Or is water your preferred element? Then go to a Norwegian fjord and follow a kayak track or explore the Mediterranean Sea with a sailing boat.
You can find information on all sorts of outdoor activities, including ice climbing, ballooning, hang gliding, cave diving, dogsledding or cross-country skiing.
Posted by Carmen Erni, GIS Specialist, Google Zurich
We've heard some great stories of Google Earth being used for scientific research, but some scientists have also made some accidental discoveries while working with Google Earth. An Australian geologist now has a crater named in his honor after stumbling upon an odd formation in Google Earth -- take a look at Hickman Crater. Similarly, another Australian scientist was doing some research using Google Earth when he noticed an extremely rare coral reef formation. Over in Parma, Italy, our imagery allowed one user to learn that he lived on the site of an ancient Roman ruin!
So, to everyone exploring our world on Google Earth - well done! And to compass makers around the world - looks like you might have some Grade-A competition.
Just a reminder that the Design Your Dwelling competition is closing this Sunday, August 31st. If you haven't submitted your model yet, start by visiting the site location in Google Earth. Each model must be uploaded to the Google 3D Warehouse and be submitted through the Dwell entry form. The chosen design will win a trip to San Francisco (airfare and hotel accommodations included), have lunch with Dwell & SketchUp staff, attend the Dwell/AIA home tours and receive a physical model of their dream home. We can't wait to see what you come up with!
You can also zoom in and out with the "+" and "-" keys. There are some other keyboard shortcuts: with the arrow keys, you can pan left, right, up, and down with each respective arrow. Using the arrows moves the map just a tad, so to pan wider you can use the Page Up, Page Down, Home, and End keys to move north, south, east and west, respectively. Holding down any of these keys will keep the map scrolling across your screen.
Street View also has some useful keyboard shortcuts. To pan left in an image, use the left arrow or "A" key; to pan right, use the right arrow or "D" key. The up arrow moves you forward down a street, and the down arrow will put you in reverse and move you backward. When you want to see the top of a skyscraper or a mountain peak, you can use the Page Up or "W" key; to pan back down (or check out our ground-filling), use the Page Down or "S" key. And the same tip of using the "+" and "-" keys to zoom in and out also applies.
Whether it's drawing roads, adding your favorite convenience store or bird-watching spot, or editing major landmarks, we hope to continue making Google Map Maker a platform for our users to share and benefit from the local knowledge of their peers. So if you're spending these months combing the beautiful beaches, towns and trails of the world's island nations, share your local knowledge with us on Google Map Maker.
Here's a shout-out to these forty island nations: American Samoa, Anguilla, Cape Verde, Cocos Islands, Comoros, Cook Islands, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Falkland Islands, Faroe Islands, French Polynesia, Guadeloupe, Guam, Isle of Man, Kiribati, Madagascar, Maldives, Malta, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritius, Montserrat, Nauru, New Caledonia, Niue, Northern Mariana Islands, Papua New Guinea, Reunion, Samoa, São Tomé and Príncipe, Seychelles, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Micronesia, Christmas Island, Tokelau, Wallis and Futuna.
I thought I'd leave you with a little poem our team came up with while hard at work on the fab forty launch:
Snorkeling in Maldives and Gyros in Cyprus, Mauritius Fishing and Maltese History, Sailing in Samoa and Camping in Tonga, These are a few of our favorite things
As you can tell, we love islands and all the fun, freedom and frolic they stand for. But they can be more fun - with great maps.
In addition to all of this, today we're launching the 2008 Summer Games on Google Maps. It's a one-stop shop for viewing live updates from the Games, including up-to-date medal counts by country, events by date, and results by sport.
To track medal counts, click on the 'Medals' tab and zoom or pan the map to see updates around the world. Clicking on a country or region will display medal information as it's received. Use the 'Events' tab to view the latest schedules by date, country, and sport. All data--including country and region participants, sport results, and medal counts--is provided through an official feed from the World News Press Agency (WNPA).
As a bonus, we've also included a way to view sports stadiums and venues in 3D. By clicking the 'Earth' tab, PC users can access the Google Earth plug-in and virtually explore the Beijing Village. Not a PC user? No problem. All users are also able to preview the venue information and 3D fly-through videos within the map.
If you'd rather follow the Games from your desktop, we've launched a Google Earth KML that highlights similar information and provides a unique virtual experience. To whet your palate, here's a video tour of the 3D Village:
Posted by Brittany Bohnet, Google Maps Special Projects
Our imagery for Australia includes extensive coverage throughout the country, featuring cities such as Sydney, Perth, and Melbourne - and many places in between. Here's a slideshow of some images from around Australia:
As if that was not enough, we're also extending our coverage in the US with over 30 new cities including New Orleans (LA), Baton Rouge (LA), El Paso (TX), Wichita (KS), Savannah (GA), and Colorado Springs (CO). And to give you even more of a reason to explore Street View, we've hidden a special surprise somewhere in our US imagery so keep your eyes peeled as you take in the views!
