Sunday, January 30, 2011

Googland

Googland

[G] Imagery Update - Week of January 24th

Posted: 29 Jan 2011 10:06 PM PST

Google LatLong: Imagery Update - Week of January 24th

The Google Earth and Maps Imagery team has just released another aerial and satellite imagery update!

January is the month of resolutions and NASA has one of the biggest: to take us into the next age of space flight. Below is a high-resolution aerial image captured in December of the LC39A launch pad at the Kennedy Space center, Cape Canaveral Florida. Here we can see the Space Shuttle's primary and secondary fuel tanks being readied for one of the shuttle's last planned missions (STS-133; the last mission for Discovery), set for launch on February 23. We're looking forward to publishing our first imagery of the Space Shuttle's replacement, the CST-100.


The LC39A launch pad, Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida


I'm a geologist by training, and so I particularly enjoy publishing new imagery of Earth's more spectacular features such as the volcanoes shown in the perspective view below. They are part of the 23 volcanoes that comprise the Kirishima Volcanic Group in Kyushu, Japan. This field is particularly cool because it contains many different types of volcanoes, including stratovolcanos, cones, maars, and shields. You can use Google Earth to fly around these active structures, including flying right into their calderas, many of which are filled with crater lakes.


Perspective view of the Kirishima volcanic field, Kyushu, Japan


Finally, with all the cotton candy and futuristic exhibits, who wouldn't want to attend a World's Fair? Although there is no World's Fair going on right now, we can check out the sites of previous World's Fairs such as the 1982 World's Fair site in Knoxville Tennessee. Below is an aerial image of one of the last remaining attractions of this fair, The Sunsphere. The Sunsphere is a 266 ft high hexagonal steel truss structure, topped with a 75 ft gold-colored glass sphere that serves as an observation deck. It's been re-opened to the public and also now includes private offices with spectacular views.


The Sunsphere structure, World's Fair Park, Knoxville, TN


As always, these are but a few examples of the types of features that can be seen and discovered in our latest batch of published imagery. Happy exploring!

High Resolution Aerial Updates:
USA:Champaign, IL; Lafayette, LA; Lakeland, FL; Knoxville, TN; Lexington, KY; Macon, GA; Palm Bay, FL; Sarasota, FL; Shreveport, LA; Springfield, MO; Toledo, OH
Spain: Catalunya (Catalonia)

Countries/Regions receiving High Resolution Satellite Updates:
Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Central African Republic, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, North Korea, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Faroe Islands, Finland, Macedonia (FRYOM), France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Lithuania, Macau, Malaysia, Maldives, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Myanmar (Burma), Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Samoa, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Seychelles, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, , Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, West Bank, Western Sahara

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 Eric Kolb, Geo Data Strategist
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/01/imagery-update-week-of-january-24th.html

[G] Sign up for imagery update alert

Posted: 29 Jan 2011 10:06 PM PST

Google LatLong: Sign up for imagery update alert


Users in the Google Earth forum often ask about the age of satellite imagery and when the content will be updated. While we aren't able to tell you in advance when our imagery will be updated, we can now notify you after new images are added to an area that you're interested in.

With our Follow Your World application, you can register points on the globe and we'll send you an email update whenever the imagery is updated there.


In just three easy steps, you can add points such as your hometown, your college football stadium, or just about any place on Earth. And since Google Earth and Google Maps share the same imagery, this tool is equally handy for enthusiasts of both products. Follow Your World also provides a handy dashboard to manage your subscriptions.

Whether you're an armchair geospatial enthusiast, or you frequently use aerial imagery from Google Earth or Google Maps in your work, we invite you to give this new app a try so you'll be the first to know.

Posted by Jeral Poskey, Google Earth support team
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/01/sign-up-for-imagery-update-alert.html

[G] The California Bay Area, now in 3D

Posted: 29 Jan 2011 10:06 PM PST

Google LatLong: The California Bay Area, now in 3D

[Cross-posted from the SketchUp blog]

Nearly five years ago, Google embarked on an ambitious project to work with everyday users like you to create a 3D model of every building in the world for Google Earth. We've made strides toward our goal adding millions of buildings to the 3D layer of Google Earth in cities across the globe. And today, we're pleased to announce another big step in that direction with the release of expanded 3D coverage of the California Bay Area (which also happens to be the homebase of Google's headquarters!).

With Google Earth's "3D Buildings" layer turned on (or by using the Earth View in Google Maps), you are now able to tour tens of thousands of new buildings in the 50-mile stretch between San Francisco and San Jose, as well as select areas of the East Bay, like Oakland and Berkeley. You can now fly through the air and view urban centers of cities like Foster City, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Oakland, Redwood City, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Mateo, and Sunnyvale, in 3D.



If you've never been to the Bay Area, start by visiting iconic landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge and the Ferry Building (note: you will need to have the Google Earth plugin installed to view these links). While in San Francisco, you may notice that in addition to 3D buildings, there are also 3D trees throughout the city. This is a new feature we released with Google Earth 6.0, and San Francisco is one of the first few cities to showcase 3D trees.

The Golden Gate Bridge and 3D trees

The Bay area peninsula is also the home of Silicon Valley. Several technology companies are available to view in 3D, including of course, the Googleplex in Mountain View.


Googleplex in Mountain View, CA

Sports fans might be interested to check out the HP Pavillion, where the San Jose Sharks play, as well as AT&T Park, home of the 2010 worldseries champion, SF Giants. Music lovers may also want to view the Oracle Arena in Oakland and Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View. If you're starting college soon, take a virtual tour of the Stanford and UC Berkeley campuses.


UC Berkeley Campus

Of course, this is just a small sample of the several thousands of buildings you'll find in the area. You can check out an expanded tour we created, or you can open up Google Earth and explore for yourself. As you go on your virtual tour, you may notice that several buildings were created by users, who continue to be an integral part of our 3D building efforts. For example, supermodeler, PeterX created nearly 1,000 buildings around the Bay Area, including the NASA Ames Research Center.

PeterX's model of the wind tunnels at the NASA Ames Research Center

If you'd like to get involved in modeling your town (or any other location), we have several free (and easy!) tools to get you started. With Google Building Maker, you can create and contribute a building in as little as 10 minutes. And if you'd like to refine your building, bring it into Google SketchUp for fine-tuning.

Everyday, we are working on adding more 3D cities to Google Earth as part of our larger mission to organize the planet's geographic information and make it accessible to all.

Happy touring!

Posted by Gopal Shah, Google SketchUp team

URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/01/california-bay-area-now-in-3d.html

[G] Tips for creating a free business listing in Google Places: Adding useful descriptions and relevant categories

Posted: 29 Jan 2011 10:06 PM PST

Google LatLong: Tips for creating a free business listing in Google Places: Adding useful descriptions and relevant categories


(Cross-posted from the Google Small Business Blog)

With this blog post, we're concluding our three part series about the Google Places quality guidelines. Today, we'll discuss how to choose the best fitting categories for your business listing as well as how to provide a useful description. In case you missed the first two blog posts, you can find here the first post about business titles and here the second part about business types.


Adding useful descriptions

As a business owner, we encourage you to add a specific description of your business in the "description" field. This gives potential clients more information to understand what your business is about and see if your business matches what they are seeking. You can also use this field to provide further guidance about the location of your business which might be useful in some cases where it is hard to find, e.g. if the entrance of your business is only accessible via the rear.

Keep the description clean and concise, so it is helpful to users and catches their attention. A series of repeated keywords or categories may turn off potential customers, but a crisp and catchy summary of the services you offer help users determine if your business is right for them.



Choosing relevant categories

If you provide appropriate and accurate categories, we can better match your business listing to relevant user searches. We recommend choosing specific categories that describe the core of your business well instead of broad ones. A good way to find representative categories for your business is asking yourself the question "What is my business?" Be sure to capture what your business is as opposed to what it offers or sells - in that sense, "bakery" would be a good category as opposed to "cakes" or "bread".

Also, do not include location information in the categories field. If you would like to provide such additional information about your business, you can use the description field and, if appropriate, the service areas feature.


You will be asked to choose at least one category from our standard list - just start typing in the categories field to see what is available via the auto-suggestions.



We recommend always choosing the best matching and most specific category for your business - for any specific category, Google will be able to automatically determine the more generic category as well. That means, if you are a Mexican restaurant, you should go for 'Mexican Restaurant' and not 'Restaurant' - Google then automatically knows that if you are a Mexican restaurant, you are also a restaurant.

You can provide up to five categories for your business listing. After picking a standard category, you can add up to four customized categories. To add another category, just click on 'Add another category' and an additional field will be triggered. Put only one category per entry field. Entering more than one category into a category field is not compliant with our quality guidelines and could result in your listing being suspended and not appearing in Google Places. In case you find it difficult to find an appropriate standard category to start with, just pick a category that fits best and add more specific custom categories. If you are uncertain about categorizing your business, you can also ask for advice in the Google Places help forum and discuss with other business owners.


We hope that this information helps you add a concise description and accurate categories to your business listing in Google Places. This gives potential clients more information to determine if your business matches what they are seeking. For further questions you can visit our Google Places help forum.

Posted by Sabine Borsay, Consumer Operations
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/01/tips-for-creating-free-business-listing.html

[G] Retiring real estate on Google Maps

Posted: 29 Jan 2011 10:06 PM PST

Google LatLong: Retiring real estate on Google Maps


At Google one of our key philosophies is to take risks and to experiment. To that end, in July 2009 we announced the ability to find property for sale or rent directly on Google Maps. This is one of the "search options" next to the search box on Google Maps, and is currently available in the US, Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Japan.

In part due to low usage, the proliferation of excellent property-search tools on real estate websites, and the infrastructure challenge posed by the impending retirement of the Google Base API (used by listing providers to submit listings), we've decided to discontinue the real estate feature within Google Maps on February 10, 2011.

We've learned a lot and been excited to see real estate companies use Google Maps in innovative ways to help people find places to live, such as Coldwell Banker's use of Google Maps and YouTube, or Realtor.com's Android app that lets you draw a shape on a map to find all properties you're interested in.

Yet we recognize that there might be better, more effective ways to help people find local real estate information than the current feature makes possible. We'll continue to explore this area, but in the meantime, Google offers other options to home-seekers: you can still access other information in Maps such as local businesses, directions and transit times, as well as aerial and Street View imagery to explore where you might want to move, and also use Google search results to find helpful real estate information and websites.

Real estate companies can also continue to use tools from Google to help connect with buyers and renters who use the Internet to research properties. For example, companies can use the Google Maps API to embed customized maps that are useful to potential clients right on their own web pages. Our Google for real estate professionals site contains various methods for generating leads and improving real estate business operations.

Posted by Brian McClendon, VP, Google Earth and Maps
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/01/retiring-real-estate-on-google-maps.html

[G] Google Boost: Now Appearing On Mobile Phones

Posted: 29 Jan 2011 10:06 PM PST

Google LatLong: Google Boost: Now Appearing On Mobile Phones


Back in October we announced Google Boost, a new advertising solution to help local businesses connect with potential customers in their area. Today we are excited to announce that Boost ads can appear on Google Search results pages on Android and iPhone devices.



Consumers increasingly use mobile devices to search for products and services, and Boost will give advertisers the opportunity to reach these customers exactly when they are looking for local businesses on their phones. This feature will automatically take effect for current and future Boost advertisers.

In case you aren't familiar with Boost, it's Google's new advertising product that helps business owners quickly create an online advertising campaign that targets local customers. Using information from the business's free Google Places listing, Boost automatically suggests and creates text ads that appear on Google Search and Google Maps results pages.

Google Boost is now available in all U.S. cities to select business types. To find out if your business is eligible, sign in to your Places account (or create a free one if you haven't yet) and visit the Dashboard. If Boost is not currently available to your business, fill out this short form and we'll notify you when it is.

Posted by Kiley McEvoy, Product Manager
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/01/google-boost-now-appearing-on-mobile.html

[G] Share your photos about Places

Posted: 29 Jan 2011 10:06 PM PST

Google LatLong: Share your photos about Places


When looking for information about a place on Google Maps, I immediately look for photos to help decide if it's the right place for the occasion I have in mind. Whether looking for images of a restaurant's cuisine, or getting a feel for the ambiance at a local bookstore, photos immediately help me learn more about a place.

A few months ago, we launched an improved photo viewer for Place pages to help you quickly and easily explore images of locations all over the world. Starting today, you can also contribute your own photos of places you've been to the growing collection of high-quality photos across the web.

The "Photos" section of the Place page now includes an "Upload a photo" link. This new link enables you to select an original photo on your computer and easily add it to the group of photos in the gallery.


The most useful photos are descriptive ones that help others experience or envision a place before they visit it in person. It might be a close-up of a popular dish, a wide shot of a business interior, or a picture of the outside of the building.

Photos that comply with our review guidelines will be available in Place page results for that particular business for you and any other potential customers to see. Users will also be able to explore these photos in search results across Google, Google Maps and Google Earth.

We're eager to see the variety of photo styles and images our users share for everyone to view and enjoy.

Posted by Roland Kehl, Software Engineer
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/01/share-your-photos-about-places.html
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)