Friday, August 19, 2011

Googland

Googland


[G] YouTube.com/music is your ever-changing guide to music

Posted: 18 Aug 2011 10:46 AM PDT

YouTube Blog: YouTube.com/music is your ever-changing guide to music

YouTube has videos across the entire spectrum of music, from current pop hits to classic tracks to obscure but wonderful sounds. But how do you find that next piece of musical gold? To help with this task we're re-launching our YouTube Music page with a host of new features to help guide you on your audio-visual quest, and several guest curators to help out as well.



On YouTube.com/Music you can now find:

  • recommended videos and artists based on the music videos you're watching

  • local concert listings in your area paired with artist videos

  • the YouTube Top 100 - your invaluable source to the most popular music based on what the community is viewing

To help you get more into music on YouTube we've also partnered with music experts and tastemakers to provide you with daily playlists and picks. In the coming weeks you'll be able to check out curations from SPIN, Vice, XLR8R and more. Some of YouTube's music vloggers will also find a new home on the page, like the "Internet's busiest music nerd," Anthony Fantano of The Needle Drop.



Finally, you may have noticed the electric guitar adorning the YouTube logo today. It's there today to celebrate the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Guide to Rock, who have the first hand-picked playlist on the new music page. Over the next five days some of your favorite music stars will be sharing a personal guide to their genre, including David Guetta's Guide to Electronica on Friday, Lady Gaga's Guide to Pop on Saturday and Eminem & Royce Da 5'9"'s Guide to Hiphop on Monday. Look out for a new music-based YouTube logo each day, and clicking on it will bring you straight to the music page.



Tim Partridge, Music Marketing Manager recently watched "Check out the new youtube.com/music."


URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/youtube/PKJx/~3/ZXCRlqcxrzU/youtubecommusic-is-your-ever-changing.html

[G] Street View goes to the Amazon

Posted: 18 Aug 2011 10:46 AM PDT

Google LatLong: Street View goes to the Amazon


With Google Street View, you can do amazing things such as hike around Stonehenge or even ski down Whistler's slopes—all without leaving home. Soon, you'll be able to float down the Amazon and Rio Negro Rivers of northwest Brazil and experience some of the most remote and biodiverse areas in the world.



A few members of our Brazil and U.S. Street View and Google Earth Outreach teams are currently in the Amazon rainforest using our Street View technology to capture images of the river, surrounding forests and adjacent river communities. In partnership with the Foundation for a Sustainable Amazon (FAS), the local non-profit conservation organization that invited us to the area, we're training some of FAS's representatives on the imagery collection process and leaving some of our equipment behind for them to continue the work. By teaching locals how to operate these tools, they can continue sharing their points of view, culture and ways of life with audiences across the globe.



We'll pedal the Street View trike along the narrow dirt paths of the Amazon villages and maneuver it up close to where civilization meets the rainforest. We'll also mount it onto a boat to take photographs as the boat floats down the river. The tripod—which is the same system we use to capture imagery of business interiors—will also be used to give you a sense of what it's like to live and work in places such as an Amazonian community center and school.



Image of the Tumbira community in the Rio Negro Sustainable Development Reserve



In this first phase of the project, the Google and FAS teams will visit and capture imagery from a 50km section of the Rio Negro River, extending from the Tumbira community near Manaus—the capital of the state of Amazonas—to the Terra Preta community. We'll then process the imagery of the river and the communities as usual, stitching the still photos into 360-degree panoramics.



Image of the Tumbira Community



For many outdoor enthusiasts, travelers and environmentalists, this creates an opportunity to experience the wonders of the Amazon, which will be accessible in a way they'd previously only dreamed about. We're honored to work with FAS on this project to bring the Amazon online for those who can't visit in person, and help our partners share with the world the unique stories of its inhabitants and the beauty of this place they call home.





Posted by Karin Tuxen-Bettman, Google Earth Outreach, and Karina Andrade, Google Street View
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/08/street-view-goes-to-amazon.html

[G] The journey to bring Iraq’s National Museum to Street View

Posted: 18 Aug 2011 10:46 AM PDT

Google LatLong: The journey to bring Iraq's National Museum to Street View


Over the years, our Street View technology has been used to showcase images from a variety of amazing locations around the world. Without the stress of travelling, we've all been able to tour places like Stonehenge, Palace and Park of Versailles, and even Half Moon Island (with the penguins!) in Antarctica. Starting today, you can view Iraq's National Museum in Baghdad on Google Maps, in our Street View Gallery and on the museum's own website.



View Larger Map

Street View of Iraq National Museum


The project began in October 2009, when the Street View team had the opportunity to visit Baghdad to collaborate with the museum. By this time, the Iraqi National Museum had recovered a slew of articles that were infamously looted during the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. The collection hosts a staggering wealth of artifacts dating back to some of the earliest human settlements, which developed around present day Iraq. The history of this area is often underrepresented, or otherwise inaccessible, in large part due to the political strife that has plagued Iraq. For this reason, we considered it an important opportunity to showcase Iraq's National Museum in our Street View Gallery.



Dan Ratner, Matt Williams and myself in front of the museum.


This was our first attempt to capture an indoor collection at a museum, and we met a host of logistical and technical challenges. While we already had Street View cars visiting cultural landmarks, taking panoramic photos indoors was an untested idea. We had recently completed a prototype of our indoor trolley - which was later used and refined for the Google Art Project, but we were unsure that it would perform how we had envisioned on-site.



For security reasons, we could only spend 4 consecutive hours at the museum per visit. This meant our time there was frantic. We spent most of our first trip assembling and testing the Street View Trolley, installing car batteries that had been hastily acquired in Baghdad, testing GPS antennas, and making numerous satellite phone calls to our Mountain View headquarters to debug issues. While some of us worked on setting up the Trolley, others were photographing everything possible in the museum, trying not to get distracted by artifacts dating back over 6000 years.



Using the Street View indoor trolley to collect imagery


With the Street View Trolley working, we spent our second visit collecting images of the main exhibit halls. We also used high-resolution imaging equipment that enabled a close-up 360-degree view of individual artifacts, a selection of which are viewable on the Antiquities page of the Museum website. We imaged a Mother Goddess figurine that predates recorded history, cuneiform tablets that exemplify one of the earliest forms of writing, and several exquisite examples of early Middle Eastern pottery.

Goddess Figurine
This piece, a clay figurine of a female from the Samarra period, was found at Tell Songor A. The 10.2 cm statue dates back to 5000 BC.


Although we only spent a week in Baghdad, we returned with tens of thousands of still photos. We spent months processing the images - which includes stitching them into the immersive panoramic images you're accustomed to when using Street View in Google Maps - and working closely with the National Museum to incorporate the imagery into their new website. At long last, we're thrilled to jointly release the imagery, enabling users anywhere in the world to virtually visit the museum's exhibit halls and learn more about Iraqi culture through this collection.



For those whose interest is piqued by the collection and are considering visiting the museum in person, we hope these online images tides you over until the official museum reopening planned for later this year. You can experience the the Iraqi National Museum for yourself through our Street View feature in Google Maps, via our Street View Gallery, or take a virtual tour on the museum website.



Posted by Alex Starns, Technical Program Manager
URL: http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2011/08/journey-to-bring-iraqs-national-museum.html

[G] Imagery Update: Week of August 15th

Posted: 18 Aug 2011 10:46 AM PDT

Google LatLong: Imagery Update: Week of August 15th


The Google Earth and Google Maps Imagery Team just published a new batch of aerial and satellite imagery, and as always, there's all kinds of fascinating sites and features to check out.



We're now deep into the dog days of summer. When I was growing up in Chicago, my siblings and I would be acting a bit stir crazy by this time in our summer breaks. So what did our wise parents do? They'd pile us into the confined space of the family car and proceed to road-trip it for a few weeks. My parents are history buffs, so our destination spots were typically of historical significance. To commemorate these fond memories, in this post we'll look at locales seen in our newly published imagery that would typically fit the destination profile of my family.



Our first example seen below is from high-resolution aerial imagery acquired this past June. The locale is a U.S. National Park located in San Juan County, New Mexico and contains 11th to 13th century structures constructed by the Anasazi Indians, the ancestors of the more commonly known Pueblo Indians. This site is included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.



Aztec Ruins National Monument, New Mexico


Family vacations outside of the U.S. happened on occasion and when they did, my dad's fondness for Led Zeppelin would often lead us to any castle or related ruin in sight. In this aerial image, we can see the Broch of Gurness village located on the northwestern coast of Mainland Orkney, Scotland. The top of the central, circular broch structure has collapsed, and we can see the settlement remains that encircle the broch. The site dates to at least 60 AD.



Broch of Gurness, Scotland


Finally, if we were good children and did not get our peanut butter sandwiches all over the car upholstery, we might be treated to visit a place such as the National Toy Hall of Fame, located in the Strong National Museum of Play, Rochester, New York. Some of the 47-and-counting enshrined toys include road-trip friendly icons such as the stick, cardboard box, ball, and of course Silly Putty!



National Toy Hall of Fame, Rochester, New York


Do you have a place you love for which you'd like to receive a notification when the Earth and Maps Imagery team updates the site? We've got just the tool: The Follow Your World application!



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: Abilene, TX; Avenal, CA; Bakersfield, CA; Big Spring, TX; Bowie, AZ; Buckeye, AZ; Carlsbad, NM; Casa Grande, AZ; Columbia, MO; Dalhart, TX; Dayton, OH; Des Moines, IA; Farmington, NM; Ft Worth, TX; Joplin, MO; Junction, TX; Monahans, TX; Nogales, AZ; Omaha, NE; Paducah, KY; Payson, AZ; Rochester, NY; Sacramento, CA; Sioux City, IA; Tulsa, OK; Visalia, CA; Wilcox, AZ



Scotland: Aberdeenshire, Clova, Islay, Jura, the Orkney Islands, and the Shetland Islands



Sweden: Dalarnas Län, Gotlands Län, Norrbottens Län, Oland, Örebro Län, Västerbottens Län, and Västernorrlands Län



Countries/Regions receiving High Resolution Satellite Updates:

Albania, Algeria, Angola, Antarctica, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Ghana, Greece, Greenland, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Laos, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, North Korea, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Republic of the Congo, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Singapore, Somalia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Svalbard, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam, Wallis and Futuna, Western Sahara, Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe



These updates are now available in both Google Maps and Google Earth. 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/2011/08/imagery-update-week-of-august-15th.html

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