Google Data

Thanksgiving dinner is the meal we look forward to all year. And chances are…all of your family and friends agree! So if you’re hosting and not exactly a whiz in the kitchen, making the meal can be daunting. Good news: if you burn that Thanksgiving turkey, all is not lost. Here’s a go-to guide to keep your family festive (and fed).

Our friends over at Zagat.com have made it easy to find top-rated restaurants for Thanksgiving. With city spotlights in Austin, Denver, NYC and San Francisco (to name a few!), you can check out top-notch Thanksgiving dinner options — whether you want a traditional Thanksgiving meal or would rather try tacos or sushi.

If your family is a fan of Italian, Zagat recommends Il Buco Alimentari & Vineria in NYC. You can make sure the ambiance is right with the Google Maps “See Inside” feature and check out the info card to see diners’ ratings and reviews as well as the Zagat summary. Once you decide where you want to go, Google Maps’ turn-by-turn directions will get you there as quickly as possible.

If you’re up for a feast, EDGE Restaurant and Bar in Denver has what you need. Zagat recommends the three-course prix fixe Thanksgiving meal, including turkey, veal sausage-and-sage stuffing and an herb-rubbed beef tenderloin with sweet potato gratin and porcini mushrooms. Check out the gorgeous dining room to get you in the mood!

Or if you have a sweet tooth, skip straight to dessert in San Francisco. Just in time for Thanksgiving, one of Zagat’s top ice cream shops is creating sugary confections that are sure to please you and your family. Save yourself the time (and stress!) of baking and pick up some pies and sweet treats at Ice Cream Bar on Cole Street.

Whatever–and wherever–you decide to feed yourself, Google Maps and Zagat wish you a Happy Turkey (or sushi or pasta) Day!

Posted by Susan Cadrecha, Google Maps Turkey Traveler

Thanksgiving means gearing up for a turkey feast, Thanksgiving Day parades, local Turkey Trots and annual football showdowns. It also means braving some of the worst holiday traffic conditions of the year.

You’ve got enough on your plate this Thanksgiving without having to worry about traffic, too. So, Google Maps looked at Thanksgiving traffic conditions over the last two years for 21 cities across the U.S.¹ to find the most useful information to make your holiday trip a little easier.

Whether you’re traveling near or far, Google Maps’ traffic tips will help you navigate the roads like a pro, so you’ll be feasting on Turkey Day delights with friends and family in no time. Here are seven tips in pictures to guide you through the holiday:

1. Avoid traveling on Wednesday:

2. But if you must leave on Wednesday:

3. Good news for local travelers — Thanksgiving Day traffic is a breeze:

4. Travel back home on Sunday, not Saturday:

5. Expect to spend more time in traffic than average if you live in these three cities: Philadelphia, Austin and Washington, D.C. saw the three biggest increases in traffic during Thanksgiving week.

6. Get these three items ahead of time: Last-minute runs to the corner store can be unavoidable as you prep for the big day, but not all last minute trips are created equal.

7. Leave extra time for Christmas shopping:

Your biggest worry this Thanksgiving should be whether to go for the cranberry sauce or gravy. And with these traffic tips in hand, plus real-time traffic info provided by Google Maps on Android or iOS, you’ll be spending less time in traffic and more time with the people you care about this Thanksgiving. Now that’s something to be thankful for!

Posted by Aaron Nelson, Google Maps Product Manager

In 1919, after the World War I armistice, President Wilson proclaimed November 11 a day dedicated to honor and remember the servicemen of the armed forces:

“To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…”

Today, whether you recognize Veterans Day, Armistice Day or Remembrance Day, you can now celebrate servicemen and women by touring some significant U.S. historical places in Street View in Google Maps.

Visit West Point Cemetery and explore the historic burial ground of the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York. Overlooking the Hudson River, some of the cemetery’s tombs date back to the American Revolutionary War. To walk further back in time, travel to the Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania, the site of the infamous 1863 Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War.

On the Gulf Coast of Texas, stand on the runway of the USS Lexington, nicknamed “The Blue Ghost,” an Essex-class aircraft carrier built during World War II for the United States Navy, and the Battleship North Carolina, the most highly decorated American battleship of World War II.

You can also explore historical collections of U.S. leaders and military personnel, like the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, the West Point Museum and the Museum of the Confederacy. Here explore photos, uniforms and tokens from past events throughout American history.

This U.S. Highlights gallery is our small way of thanking veterans for their service. We hope you’ll take a few minutes today to honor and and recognize servicemen and women both past and present.

Posted by Deanna Yick, Street View Program Manager

Bold colors and textures are in—and Google Maps is on trend, with a slick new style to make traveling with Maps even easier. Over the next few days, when you open up Google Maps on your Android or iPhone, you’ll be greeted by bright colors and a fresh new design. This new look is all about creating surfaces and shadows that echo the real world; with Google Maps’ new material feel, layers and buttons come to life so you know just where to touch to get directions, recommendations and imagery.

By tapping on a place’s info sheet at the bottom of your screen, you’ll send an info layer gliding up to the top, showing you photos, reviews, and more. And for the adventurous souls looking for a new place to dine or visit, you’ll see more to Explore at the bottom of your map.

There’s more to this app than good looks—we also make it easier for you to get on with your day. Need to make a last-minute dinner reservation? You can now reserve a table right from the Google Maps app for restaurants found on OpenTable (U.S. only).

On a cool winter day, a chilly walk or train ride may not always be the most appealing choice. Travelers deciding whether they should take an Uber or brave the frosty winds can now see estimates for Uber’s pickup time and price for their route in walking and transit directions in Google Maps. This option will appear if you have the Uber app installed, where available.

For Google Maps, giving you useful options and information is always in vogue. So as you’re traveling this holiday season, don’t forget to open up your Maps app for all the navigation help we have to offer—now with a fun new look.

Posted by Evelyn Kim, Google Maps UX Designer

Something wicked this way comes… Whether you’re a trio of witches back from the dead or just a trick-or-treater, chances are you’re hitting the streets (or riding a broom!) on Halloween night. For those looking for an extra fright, take a tour of spooky places from around the world on Google Maps.

Start in 19th century Paris. While cheery guests listen to the beautiful arias at the Opéra Garnier, a dreary lake lies beneath the streets. Floating above the silent water, a phantom lurks. Are your eyes playing tricks on you… or is that a cloaked figure looming in the shadows?

Standing at the steps of Craigdarroch Castle in Victoria, BC, you might believe you’ve found the perfect home away from home. Think again… listen closely for the sounds of a piano playing softly throughout the house. The spirit of a ghastly pianist is said to linger in the corridors and windows.

If you’re feeling ill, the abandoned Xinglin hospital in Taiwan is not the place to go. For years, passersby have sighted now-deceased patients, both young and old, in the treacherous fourth- and fifth-floor windows. To this day, people claim to hear wailing in the night from inside the hospital’s haunted walls.

Not all spooky stories are made up. For three decades, the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary was home to some 1,500 of the world’s most infamous prisoners. Surrounded by bone-chilling waters, “the Rock” was notorious as the toughest prison in America.

If these spooky spots whet your appetite for fear, get up close with some of the most frightful locations in Google Maps Gallery and find ghouls and goblins in haunted houses around the world. If you’re looking for a laugh instead of a scream, take a hayride through your local corn maze, find the perfect jack-o-lantern at your neighboring pumpkin patch, and scout the best trick-or-treat routes near you.

Now get your cauldrons bubbling and monsters mashing because after all, this is Halloween!

Posted by Susan Cadrecha, Google Maps Zombie Bride

Whether you’re sailing down the Mississippi River or trekking through the Swiss Alps, Google Earth can inspire your next adventure. To help power your digital travels, Google Earth for Android is getting an update over the next week—with an enhanced 3D experience, quicker updates to the map, and an easier way to view your KML files in Earth.

Starting today, you’ll see faster, smoother, and crisper transitions as you’re zooming into your dream destination in Google Earth. Thanks to a new 3D rendering technology—the first major 3D overhaul since Earth launched more than 10 years ago—sharper views of mountains and cities are just a virtual skydive away.

As you’re flying around Paris or looking for things to do in Tokyo, you can rest assured knowing that the globe in your pocket will show you the freshest information, with Google Earth now getting the same updates as Google Maps. Roads and labels have gotten a visual refresh as well, making Earth’s styling easier on the eyes for you virtual explorers.

    BEFORE:

AFTER:

And if you’ve created your own map for Google Earth—whether you’re a teacher preparing a history lesson, a researcher tracking changes in the environment, or just a geospatial enthusiast—you’ll now be able to open your KML files from Google Drive directly in the Earth app, so you can view it on the go.

To discover the world with these updates in hand, head to the Play Store and download Google Earth for Android. Stay tuned for more 3D updates in the coming months!

Posted by Ashwin Limaye, Product Manager, Google Earth

In July 1960, Dr. Jane Goodall stepped off the boat in what is now Gombe National Park, Tanzania with a pair of second-hand binoculars and a notepad. She was 26 years old, and was there to observe and record the behavior of chimpanzees in the wild. This summer, after four planes and a boat ride, I took my first (wobbly) steps onto the shores of Lake Tanganyika. I was about to walk the same paths that Dr. Goodall took to do her groundbreaking research into the lives of chimpanzees. And now—thanks to a Google Maps partnership with the Jane Goodall Institute and Tanzania National Parks—so can you.

We were invited to Gombe National Park to capture a record of this historic place, where today the Jane Goodall Institute manages the longest-running chimpanzee research study in the world. It was here that Dr. Goodall first witnessed chimpanzees fishing for termites using a blade of grass as a tool to dig them out of their mounds. Using tools was an act previously believed to be unique to humans. Her observations revolutionized our understanding of chimpanzees—animals that share 98 percent of our DNA—and redefined the very notion of “human.” More than 50 years later, protecting chimpanzees and their habitat is central to the mission of the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI).

Pushing through the brush, carrying the Street View Trekker, we collected thousands of 360 degree images along the narrow paths of the park to share with the world. We first stopped at a location Jane calls “The Peak”—her favorite vantage point. I could imagine her looking out over the canopies, peering tirelessly through her binoculars, writing in her notebook, and observing these beautiful animals as they swung through the trees.

In the spirit of preservation, the Institute plans to use Gombe Street View as a unique archive of this special place, available to future generations of researchers. This imagery complements JGI’s current monitoring efforts using satellite imagery and mapping to protect 85 percent of the remaining chimpanzees in Africa. Young people will also be inspired to explore the wild through the 360 degree imagery as part of JGI’s educational program, Jane Goodall’s Roots and Shoots.

This Street View collection is our small contribution to the already rich legacy of science and discovery at Gombe. Wherever you are, take a moment to experience what it’s like to be Jane for a day: peek into her house, take a dip in Lake Tanganyika, spot the chimp named Google and try to keep up with Glitter and Gossamer.

We hope you enjoy exploring this living laboratory for yourself!

Posted by Allie Lieber, Program Manager, Google Earth Outreach

Special thank you to Dr. Jane Goodall, Dr. Lilian Pintea, Bill Wallauer, Dr. Anthony Collins and many more members of the Jane Goodall Institute in the United States and Tanzania, as well as TANAPA, for all of the knowledge and time they contributed to this project.

Imagine sitting atop a camel looking across a vast expanse of desert dunes. A glimmer of green flashes in the distance. It could be a mirage or a bountiful oasis just awaiting your discovery. Now with Google Maps, you can see for yourself and journey across the sands of the Liwa Desert, one of the most breathtaking landscapes in the world.

On your virtual trip through the desert, you’ll find sand dunes that reach an astounding height of 25-40 meters. These rolling sandy hills were home to early settlers back in the Late Stone Age, making Liwa one of the oldest sites in the United Arab Emirates.

Some of the richest history in this desert lies in the Liwa Oasis—the largest oasis in the Arabian peninsula. Many people across the UAE can trace their origins to the first tribes that settled there and established the region as a trade center. The oasis is also home to date farms, whose trees and fruit are important cultural symbols—the trunks of the palms were used to weave the walls of Bedouin tents, baskets and more, while the fruit was a treasured treat for the locals. Now, the oasis is a sought out location for tourists around the world and those who live in the area.

To bring this stunning desert to Street View, we fashioned the Trekker to rest on a camel, which gathered imagery as it walked. Using camels for the collection allowed us to collect authentic imagery and minimize our disruption of this fragile environment.

We hope this collection gives you a glimpse of what it may be like to travel the desert as caravan merchants have for the past 3000 years. Should you make the journey here in person, who knows—you may meet some new friends. To see more, visit our Street View gallery.

Posted by Najeeb Jarrar, Product Marketing Manager, Middle East and North Africa

As temperatures cool down, you might be searching for your next warm vacation spot. Starting today, you can get a little inspiration by going to Google Maps Gallery and browsing publicly shared custom maps of all types. Just look up sunny “Los Angeles” to find the best hiking trails, street art, breweries and more to do in La-La Land. And, for those of you who are actually looking forward to the winter, see what ski options others have recommended, with the maps they created of their favorite slopes and resorts.

Once you’re done daydreaming, plan out your own trip with the new My Maps (previously Google Maps Engine Lite), adding images, descriptions, custom icons, and place details along the way. Make sure to download the My Maps Android app so you can also view your map or make a change on the go, or check out others’ maps while you’re on your way. Did you plot out the perfect vacation? Share it publicly so others can get inspired, too—or if you prefer, keep your secret spots safe by setting your map to private or by sharing with a lucky few.

With these tools for exploration in hand, you can find and create maps for anything you’re interested in—like a collection of Sherlock Holmes’ famous haunts, or global tributes to Nelson Mandela. The possibilities are pretty much endless—students have photographed and mapped a city’s public art installments, authors have laid out their stories’ locations on the map, and activists have plotted out shelters and distribution centers during emergency situations.

If you’ve already been creating custom maps with classic My Maps, today you can upgrade all your content to the new My Maps, and enjoy these new options. You can import spreadsheets, easily include images and YouTube videos, and organize your locations and routes however you want.

By the end of this year, all maps created in classic Google Maps will automatically upgrade to the new My Maps, but to get started right away, open up the new My Maps and “Upgrade now,” then check out the tour—found in the settings menu—for tips on creating your own custom content.

Where will your map take you?

Posted by Heather Folsom, Product Manager, My Maps

The famed author Gabriel García Márquez once said: “In Mexico, surrealism runs through the streets. Surrealism comes from the reality of Latin America.” So today, we invite you to embark on a dreamlike journey of more than 60 new sites that take you through Mexico’s culture and geography with Street View. These are places where ancient civilizations merge with modern-day structures and lush jungles, and where remote deserts and beaches stretch neverending towards the horizon.

No, your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you; the magic is real in places like Holbox, where big resorts and tourist traps seem to be a world away. You can leave your worries behind and make new friends while snorkeling the clear, blue waters.

Mexico has a rich heritage of religion and tradition. Explore the country’s sacred sites, like the Catedral de Merida, one of the oldest cathedrals in North America, and the remains of the Museo Ex Convento de Tepoztlán, which was first built for the Dominican friars in 1555.

As we approach the end of our virtual tour, it’s a good time to take a look at the iconic monumental clock in Pachuca, Hidalgo. Close to Mexico City, this former mining town witnessed the country’s history from the pre-Hispanic empire to today’s modern republic.

This imagery from across Mexico is the latest of our Street View Collections, in which we capture the world’s natural, cultural and historic legacy for you to explore. Now pack your virtual sandalias, grab your digital sunglasses, and discover Mexico’s history with Street View on Google Maps!

Posted by Ricardo Blanco, Products Communications for Google in Latin America

The final post in our Making of Maps series shows you how Ground Truth brings all the pieces of Google Maps together. Catch up on posts 1, 2, & 3 for more info! — Ed.

Henman Hill or Murray Mound? For years, British tennis fans have argued over the proper name for this hill near Wimbledon. Recently, this quirky debate over naming rights made its way to Google Maps, as people used our Map Maker tool to wrestle over the knoll’s identity. Never fear, tennis fans: whichever name you prefer, you’ll be sent to the right location when you look it up on Google Maps—let’s call it deuce.

Making sure you get to the right place, no matter what name you know it by, is just the sort of thing our Ground Truth team handles every day. Ground Truth’s aim is to keep Google Maps as up to date and accurate as possible, whether that means considering user reports from Map Maker and Report a Problem or proactively looking for new changes ourselves. Every day we start by scoping out what’s happening in the world—and by using algorithms and a little elbow grease, we can identify what roads will close for Labor Day, what housing developments are opening in Texas, and which street names are changing in Denmark (note: there are a lot of them). Ground Truth gives us the ability to use all this information to shape the map—so we can include colloquial street names, newly opened businesses, and even indoor floor plans.

Another way Ground Truth keeps Google Maps accurate is through imagery; and if a picture is worth a thousand words, you can imagine how useful satellite, aerial, and Street View imagery imagery can be. With a bird’s-eye view, we can trace the roads running through a town or identify bodies of water and park boundaries throughout a region. (One of my favorite projects is using satellite images to add golf courses to the map, including green spaces, trails, and each hole on the course.)

With Street View, we can also add the granular detail needed to give you good directions. Intersections become easy to navigate because we can tell which direction each lane will take you; points of interest are easy to find because we can add information that can only be seen from the street, like the name of a restaurant or building address. Combine this with the fact that our Street View cars are designed to pinpoint exactly where each photo was taken, and the map starts to look like a mirror of the real world. 

Ground Truth takes information from thousands of sources—governments, imagery, organizations, individuals—and makes it into one cohesive map. But the best part of putting together this giant puzzle is how it helps people every day. It can save you time, empower you to get things done, and give you the opportunity to travel and explore without worry. Reaching our 50th Ground Truth country was an important moment for this project, but it’s far from the end. As long as the world keeps changing, we’ll keep mapping.

Posted by Nick Volmar, Program Manager & Ground Truth Operator

Our third post in the Making of Maps series focuses on two individuals who have made significant contributions to their community’s information on Google Maps. Note: this interview has been edited for clarity and brevity. — Ed.

Google Map Maker can give you the tools you need to improve information about your region in Google Maps—whether you’re adding a new road to your town, or getting your entire country on the map. Across the world, mappers have taken the lead on adding what’s most important to them—indigenous communities in Canada have added reservations; Detroit’s cycling enthusiasts have improved the city’s biking lanes and trails; and disaster response volunteers dramatically improved the map of the Philippines following Super Typhoon Yolanda. In Poland, the Google Map Maker community built their map from scratch, adding a remarkable amount of detail along the way. I’ve sat down with two of our biggest mapping contributors in Poland—Jacek and Tomasz—to hear their stories:

Lori: First things first—how’d you get started with Map Maker?
Jacek: As a teenager I was called the “Geograf” or the Geographer because I loved maps. I brought them with me everywhere I went. As a child I loved to open maps and check how right they were, translating what I knew about the world to country lines, dots, shapes, icons. So when I found Map Maker, it was the perfect tool for me to share my knowledge and experience with others.
Tomasz: I’m a teacher and one day I started to search for my school because I was interested to see if people using Google Maps could find it. I discovered that the address was incorrect, so I started to search the Internet for how to correct Google Maps. And that’s how I found Map Maker. I started correcting things—beginning with the place that I work and then correcting the rest of my region. That’s when I met Jacek.

Lori: You’ve both worked with a community of mappers who do an amazing job helping one another. Do you want to talk a little bit about the sort of team you self-organized and how you found each other?
Tomasz: When I first started mapping, I thought I knew everything—I know my region, so I’m the one who knows what should be where, how it should be presented, etc. And then I met Jacek, who showed me what I was doing wrong (I wasn’t connecting the roads I added!) and taught me how to map. It’s very important that we lived in the same region because he was already a regional expert reviewer and could review my edits. Jacek was also the one who welcomed me to the Polish Map Maker group.
Jacek: Now Tomasz makes more additions and edits than me! Right now, our group of trusted mappers always has a hangout open so we can chat. With every addition, we consult each other, review it and discuss it in our language whether it’s a good addition or if something needs to be changed. But we also talk about other things!

Lori: Between all this collaborative team mapping and the events you’ve attended, how do you feel Map Maker has impacted your region and Poland overall?
Jacek: It’s had a huge impact. In my city, there’s a big national road which was rebuilt in the last two years. I made changes on the roundabout and bridge over the old road, and my changes were connected with the road’s official opening. My changes were on the map and in navigation within 24 hours. It was fascinating to me that my edits were able to change the lives of citizens of my city, of my region—that they’re able to navigate on good maps that are connected to reality, instead of old ones that are out of date.

Lori: And last but not least, why do you map?
Jacek: Sometimes I don’t map at all. Sometimes I maps for hours. Sometimes the whole day. I’m happy when I have a whole day to map – woah! The most important thing for me is that the map and Google forum is fun.
Tomasz: For me, mapping is a way for me to take a break from the normal things I do, and I can map or review or teach someone else how to map—it gives me a way to help other people in my region.

Map Maker empowers anyone to contribute their knowledge to Google Maps, making the map even more comprehensive. In our final post, we’ll show you how it fits in with the rest of our authoritative sources, Street View, indoor maps, Ground Truth and more.

Posted by Lori Savageau, Community Program Manager, Google Maps

This is the second post in our Making of Maps series. Here you’ll get a glimpse of the information we use to build Google Maps from authoritative sources and our own mapping tools. —Ed.

With Google Maps by your side, you have a co-pilot for everything from turn-by-turn directions, to discovering new restaurants to deciding which hiking trails to climb next. This is possible in large part because Google Maps includes information from thousands of authoritative sources as varied as the U.S. Geological Survey, the Ordnance Survey of Ireland, and Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI). But even all this isn’t enough to build the most comprehensive map. To give you the highest quality results, we need to fill in details like the right place to turn on an unmarked road and indoor maps of your local museum.

Over the years, we’ve created new sources of information to fill in those details. In fact, one of the most important sources for Google Maps is our own Street View imagery. In addition to giving you a way to virtually explore the world, Street View has helped to improve the quality of what we call our “basemap.” With ground-level images, we can identify one-way roads, pinpoint addresses on the map, and verify street names. This added level of detail gives you better search results, more accurate directions, and smoother turn-by-turn navigation.

But Street View isn’t the only way we fill in details on Google Maps. Today, we’re releasing six indoor maps created with our new mapping tool called Cartographer. Cartographer is a backpack equipped with Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) technology.

The Cartographer creates indoor floor plans on the fly

As the backpack-wearer walks through a building, SLAM technology generates the floor plan in real time and displays it on an Android tablet connected to the backpack’s computer. The wearer can then add points of interest on the go, such as a T-rex replica in a museum. As fast as you can walk, you can map with Cartographer—so you can create floor plans for a 39-story building, like the San Francisco Marriott Marquis hotel, in just a few hours!

Projects like these make Google Maps unique. Our own mapping tools supplement the information from authoritative sources, making it easier for you to get where you need to go.

But the world is big and changes happen every day—businesses open and close, roads go under construction, and new parks are built. You know your neighborhood and what’s important to your local community better than anyone, which is why we created a tool called Map Maker that empowers anyone—from the avid mapper to the traveling businesswoman—to update the map as the world changes. Next up, we’ll talk to members of the Map Maker community to hear their stories. Until next time!

Posted by Sophia Lin, Product Manager, Ground Truth

This is the first in a series of posts taking you behind the scenes of how Google makes its Maps. —Ed.

When you head out your door, you’ve got directions in your pocket—whether you’re driving to your aunt’s place in the mountains, cycling to a new biergarten or taking the train downtown. For Google Maps to get you there, it needs to be a digital mirror of the real world. But the real world is always changing. So to make sure your map is an accurate reflection of your world, we started Ground Truth, a project that brings the freshest, most relevant information to Google Maps.

Today, we’ve reached our 50th Ground Truth country with the addition of five new countries: Taiwan, Malaysia, Poland, Romania, and the last regions of Russia. We’re also rolling out Google Map Maker and Report a Problem—our crowdsourcing map tools—to Taiwan, Russia and Malaysia, giving anyone in those countries the ability to share and contribute their local knowledge directly to Google Maps.

For these countries, that means clearer, more detailed depictions of points of interest like walking paths in parks or department lables in universities, a reworking of the road network with new street names and turn restrictions, and faster updates to the map. In the unique case of Poland and Romania, both of which have Map Maker communities that were instrumental in building the map from scratch, it also means providing more resources to bring the same level of map detail to all regions in these countries.

Over the next week, we’re pulling back the curtain to show you how Ground Truth and Map Maker work together to build Google Maps. Much of the magic behind Maps comes from people—from the Googlers who spend hours perfecting every road in the world, to the users who come together to improve the quality of maps in their local communities. To build the map, we have to gather high-quality information; in the next post, we’ll show you what that process looks like—and show off a new mapping technology. Stay tuned!

Posted by Manik Gupta, Group Product Manager, Google Maps

Whether you’re into D.C. intrigue or Khaleesi’s conquests, chances are you’re watching the Emmy Awards on Monday. To get ready for the show, relive your favorite moments from this year’s nominees with Google Maps. Let’s take a peek at a highlight reel of some hot spots and scenes!

If you’re craving ribs after a House of Cards binge-watching session, head over to Frank Underwood’s favorite restaurant, Freddy’s BBQ Rib Joint, in Baltimore on Street View.

More in the mood for afternoon tea? Then visit Highclere Castle in North Wessex Downs, where PBS’ critically-acclaimed drama Downton Abbey is filmed.

Tired of teaching high school chemistry like our friend Walter White from AMC’s Breaking Bad? Well, look no further, because we heard that Albuquerque’s Los Pollos Hermanos is hiring.

Warlords, the Night’s Watch and royalty from all the Seven Kingdoms can agree that the scenery in HBO’s Game of Thrones seems like it’s from another world. Google Maps lets you fly over Marrakech to visit Aït-Ben-Haddou, the set of Yunkai, one of the cities conquered by the Mother of Dragons, Daenerys Targaryen.

Or if political intrigue is more your style, then you might be surprised to learn that Olivia Pope and Associates from ABC’s Scandal do their fixing at the Palace Theatre in downtown Los Angeles!

While we can’t get you a ticket to the awards, Google Maps can at least make you feel like an extra on the set of your favorite show. Happy (Street) viewing!

Posted by Susan Cadrecha, Google Maps and TV Fanatic