Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is full of iconic landmarks from American history. The aerial image shown below, which was acquired this past October, shows some of the most well known buildings along the east bank of the Schuylkill River. At the bottom left of the image are the fifteen structures comprising Boathouse Row, and the upper right shows the Fairmount Water Works and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In the far right corner of the image are the stone steps made famous in the Rocky movies.
Boathouse Row, Fairmount Water Works and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
“X” marks the spot in the satellite image below of part of Miramar, Argentina. Of course, the feature is comprised of roads that lead to the town’s central sculpture, Monumento al Gral Alvarado, and the four parks comprising the central plaza.
Miramar, Argentina
As we close in on the Christmas season, it seems appropriate to feature several well known churches that have been updated with new imagery. The first example, shown below, is aerial imagery of the Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in Gdańsk, Poland. The structure is considered one of the largest Brick Gothic buildings ever constructed, and has sufficient space to hold 25,000 people!
Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Gdańsk, Poland
This next example shows updated aerial imagery of Burgos, Spain. In the upper left, is the Burgos Castle, overlooking the Burgos Cathedral in the lower right. This cathedral is famous for its vast size and unique French Gothic architecture.
Burgos, Spain
Finally, below is an updated image of the Calvary Baptist Church of Hi Vista, California, perhaps one of the more notable churches of late. This church was of course used famously in the Kill Bill Vol. I movie as the site of near demise for the heroine, “The Bride.”
Calvary Baptist Church, Hi Vista, California
If you’d like to receive an email notification when the Google Earth and Maps Imagery team updates your favorite site(s), we’ve got just the tool: The Follow Your World application!
These are only 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: Alamosa, CO; Albany, NY; Altoona, PA; Atlanta, GA; Bartlesville, OK; Bishop, CA; Boise City, OK; Clarksville, TN; Clayton, NM; Edwards, CA; Erie, PA; Georgetown, SC; Great Bend, KS; Guymon, OK; Hot Springs, AR; Lamar, CO; Lawton, OK; Llano, TX; McAlester, OK; Merced, CA; Oklahoma City, OK; Palmdale, CA; Philadelphia, PA; Redding, CA; Roseburg, OR; Scranton, PA; Springfield, MO; Texarkana, TX; Twin Falls, ID; Vail, CO
Countries/regions receiving high resolution satellite updates: Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Finland, France, French Polynesia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Greenland, Guatemala, Guinea, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lesotho, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Marshall Islands, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Svalbard, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, West Bank, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe
These updates are now available in both Google Maps and Google Earth. For a complete picture of where we updated imagery, download this KML for viewing in Google Earth.
Belgium was one of the founding members of the European Union and Brussels is home to many EU and international headquarters. You can now explore the area around the European Parliament and the European Commission.
Beyond Brussels is a world of landscapes, castles and stone-built villages. From the scenic town centre of Bruges to the castles of Bouillon, Belgium’s magnificent sites are now available for all via the Street View feature of Google Maps. Imagery of the historic battlefield of Waterloo is also now available, where the fate of Europe was defined almost 200 years ago.
We’re thrilled to be releasing the imagery of our small yet fascinating country, known by connoisseurs to be Europe's best hidden secret. As we continue to expand Street View, we look forward to bringing many more European countries for you to explore.
Following a record setting 519 inches of snowfall last season, Breckenridge Ski Resort is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Take a tour of this famous Colorado destination.
Last, but surely not least, you can tour Whistler Blackcomb, home of the 2010 Winter Olympics. We captured Whistler with our Street View cameras last year and made some recent updates. Located in the Coast Mountain range of British Columbia, Whistler, known for both its scenery and adrenaline-pumping runs, is one of the most famous ski destinations in the world.
All snow view imagery was captured by the Street View snowmobile which made its debut two years ago at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. To get a glimpse of a few more resorts you can go to the gallery or watch the video:
Whether you’re a snowbird, a beach bum, an urban adventurer or something else entirely, there’s something for everyone in our growing set of Street View collections. To see some of our favorite special collections, visit the Street View gallery.
Enjoy the slopes!
Posted by Ryan Falor, Product Manager, Street View Special Collections
Explore veteran tours in Google Earth For Veterans Day we’re featuring several stories created by veterans that show how Google Earth can be used to create a 3D virtual tour of their service history, complete with photos and videos. Fly back to the 1940's to hear about six siblings who served in WWII and an Army nurse who worked in post-war Japan. Then see where a Marine Lieutenant spent four years during the Vietnam War. Watching these tours requires the Google Earth plug-in, which you can download here. We hope to make this story-telling tool available to everyone soon.
Make a Custom Map of your service Google Maps makes it easy (and fun!) to create a simple Custom Map and also share with others. With our mapping tools, veterans can map their service and then share the personalized map with their families and friends. Stories, photos and videos can be geo-located so the complete story is recorded and marked on a map.
We hope our mapping tools can be useful to the veteran community for sharing and recording life stories. For more other relevant Google products, we invite you to explore the Google for Veterans and Families site, www.googleforveterans.com.
The Model Your Town Competition is open to just about everyone, just about everywhere in the world. Form a team, model buildings (using SketchUp or Building Maker) and upload them by the end of February 2012.
You can model as many structures as you like – which types of buildings you choose to include is entirely up to you. The important thing is that your choices say something about the character and history of your town.
If your town wins, a bunch of us from the SketchUp team will visit, throw you a dinner party and do our best to make you feel like the local hero that you truly are. Check out the competition website for details, and start rounding up teammates!
Here's some inspiration by way of the 2010 winner, Jorge De Albertis, from Lima, Peru (just to get your creative juices flowing):
New to geo-modeling? Learn more at Your World in 3D, then get started modeling your town!
Just a few moments ago, the Google+ team introduced Pages to help you better get to know your favorite brands, businesses and organizations. But the exciting news doesn’t end there! Today, we’d like to welcome all fans of Google Maps to join us on Google+ by adding our new page to your circles.
Here’s just some of the stuff you’ll find when you follow us on Google+:
Product news and announcements. Stay up to date and share with friends.
Hangouts with the Maps team. Bring your questions!
User spotlights. We want to showcase you, our awesome community members.
#GMapsTrivia. Put your geo skills to the test for bragging rights.
Pro tips. Tricks from Googlers and fellow users so you can get the most out of Maps.
This page is a place for you to connect with our team and other Maps fans, discuss ideas and share feedback, and learn a new thing or two about our product. So say hello in the comments on our page, and we’ll see you soon in a Hangout!
Posted by Vanessa Schneider, Google Maps and Places community manager, and Brian Hendricks, Google Maps marketing
The summit was an exciting opportunity for many of our top contributors to share their geographic crowd-sourced efforts, work directly with Google engineers to brainstorm potential new product features, and set strategies for improving the overall Geo community. Attendees also had a chance to mind-meld with our product leaders during a day of unconference sessions, sharing thoughts, ideas, and stories about their experiences that will help us to improve our products.
Following a keynote address by Aidan Chopra, Google Geo Evangelist, attendees shared their inspiring projects and practices with a rapt audience. We learned from Levan Beruchashvili how the National Agency of Public Registry helped map the entire country of Georgia for its recent graduation to Google Maps. Arek Pawlowski described hosting multiple SketchUp workshops at his university, creating almost 450 models in an ongoing effort to put all of Toruń, Poland into 3D. As it is the user-generated content that fuels the Google Geo products, these and other contributor testimonials stood out as the highlight of the summit.
Attendees at the Google Geo User Summit Barcelona!
To learn more about the Google Geo User Summit Barcelona, visit the event website, where you can browse photographs of the conference and its beautiful setting along the Mediterranean coast. Extensive session notes and user presentations are also available. If you’re interested in attending future events, please see the Map Maker Events Calendar, 3D Events Calendar and Panoramio Events Calendar. This summit was one exciting part of an ongoing celebration of the passionate mappers, modelers, and photo contributors who are improving Google Maps and Google Earth for the world to share. A tremendous thanks to all those who attended and helped make the event a success!
Posted by Lori Savageau, Community Manager, Google Map Maker
Across the pond, you can visit Kensington Gardens in London. Once privately owned by Kensington Palace, the majestic arbor skyline and delicate flower beds draw locals and tourists alike. Kensington Gardens is also dotted with famous statues, such as Peter Pan, and home to the idyllic Serpentine Bridge.
Community parks are where we take our evening stroll, play sports on weekends and picnic with friends. Koganei Park in Tokyo, Japan is one such place, especially during the cherry blossom season—a charming park beloved by photographers, joggers and romantics.
