite truisms is, “no matter where you go, there you are.” Call me sappy, but it’s a nice way to remember that every place on Earth has meaning, history and identity. But let’s face it: when you’re on an airplane, traveling over unknown lands at triple-digit speeds, it’s hard to get a sense of where you really are.

That’s why I’m happy to announce that as a part of our continued partnership with Virgin America, we’ve completely updated the Google Maps data on the touchscreens of every airplane seat. As before, the map shows you almost exactly where you are, and you can zoom and pan to explore. Now, with our beautiful terrain view and fresh Google data, the maps are not only prettier, but also highlight mountains, elevation and other natural features. In other words, it more closely matches what you’d actually see if you had cloud-penetrating eyesight and looked out the window from 35,000 feet.

Virgin America also announced this morning that it will soon show up in more places on the map. With an order of 60 aircraft, the airline will triple its fleet size and expand to many new destinations. So whether you’re flying one of those planes from San Francisco to Seattle, or New York to Los Angeles, we hope the new Google Maps can help answer questions like, “Is that Mt. Hood or Mt. St. Helens on the right?” and “What’s that huge canyon over there?” Or, if you want to explore Street View or satellite images of where you’re headed, Google Maps also works great on the in-flight WiFi Internet!

Posted by Jesse Friedman, Product Marketing Manager

To the Canadian Arctic… and Beyond!

Deanna Yick — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 01:30:00 +0000

For all those interested in outer space (come on, who isn’t at least a tad bit curious?), we want to let you know about an exciting project just getting underway. As part of Google’s ongoing relationship with NASA, Googler Tiffany Montague is on her way to the high arctic to participate as a crew member in some remote NASA field tests.

Haughton Crater, located in the Canadian arctic, is an extreme environment that simulates Martian conditions – otherwise known as a planetary analog. Tiffany just happens to have both extreme expedition and near-space suit experience, so she’ll be spending a week at a remote research station operated by the Mars Institute and sponsored by SETI and NASA.

Among the cool things she’ll be doing while in the field are landscape documentation, prototype space suit testing, simulating pressurized rover traverse missions, surveying new aircraft landing sites, and characterizing the geology of the Moon, Mars and NEO-like terrain. Many of these activities are even being planned using Google Earth!

Tiffany will be blogging about her adventures as Internet connectivity in the station permits. Check out her first post and follow her blog, Voices from Space, to keep up to date, and we’ll also ask her to share a full report complete with favorite stories and photos when she returns.

Posted by Deanna Yick, Lat Long Blog Team

Try Google Tags for free: Tag, you’re it, local business owners!

Deanna Yick — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 17:45:00 +0000

Last month we announced the U.S. launch of Google Tags, a new advertising product that allows local business owners to add a yellow tag and additional information to their listing for an affordable flat monthly fee. Thousands of businesses are already using Tags - ranging from New York City to Rancho Cucamunga, from dentists to limo drivers.

Some folks are offering coupons to incentivize sales and provide better value, while others are using videos to engage with audiences and give their business listing more personality. The positive feedback has led to overwhelming excitement about helping even more business owners connect with local customers. So to spread the word about Google Tags, we’re offering every business across the country the chance to try Google Tags free for 30 days!

We’ve designed Google Tags for busy local business owners who want an easy and low-maintenance way to advertise online. It allows you to highlight qualities that differentiate your business from the crowd, and helps customers make easier, more informed decisions about the places they want to call or visit. Signing up is simple and fast, and there’s no additional work or ongoing management after that. Please keep in mind that the tag will not affect your listing’s ranking on a Google.com or Google Maps results page.

Your free trial comes with no strings attached. You can cancel before your trial is over and never pay a dime. If you run a local business, you can appeal to customers with a coupon, customized message, video, photos, menu, reservations or website. Once you’ve verified your business on Google Places, you might also watch a series of videos we created to walk you through the process of learning more about Google Tags, how to sign up, choosing the best tag type for your business and activating your tag.

To start your free 30 day trial today, please visit our signup page or check out the help center for more details.

Posted by Shalini Agarwal, Product Manager

Mapping out our new building with art

Deanna Yick — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:55:00 +0000

The Geo team recently moved into a new building here at the Googleplex in Mountain View, and we wanted to give the building a real geographic feel. We placed a couple of life-size Google Maps pins outside of the building to connect our physical presence with the online map, and named the conference rooms after famous explorers. But despite Pegman’s constant presence in the building, we still felt something was missing.

That’s when we discovered artist Christoph Niemann’s creative take on online mapping. We thought his humorous depictions were the perfect thing to give our new office a fun, distinctly geo feel. We got in touch with Christoph, and luckily, he thought it was a great idea too! We knew that the building design team had been planning to put more generic art on the walls, so we basically charged into their planning meeting and yelled “Wait!” Once we showed them Christoph’s art, they were equally excited about the quirky, funny designs, and they incorporated his art all around the building. You can find his maps in obvious places such as a print on a lounge wall, but also in unexpected places like on glass walls!

My personal favorite is “omelet,” which covers an entire lounge wall on the first floor and even wraps around the corner. I love the way the road tangles and knots in the center, then runs along the wall and turns the corner, escaping the lounge.

We were lucky to have Christoph visit our new office to speak with the team about his design vision and process, as well as his love of maps. His talk drew a large crowd of eager fans who’d been enjoying his work in our building for the past month. He had us rolling on the floor with his witty metaphor-bending designs and acerbic comments about life as a designer. We also appreciated learning more about his creative and iterative approach to mixing maps with humor. We were very flattered that he ended up using Google Maps to inspire this collection of artistry, and thought our maps were a canonical reference that any audience would immediately “get.”

Special thanks to Tai Kuncio for her work with the building planners
and Peter Brueckner for these photos.

So thanks, Christoph, for turning our look on its head, tail, up the stairs and around the corner - and for helping our office feel appropriately fun, silly and, well, Googley.

Posted by Raleigh Seamster, Administrative Assistant

Imagery Update – Week of July 12

Deanna Yick — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 00:30:00 +0000

Hot off the heels of early July's imagery update, we've got another batch of new images ready for people to dive into this summer. Have fun exploring the world from Queens, NY to the Queen Hatshepsut's temple in Egypt.

Queens, New York

Queen Hatshepsut's temple in Egypt

High Resolution Aerial Updates:
USA: Salt Lake City, Fort Worth, Abilene, Cleveland, New Jersey, and the New York boroughs of Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx
New Zealand: Otaki

Countries receiving High Resolution Satellite Updates:
Mexico, Cuba, Honduras, Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, Norway, Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, Russia, Iran, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, China, Vietnam, The Philippines, and Australia

Countries receiving Medium Resolution Satellite Updates:
Brazil, Sweden, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Tajikistan, and Laos

For a complete picture of where we updated imagery, download this KML for viewing in Google Earth.

Posted by Matt Manolides, Senior Geo Data Strategist

Changing your perspective, once again…

Deanna Yick — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 17:11:00 +0000

A few months ago we released a new type of aerial imagery to our users, first to the developer community through the Google Maps API, and then later as an experimental feature in Google Maps Labs. Today, we’re excited to announce the release of 45° imagery of select cities in the U.S. and worldwide to all users of Google Maps. As you may have guessed from the name, 45° imagery is imagery depicting a location from a 45° angle rather than from the top. This type of imagery allows you to explore the sides of buildings and other locations -- you can even rotate around a particular point of interest using the compass ring to view it from four different perspectives. To see the new imagery, simply zoom into an area while in Satellite mode. Where we have 45° imagery available, the imagery will switch from an overhead to 45° angle as you zoom all the way in. You can then pan smoothly across the map to get a richer view of the area. Here are a few of my favorite spots:

SeaWorld, San Diego, California:

View Larger Map

Winchester Mystery House, San Jose, California:

View Larger Map

Rialto Bridge, Venice, Italy:

View Larger Map

Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, Cape Town, South Africa:

View Larger Map

See below for a map of areas where 45° imagery is currently available.

View 45° Imagery on Google Maps in a larger map. 45° imagery is available for portions of the U.S., Europe and South Africa.

We think you will find this imagery particularly helpful when exploring a new area on the map before a visit. After checking out the landmarks from a new angle, it’s helpful to turn on existing map layers like Photos or Wikipedia to get more context on the area. Even when looking at familiar areas, seeing driving directions overlaid on 45° imagery will give you a whole new understanding of the neighborhood. As we expand our coverage over the coming months, I hope you enjoy this new perspective on the world.

Posted by Randy Wilson, Google Imagery Team