Google have added yet more features to Google Maps . There is now a new ‘Hybrid’ button on the maps interface that gives you the satellite imagery with the roads and place names overlaid. Pretty neat! Of course, as we now use the Maps API this all Just Works over on our map page.

Thanks to Ryan, Andrew, Kjfitz & Justin for spotting the change.

This isn’t a sight I’m afraid, just a quick update… Has anyone else noticed that Google have finally put a scale on their maps?

Update: Yup, sorry it appears I missed the boat. There’s an article over on Scavengeroogle about it already

Update 2: Oops. Googlemapsmania had it first, and apparently we told them about it! Who knew? However, a comment on this post points something very cool out. Tobin said:

did you notice that if you’re looking at the initial view (the entire US), when you scroll around the map, the scale changes? I assume it’s because the curvature of the earth.

Try it out, it’s cool!

Google Sightseeing is now fully linked up to Google Earth. Every post now has a ‘Google Earth’ link as well as a ‘Map’ link. Clicking on the Google Earth link will zoom your copy of Google Earth to any of the sights listed in that post. If you don’t have Google Earth installed you can grab it here, Windows only, sorry.

We’ve also made a Google Earth ‘Network Link’ that contains all of our sights which can then be updated from within Google Earth. To use the Network Link grab this KML file. Just click that link and a new ‘Google Sightseeing’ folder will appear in your ‘Places’ section in Google Earth. Give it a minute to load the points and your shiny earth should be populated with our fantastic sights. If you want to check for new points just right click on the ‘Google Sightseeing’ folder and hit refresh to get all the newest points.

There are bound to be a few bugs to iron out so if you spot any post them here. Thanks!

Yay! new server! GgSs is back in effect!

Many thanks to the guys at EuroVPS for all their hard work in getting our new box all set up.

Just a quick heads up to let you know that I’ve updated the FAQ page. You can now learn how to find the moved ’satellite’ link, use the “z” variable to set a specific zoom level, and also how to search for a specific latitude and longitude.

Any suggestions or corrections, please leave in the comments thread of this post, thanks!