The web is becoming increasingly indispensable to people looking for a new home to buy. For example, you can use Street View to check out the neighborhood before driving to an open home; use driving directions to find out exactly how to get there; an…
I’ll be heading to the nation’s capital to celebrate Independence Day this weekend, so I’ve been browsing the many maps that the Washington Post has put together to help people take in the festivities. If you’ll be in DC too, you can find a map of the…
Over the past several months, the Google Earth Vector Team has been updating the ‘Populated Places’ and ‘Alternative Place Names’ layers in Google Earth. The alternative names show a place name in the local language and script. You can view Greek cit…
When I’m hankering for a bite to eat in my neighborhood, business listings on Google Maps are one of the first places I look. Whether I’m checking the opening hours of my local coffee shop, or finding a phone number to make reservations at a new restau…
The 2009 hurricane season has begun. Tropical Storm Andres is brewing off the coast of Mexico, and other storms are sure to follow. As we did last year, we’ve created a “Hurricane Season 2009″ folder under “Weather” in Google Earth. This folder conta…
Many of you have been letting us know through Tweets, emails, blog posts, message boards, and even an online petition that you’re very interested in seeing recent satellite imagery of Tehran. Well, we’ve heard your requests and over the past few days h…
On Google Maps, we try to label important places directly on the map tiles. But sometimes, it seems more helpful to just click on a point and ask “What’s here?”. Now you can do exactly that with an option we’ve added under the right-click menu. When yo…
Did you know: Individuals can achieve an average annual savings of over $8,000 by taking public transportation instead of driving and by living with one less car?For every $1 invested in public transportation infrastructure, $6 is generated in economic…
The last few weeks have certainly been busy for the Ocean in Google Earth team. On May 28 in Santa Monica, CA, Heal the Bay held their Bring Back the Beach 2009 fundraiser, supporting work to improve water quality and do beach health monitoring across…
Every year, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) gives assistance and shelter to millions of people forcibly uprooted from their homes. Some of them have lived in camps or ghettos for up to 20 years. The upcoming World Refugee Day …
What do cows, coral, craters, and now chameleons have in common? They all have been part of scientific discoveries made possible with Google Earth (if you guessed the letter ‘c’, we’ll still give you credit). Last year we blogged about some of the disc…
Earlier this year, we announced the launch of the Transit Layer, a feature that makes it easier for citizens and tourists around the globe to access public transportation line information in their cities. We’re continuously expanding the coverage of …
A couple of weeks ago, we were excited to announce one of the most intricate and extensive models ever made for Google Earth. Now anyone can see Disneyland Paris in 3D and explore its streets and buildings in tremendous detail. While the model was un…
Street View is a great way to see panoramas of streets from all over the world. We’ve launched some great improvements to this tool, including most recently overlaying user photos and the ability to view Street View in fullscreen. Until now though, t…
You’ve heard it before: Google is interested in partnering with government agencies to include specific types of mapping data in Google Maps and Earth. We’ve recently been focusing this partnership effort on national governments of developing world c…