Dashing through the snow... with NORAD and Google

[Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog]Every Christmas Eve, children all over the world ask themselves—and their parents—questions about Santa’s magical journey. How does Santa visit so many children in one night? Will he eat the cookies I left out? How does he fit all those presents into his sleigh? These childhood mysteries are part of what makes the Santa tradition so special.There’s one timeless question that we’re proud to say we can help...

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Holiday trees in 3D

Can you imagine the holidays without fir, spruce and cedar trees decorated with colorful ornaments? Beyond tracking Santa, we’re getting into the spirit of the season by placing 3D holiday trees in more than a dozen places on Google Earth 6.Check out the Rockefeller Center in New York City. The only thing that would help make this scene even more festive would be crowds of people bearing shopping bags and a light dusting of winter snow! And don’t...

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Tips for creating a free business listing in Google Places: business types

Are you curious about what kind of businesses are eligible to appear in the free listings that appear on Google and Google Maps? In this second post in our blog series about how to create a clear and effective business listing via Google Places, we’ll help you to determine if Google Places is right for your business.Business types and models that work with Google Places Google Places is meant to facilitate customer interaction with brick-and-mortar...

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Lunar Eclipse Live

It'll be a dark and stormy night on the moon. Well, dark anyway, because tonight is the only total lunar eclipse of 2010.Visible to people in North America starting at about 9pm Pacific this evening, the Earth will pass between the sun and moon, blocking the sun's light from reaching the moon's surface.We’ve launched a live telescope feed in Google Sky, and we’ll be broadcasting the whole event so that you can keep tabs on the event regardless of...

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Imagery Update - Week of December 12th

‘Tis the season of giving! For those of you who’d like nothing more than to receive the gift of new places to explore on Google Earth and Maps, you’re in luck. Our imagery team’s latest update includes many places that relate metaphorically to the holiday season.For example, it’s often at the end of the year that we remark “Out with the old, and in with the new.” That concept can also be applied to the below image that captures two military installations...

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Under the hood of Google Maps 5.0 for Android

[Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog]Yesterday we introduced Google Maps 5.0 for Android with two significant new features: 3D interaction and offline reliability. In order to create these features, we rebuilt Maps using vector graphics to dynamically draw the map as you use it. Building a vector graphics engine capable of achieving the visual quality and performance level you expect from Google Maps was a major technical challenge and enables...

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The “City of Love,” now in 3D

[Cross-posted from the Google SketchUp Blog]To foreigners, Paris is the “city of love.” To Parisians, it’s the “city of lights” (La Ville-Lumière). Today, Paris is the “city in 3D.”Sunrise in ParisOften considered one of the top destinations for world travelers, Paris is known for landmarks like the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Arc de Triomphe, world-famous museums like the Louvre and the Musée d'Orsay, and hundreds of little bistros with French...

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Send a message of holiday cheer with Google Maps

[Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog]For me, celebrating the holidays is about spending time with family and friends. Along with sharing delicious meals and building snowmen in the backyard, getting into the season often means traveling to places both familiar and new, whether going to visit family or walking down the Champs-Élysées to see the holiday lights.We’re sure many of you have holiday plans in the works, so we’ve designed greeting...

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The next generation of mobile maps

[Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog and Google Mobile Blog]I’m excited to announce Google Maps 5.0 for Android, with two significant new features: 3D interaction and offline reliability.We launched Google Maps for mobile a little more than five years ago. Since then, we’ve added dozens of features, and we’ve grown from a few thousand to more than 100 million users. Still, a couple of things have remained the same: a flat, north-up map and...

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Announcing Google Earth Enterprise 4.1

[Cross-posted from the Enterprise Blog]Back in August we announced Google Earth Enterprise 4.0. This version introduced the new Google Earth Portable Solution, and a Google Earth Android Client, for enterprise use. Since then, we’ve been speaking with numerous customers about the release, learning all about the compelling ways they’re using our portable and mobile technologies and listening to their helpful feedback. We’ve made additional developments...

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Building Maker: 109 cities and counting

[Cross-posted from the Google SketchUp Blog]Today’s Google Building Maker imagery update is our last one for 2010 – you can now use our purpose-built geo-modeling tool in any of 109 cities around the world. We’ve just released imagery for:Oklahoma City, OklahomaOslo, NorwayThe Hague, The NetherlandsSan Antonio, Texas is one of the newest additions to Building Maker.We also greatly expanded the coverage areas for San Diego, California and Portland,...

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Deep sea exploration with the joint Indonesia-USA Ocean Expedition

Come on a tour to never-before explored Indonesian waters. The INDEX-SATAL 2010 Expedition is the first-ever joint ocean research voyage by the Republic of Indonesian and the United States. To experience it yourself, watch a Google Earth YouTube video tour here or explore the area more interactively with the Google Earth plug-in on our Ocean Showcase.The colored surface areas seen in the video represent underwater terrain data collected during the...

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Introducing the Google Latitude app for iPhone

[Cross-posted from the Google Mobile Blog]“Where are you?”Starting today, you’ll never again have to answer (or ask) that question when you’re on the go with your iPhone. With the new Google Latitude app for iPhone, you can see where your friends are and now, continuously share where you are – even in the background once you’ve closed the app. Since launching last year, Latitude’s focus has always been on one goal: make it simple to stay in touch...

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Directions, the way you want them

We recently released advanced options for getting public transit directions on Google Maps, helping you customize your route based on your personal preferences.We work hard to provide the right results to get from A to B, but sometimes riders have their own preferences. For example, you might not mind a longer journey if it means fewer transfers; or you may prefer traveling by bus or train, rather than subway, to have views of your route. You can...

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How to find directions online (and 50 other things you might want to teach your parents)

Everything really is bigger in Texas, as my parents found out when they moved to Houston from Kansas in early November. Since moving, my mom - who openly admits that navigation isn’t her strongest suit - was getting lost quite often as she settled into her new hometown. She found herself spending just as much time trying to find the grocery store as doing the actual shopping. So when I headed home for Thanksgiving, I gave her a quick lesson on how easy it is to find directions online using Google Maps.With millions of people travelling across county...

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Trailblazing in Portland

[Cross-posted from the Hotpot Community Blog]When we announced the availability of Hotpot last month, we knew from the beginning we were going to take a different approach to marketing the product and engaging with our users, both businesses and consumers.To that end, we’re excited today to start testing this new approach by launching our first local marketing campaign in Portland, Oregon. Portland is a tech savvy, forward-thinking city with a history...

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Street View in Romania

Bram Stoker’s world famous novel Dracula was believed to have been inspired by fifteenth century Wallachian Prince, Vlad Dracul from Romania (better known to many as Vlad the Impaler). The legend of the vampire is still deeply rooted in Transylvanian culture today, and tourists from across the world come to explore the history and mystery of the many beautiful castles that can be found here. But of course those aren’t all the sights Romania has to...

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Cricket Season Has Begun!

Summer has arrived in the southern hemisphere, which in Australia, means cricket! “The Ashes,” a tournament series played between England and Australia, recently began a couple weeks ago so the competition is underway. It’s said to be international cricket's most celebrated rivalry, dating back to 1882. The series is played biennially, alternating between the United Kingdom and Australia. Since cricket is a summer sport, and the venues are located...

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Rediscover Historical Imagery in Google Earth 6

Historical imagery is one of the most powerful features of Google Earth, enabling you to go back in time and browse the visual historical record of our planet - from the evolution and rise of developing communities to the destruction caused by hurricanes, earthquakes and fires. With Google Earth 6, we’ve made it easier than ever to discover historical imagery. In addition to streamlining the timeline interface, we’ve added a date button to the...

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How Local Search Ranking Works

We’ve been quite busy this year working on Google Places, Tags, Boost, and our shiny new addition: Hotpot. With so many different products and features now available for local businesses, we wanted to take a step back and explain how the ranking of local listings works when people search on Google and Google Maps. Product Manager Jeremy Sussman takes us under the hood in this informative video. Below are a few key takeaways, but we encourage you to watch the video, which features helpful examples and visuals.Local search ranking refers to the placement...

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Mapping Korogocho

[Cross-posted from the Google Africa Blog]At Google we want to make the world's information more accessible and useful to people all over the globe. This includes providing rich local geographic data because a high percentage of search queries have a geographic component. We have often spoken about Google Map Maker, a tool that allows people to help create a map by adding or editing features such as roads, businesses, parks, schools and more.We are...

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