Toluu

Google LatLong

News and notes by the Google Earth and Maps team.

KML in Research contest extended!Yesterday

The KML in Research contest deadline has been extended to February 1st, 2009.  We're 

extending the entry period to give students and researchers an opportunity to finish up their projects during this busy time of year, and to give more people the chance to enter.  Those of you who have already entered can improve your submission and resubmit prior to the new deadline.

To get your brain warmed up, consider these entry ideas:

• Curriculum materials for students in: history, geology, Earth science, astronomy, political science, urban planning, etc
• Mash together different datasets using layers
• Visualize large datasets and allow users to explore collections
• Map data from a sensor network in real time using network links
• Use Google Charts API within Google Earth to easily plot figures dynamically
• Animate trends in demographics, economic models, or environmental changes using the Google Earth time slider

Google Earth... in your browser... on your Mac!Yesterday

[Cross-posted with the Google Geo Developers Blog]

A long time ago, at a conference not too far away, Google launched the Google Earth Browser Plugin, with the Google Earth API. At the time, we promised that we would bring it to the Mac, and now we have.

Today, we're excited to announce the release of the Google Earth Browser Plugin for Mac OS X 10.4+ (PowerPC and Intel). The Mac plugin is supported on Safari 3.1+ and Firefox 3.0+. The download link should now be available to all users from any Earth API-powered site. We also released a game, Puzzler, in honor of the new Mac plugin. It is, of course, playable on a PC as well. We think you'll like it. And as usual, it's open source, so you're free

20 days, 9 hours...December 3

With Thanksgiving dinner eaten and the calendar changed to December, it's officially the holiday season. And for the Geo team, that means it's time get ready to track Santa. Once again, Google has teamed up with NORAD to bring you the Santa Tracker, allowing you to follow Santa's path around the world with Google Earth and Google Maps. You can find all the details on the Official Google Blog.

Posted by Aaron Stein, Santa Tracker Team

New Zealand, New Street ViewDecember 1

The Street View team has been keeping quite busy lately, between adding new cities, debuting in new countries, and re-designing the layout. And today, there's yet another exciting launch: imagery of New Zealand. Whether you've been thinking of planning a trip to New Zealand, or wanting an opportunity to experience its cities, mountains, and beaches, you'll find plenty to explore. The imagery includes everything from major metropolitan areas like Auckland and Christchurch to the scenery of Lake Wakatipu; from the sub-tropical north to the mountainous south.

You can read more about this launch on the Google Australia Blog, so I'll use this opportunity to share some of my favorite images:

Happier travels through Street View with PegmanNovember 25

Today we're happy to announce some big improvements to the Street View feature in Google Maps! Thanks to feedback from our users, we've now made Street View even better and easier to use.

For one thing, Pegman, our plucky mascot, is now close at hand wherever you go. He hangs out right on top of the zoom slider:


To enter Street View, drag Pegman to a street (or just keep zooming in all the way, and the lowest zoom level is now Street View imagery). Tip: if you hold Pegman over a location for a second, you'll see a preview of what it looks like. Which direction you're facing depends on which side of the street you drag to:


Also, we've revamped the layout of Street View to give you more room for looking at really big stuff like the Colosseum in Rome, or forzooming in to get a better look at small stuff like thisspace invader mosaic in Paris.

The minimap in the corner lets you see the surrounding area. To see Street View and the map at the same time, you can click on the icon at the top left of the minimap. Looking up driving directions? This split screen view is especially handy for previewing turns along the way, and each step will be listed at the top of the Street View image.

Want to learn more and see the new features in action? Check out this video, narrated by Pegman himself: