Imagery Update - Week of June 14th

The Google Earth and Maps team has just finished pushing out yet another imagery update. Though we didn't blog about it at the time, many of our sharp-eyed fans also noticed that we updated a number of cities back on May 26th. There's plenty to see in these last two updates, from hunting for UFOs in Roswell to soaking up the blues while sauntering down Beale Street in Memphis.

High Resolution Aerial Updates:

USA: Nashville, Memphis, Charlotte, Puget Sound Area, Los Angeles, Ft Myers, Roswell NM, Winona MN

The Netherlands: Hoorn, Wijdemermen, Leidschendam, Wassenaar, Olst, Overbetuwe, Sint Hubert, The Hague, Lopik, Houten, Hilversum, Purmerend, Elburg, Enkhizen, Assen, Groningen

South Africa: Soccer City in Johannesburg

New Zealand: Kapiti Coast

Countries receiving High Resolution Satellite Updates:

Algeria, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Colombia, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iceland, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, The Philippines, Russia, Rwanda, Senegal, Serbia, Tanzania, Uganda, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam

For a complete picture of where we updated imagery, download this KML for viewing in Google Earth.

In addition to those updates, we've also added imagery of the flooding that occurred in Nashville to Google Earth's Historical Imagery database. You can access the new Nashville flood imagery by simply opening Google Earth and clicking on the clock icon in the top toolbar.

The historical imagery time slider will appear just beneath the toolbar. The tick marks on the slider represent images in our database that are available for your current view.

Drag the slider with your mouse to flip between images from different dates. In the examples below, you can see before/after images of the flooding in Nashville.

Posted by Matt Manolides, Senior GIS Strategist

Plan a Trip with Google Maps

WorldWaypoint

WorldWaypoint is a Google Maps service that allows you to map your favourite locations. 

Using WorldWaypoint you can save your favourite locations with a description and a picture of the location. Once you have saved a location on WorldWaypoint you are given a unique URL to your created point that you can then share with family and friends. 

Worldwaypoint also includes a trip planning application. After you have created a number of waypoints to your favourite destinations you can plan a trip that takes in your saved locations. Just specify a start date and end date for your trip and add the destinations you wish to visit.

When you have competed your itinerary you can print out a PDF file of your planned trip.

GPS for your Bike

Cyclemeter

Cyclemeter is an iPhone application for tracking, visualising and sharing your bike rides. The application uses Google Maps to display your routes and all your recorded data can be exported to Google Maps, GPX or KML.

Using the application you can track your bike rides with Google Maps. If you follow a previously saved route the map displays mile markers along your route and you can use the application to race against your own times on the route in real-time.

Following a route your current position is shown on the map, as is your location on your best ride, your location on your worst ride and your location on your median ride. Therefore at all times you are able to judge your current ride against previous attempts.

Via: Mapperz

The Sundance Channel on Google Maps

Sundance Channel Eco-mmunity

The Sundance Channel's Eco-mmunity map is an online community of green enthusiasts that allows users to locate environmentally conscious individuals, companies, and special attractions.

Eco-community uses Google Maps to plot 'green points'. A green point might be an empty lot in need of gardening, a green-related event or rally, or the address of an interesting green program, project, or service. Anyone can place a green point on the map and share their green event or location with the rest of the world.

Users of the map can find green resources around the globe and can even embed links to videos and blogs on the map. Markers on the map are organised by category and users can search the map by category and by location.

Disneyland on Google Maps

eTicketMap.com

eTicketMap.com is a Google Maps mashup that contains detailed information, images, and reviews of nearly 3,000 points of interest for Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

The maps let you explore the Disney theme parks from the comfort of your own home. If you are lucky enough to be planning a trip to Disneyland or Disney World you can use eTicketMap.com to plan your visit.

As you browse the points of interest on the theme park maps you can select to add things that grab your eye to your own personal itinerary. When you have planned your day out you can then print out a map of your own personal itinerary and you'll be completely prepared for your visit.

If you have an iPhone you don't even have to print out a map. The eTicket iPhone app matches the functions of the website and allows you to visit the Disney theme parks with your maps on phone.

New York Thruway Traffic Map

New York State Thruway Authority Map

The New York State Thruway Authority has produced this Google Map to show the current traffic conditions on the state's thruways. Users of the map can view at a glance current conditions, roadworks, road closures and even view the thruway's traffic cams.

Quick links are provided at the top of the map to zoom the map to specific areas on the thruway system. The map sidebar contains controls to select to view traffic conditions, traffic cams or roadworks. You can also select to view current Regional Advisory Messages for the state's thruways.

If you want to find a Travel Plaza or rest area on the thruway network the map can even help you with that. 

Compare Baseball Stadia with Google Maps

How Different are Major League Baseball Fields?

Snippets has used Google Maps to trace the shapes and sizes of all uncovered Major League Baseball stadia. They have done this in order to help determine the differences between the stadia.

The distances vary from 302 feet (92 meters) to 355 feet (108 meters) along the foul line — that's a difference of over 17%. The distances from home plate to the center field fence vary over 11% from 390 feet (119 meters) to 435 feet (133 meters).

To assemble this data Snippets looked at the satellite views of each of the stadia. I'm not sure that the distance scale in Google Maps is accurate enough for the comparison results to be entirely accurate but it is an interesting experiment.

Create a Google Map From Your Own Image

Piritiles

Piritiles is a new tile cutter application for creating a Google Map based on your own image files.

Creating a map only takes a matter of seconds. To create a map you just need to upload an image that is larger than 512 x 512px. That's it. ... Really.... That's all you need to do. Once you have uploaded your image you are presented with a Google Map created from your image.

Now you can browse your image using all the navigation tools of Google Maps. If you want to manage your created maps and get a url for each map created you just need to log-in to the site with a Google account.

Here are some example maps built with piritiles:

Burning Man aerial view: http://www.piritiles.com/map/826035

NASA Monthly world image : http://www.piritiles.com/map/787098

Lake Egirdir Scenery: http://www.piritiles.com/map/750180