Google Maps has just added a very nice new feature – terrain view. This isn’t satellite images, but rather it is map-ish terrain views. It’s very pleasing to the eye.
To make room for this new feature, the “hybrid” button has been removed and you now are given a “Show labels” checkbox when viewing in Satellite mode.
For more information, check out the official post on the Google LatLong blog.
Google has just added a feature
that allows you to move the marker for your address to better show exactly where you home (or business) is located.
To do it, just search for your address in Google Maps, click “edit” and then “move marker” and drag the marker to the proper location
This only works in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand for now, but it’s presumed that it’ll be available in other locations eventually. It also requires a Google account, probably so they can keep mischief to a minimum.
Google has just put up a post on their LatLong blog
with some of their thoughts about privacy expectations in StreetView.
It’s kind of a rambling post (paragraph break, anyone?) and there’s nothing too exciting in there, but here are some snippets:
It seems like kind of a random post, but maybe they felt they should put up an official stance on the privacy issues surrounding StreetView. Prior to this, I don’t think they’ve done anything but respond to criticism against it (example 1, 2).
Here is an interesting take on the idea behind sites like Google Earthing. This one is called PlaceSpotting. It shows you a zoomed in map via Google Maps and you have to figure out where it is. A few cool things they’ve done, though:
I know there are a lot of different games out there for the various digital earth products, but I couldn’t begin to summarize them all. Instead, leave us a comment to show off some your favorites!
You can now embed a Google Map on your site in a similar manner as a YouTube video, rather than having to deal with the API. For novice webmasters, this will likely become a very popular thing to have.
Full details and screenshots can be found on Google Maps Mania.
This is a neat little find by Gadling. In 1907, Rand McNally produced some “Photo Auto-maps” that they gave to drivers, which included photos with arrows to show which way to go.
The rest of their article has a few more pictures from it. Very cool.
The Google LatLong Blog has posted a few links with resources to help people with the aftermath of the bridge collapse.
Here are a bunch of maps with photos, news articles, meeting point locations, contact information for nearby hospitals and prayer service schedules.
Here is information about road closures and detours.
They also suggest searching Google maps for terms such as “35W Detour” for more information.
This is pretty slick — Google Maps will now give you multiple estimated times for trips that you plan (in “a limited set of metropolitan areas”).
Their example has someone traveling from Berkeley to Half Moon Bay
, which is “about 59 minutes”. However, the directions also say that it could take “up to 1 hour 50 minutes in traffic”. This allows you to look at multiple routes to determine which would be best if you had to travel during rush hour.
Obviously, this can’t account for accidents that might slow things down further, but it’s a neat addition. Combine this with the new click-and-drag directions, and you can quickly find the best route during heavy traffic times.
The Google LatLong blog has a full write-up with some nice screenshots.
This is really cool. Once you’ve created directions in Google Maps (via a new click interface), you can drag various parts of your route. Check out the video below for a brief demonstration:
More details can be found at the Google LatLong blog.
Google Earth Blog has a write-up describing a technology that Google is working on to scan books, dig out the location information, then plot it in Google Earth. From there, you’ll be able to browse the locations from a book, or click a location and view the page where it was mentioned. Very cool!