Follow in Darwin's footsteps with the iNaturalist mobile app

Editor’s Note: Today’s guest author is Dr. Scott Loarie, a fellow at the Carnegie Institution for Science at Stanford and co-director of iNaturalist.org, a biodiversity citizen-science website. Pepperwood Preserve was the recipient of a Google Earth Outreach Developer Grant, funded through the Google Inc. Charitable Giving Fund at the Tides Foundation. We’re excited to share how the iNaturalist Android application developed as a result of this grant...

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Imagery Update: Week of February 20th

The Google Earth and Maps Imagery team recently published another batch of satellite imagery. In this post, we’ll explore a few well-known locations from across the globe.Our first example is the Bristol Motor Speedway, located outside of Bristol, Tennessee. This NASCAR short track speedway is the 8th largest sports venue in the world, and hosts up to 165,000 people.Bristol Motor Speedway, Bristol, TennesseeIf you think the typical NASCAR race is...

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Enhanced search in Google Earth 6.2

Lao-tzu once said, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” In Google Earth, that single step is often searching for the name of the place you want to go. The search field is the gateway to all of the amazing places you might visit, and for the recent release of Google Earth 6.2, we worked hard to make it even more powerful and easy to use.As a result, searching for a location in Google Earth 6.2 is a bit different: we’ve streamlined...

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Street View on Google Maps comes to Russia

Welcome to Russia! You can now virtually travel through the world’s largest country to the cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg using Google Maps Street View. Take an online stroll around famous Red Square and Moscow Kremlin, or go to outskirts of Moscow to wander around the beautiful Tsaritsino or Kuskovo parks. You can also visit the former site of the palace in Kolomenskoye, once considered the 8th World Wonder.View Larger Map Red Square, MoscowSt. Petersburg, the second largest city in Russia and northernmost megapolis in the world, was once...

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Lay claim to your personal conservation plot with Adopt-an-Acre

One of my favorite quotes is by American anthropologist Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”We can each play an active role in changing the world for the better by preserving areas we care about. The Nature Conservancy has just made it easier with their Adopt-an-Acre program. They’ve updated their mapping tool today as the result of a Google...

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Celebrate Kisses Across Canada

First kisses, last kisses and all those kisses in between... here’s your chance to kiss and tell!Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the Canada Kiss Map is a Google Maps API powered application that enables users to share the stories and locations of their most memorable smooches.from www.torontokissmap.comCreator Chris Kay Fraser teaches creative writing and moonlights as an independent Maps API developer. She views this clever use of the Google Maps...

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An easy way to access directions and locations you care about

If you’re anything like me, you might use Google Maps to look up the same places and directions more than once, like the location of your hotel while you’re on vacation, or directions to a friend’s house that you’ve visited before. When you’re signed in to your Google account, the My Places tab on Google Maps makes it easy to find starred locations, places you’ve rated and checked-in, saved Custom Maps, and even past local searches.Now, when you...

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Map your campus and win: Announcing the first Map your University competition

Have you ever wished you knew the most direct route from your dormitory to your geography class across campus? Do you want a great way to help your roommate finally discover the library before midterms? Now is the perfect time to form a team and ensure that your university map is up to date using Google Map Maker. Today we’re kicking off the first ever Map your University 2012 competition for the United States and Canada!From February 13th until...

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Connect with people and places you love this Valentine’s Day

(Cross posted on the Official Google Blog) A few months ago we shared an engagement story about a Google engineer who used Google Maps to help coordinate an elaborate proposal to his girlfriend. It served as a great example of how Google Maps can be more than just a handy tool for directions; it can help connect you to the places and people you love.With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, we were once again reminded of the unifying power of maps through our ongoing work with one of America’s most famous malls, Mall of America in Bloomington,...

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Share your Google Earth adventures on Google+

Millions of people use Google Earth to explore exotic islands, re-visit their childhood homes, and scout out day hikes. Are you one of them? If so, why not share your virtual travel with friends and family?With the recent release of Google Earth 6.2, you can easily share screenshots of your explorations with the people in your Google+ circles. Give it a try: just open Google Earth, sign in to your Google account via the button on the top right, and...

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New 45° imagery available for 24 cities

Our February update of 45° aerials contains imagery of 15 U.S. and 7 international locations in Google Maps.Heidelberg is a university town in southwestern Germany, located at the Neckar river. A former residence of the Electoral Palatinate, Heidelberg is popular among travellers for its historic city center and castle ruins of red sandstone in a mix of architectural styles. Having been around for more than 600 years, the University of Heidelberg is one of Europe’s oldest institutions of higher education.View Larger MapSan Sebastián (Donostia in...

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A clearer view of the seafloor in Google Earth

More than two-thirds of Earth is covered by oceans. If you drained all of that water away, you'd see huge basins that have never been explored, an undiscovered planet in our own backyard.Today is the three year anniversary of an explorable ocean seafloor in Google Earth. We just released a major update to our global underwater terrain dataset, called bathymetry, from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, in partnership with NOAA, the US Navy,...

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