Google Maps Updated
Tuesday, 21st June 2005 by James Turnbull
Today Google quietly updated its map service to add high-resolution aerial photography for much more of the globe than the previous limited coverage of North America. New additions include Scotland, Iceland, Kuwait and many, many more.
Here at Google Sightseeing we'll be featuring new sights from all these countries and will be accepting submission of the cool things that our readers find. If you find somewhere cool please make sure to read our FAQ about getting the correct web address and make sure to include the city and country for your location on our submissions form.
I have all ready started that and submitted some fairly obvious ones. Freaky thing is was that I was just looking around for more images from around the world when you guys updated. Hopefully we will be able to see some awesome sites from around the world!
They’ve increased the resolution of Torquay, England (setting of the comedy Fawlty Towers), but not enough to see my house…
The high resolution of some of the new countries is a bit patchy, by the way – as I found when trying to locate the Althing in Iceland.
Here are some other high-def places: North Korea (in the blue square and in the northern end): View Placemark View Placemark Japan (Tokyo and suburbs): View Placemark
I submitted a couple places to start off the international sightseeing… Rome and Giza so far… I am looking forward to seeing what else shows up.
nice!! but its like some of the satellite maps are a little bit widder than the real maps in europe?? not like in the us…
like this one of denmark and sweden… View Placemark try to click on “map” and look at the huge difference!
Check out Pine Gap, Australia View Placemark
Pine Gap, near Alice Springs, employs nearly 1,000 people, mainly from the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Reconnaissance Office. Originally code-named MERINO, it is the ground station for a satellite network that intercepts telephone, radio, data links, and other communications around the world. The facility currently includes a dozen radomes, a 5,600 square meter computer room, and 20-odd service and support buildings. Two of its ground antenna are part of the U.S. Defense Satellite Communications System.
Yeah – New places to go oogling.
my goodness! germany is available, too! some places in higher resolution (munich), some places in lower resolution (hamburg). i like that. wonder if i can find nuremberg…
Very cool, Switzerland is available too. I hope they add more Detailcards soon, so everybody could see the beauty of our alps.. 🙂
@Peter: Nuremberg is available in high resolution. I just posted the TV tower 🙂
Parts of England are hi-res as well. Much of London is (although it is patchy) as is Birmingham. I’m sure there are other places as well as these!
There’s also coverage of bits of China! Here’s Ti’anamen Square and the forbidden city.
It looks as though most major cities have been added in hi-res – Tokyo, Paris, Hong Kong, Aberdeen (?!?) to name a few…
Who’s going to be first to find all 20 Premiership grounds? I’ve already posted Highbury…
Or who can find the tower used as the location for the stand off at the end of Infernal Affairs (in Hong Kong)?
So seeing all of these new places, immediately raises the question: are all of these Hi-Res images from airplanes flying at 17,000 feet? that seemed to be the consensus during the “UFO” flap over FLA and LA…..but ARE all of these new shots from planes? confused.
There’s an awful lot of Iraq–looks like pre-war. For example, here’s Baghdad:
not confused any longer…..thee are Hi-Res shots of Libya and Iraq…..doubtful any copmmercial flights were flying over these areas.
Behold!! The Pyramids at Giza!!!
View Placemark
Finally! I’m able to see my house!
The shots of Sydney have great zoom for most of the suburbs. But it has nothing goood for the CBD and the harbour, where all of the really cool stuff is.
Wait, I’m confused. If those are the Giza pyramids, then what are these: View Placemark
The dying Aral sea. Neighbour countries use too much water for cotton irigation, so this sea is drying out. It should be twice in size, as it is now. View Placemark
Doxy….those are some other pyramids, perhaps the “bent pyramid”….http://www.crystalinks.com/bentpyr.html…if you look just to the east of the Giza pyramids you can see the Sphinx…..there are literally thousands and thousands of pyramids all over the place in Egypt. Some of the most beautiful and enigmatic are these….
http://www.m-huether.de/sudan/bajr.htm
This is almost too much…just when I had finally overcome my Google Maps obsession, here comes something even MORE interesting! BTW – I’m submitting this, but here is one of Saddam’s palaces (in Samarra)
View Placemark
What is this I found in Australia? View Placemark
Someone might want to go through the Weirdness category. Google has fixed a few of the stitching problems that have been previously noted. I just had to delete a couple of such entries from “Google Globetrotting”, as the errors are gone.
This is the location of the last Summer Olympic games in Athens Greece:
View Placemark
Well by the looks of Trafalgar Square, the Images are really old, because the buses still go round all of Trafalgar Square!! Doesnt seem to me that the images are as off good quality than the US ones, but hey its a start!
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Trafalgar+Square,+Westminster,+Greater+London,+SW1Y&spn=0.022917,0.031672&t=k&hl=en
Just waiting now for the integration of Google data into Worldwind, how cool would that be !!
and can someone tell me what this is? its big, and even has a black hole! View Placemark
Nicholas Moline, here is a similar salt flat in the USA: View Placemark
Oil Well Fire View Placemark
Also note the huge reservoirs to the left.
Ulrich-
Looks like the great barrier reef? Coolest part for me are the numerous jet contrails that criss cross here in the middle of nowhere!
it cant be great barrier reef, this is between sweden and poland :-S
it cant be great barrier reef, this is between sweden and poland :-S maybe its polar light… dunno.
View Placemark
A boat in the middle of the North Sea
Gondolas in Venice!!!
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Okay. This one I KNOW I’ve got right 😉
The Eiffel Tower View Placemark
Now THIS is a Crater! View Placemark
The Rock of Gibraltar
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Twombly i couldn’t agree more. Just when i was only looking at google sightseeing once a day to see what others have come up with now i’m going to hav eto look many times a day here along with finding my own again. THANKS ALOT GOOGLE!
Someone posted the Aral sea above. in the middle of it is an island (Vozrozhdeniye Island for those who are interested) that has a soviet biological weopans centre built on. heres a pic of:
View Placemark
In a recent TV program they visited it and there used test-tubes and gas masks laying all over the floor… Its was very strange to sea.
Marty…that is the Richat structure…not really a crater…..
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=9319
Alex, James… You guys thought you were going to get flooded with submissions before just from North America… now what are you going to do?
Govinator, we have no idea! We’re incredibly excited about the whole thing though, and we’re going to have so much fun finding places for all you guys!
I should get on with it really, but I’m currently having way too much fun finding places for myself!
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St Amdrews Golf Links. Scotland. Not hi-res yet.
To continue on the volcanoes theme, here’s a huge one south of Tokyo. I have no idea which one it is.
View Placemark
Please don your protective gear before viewing this hi-res oil well fire, Kuwait:
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There’ll be blue birds over The white cliffs of Dover, Tomorrow Just you wait and see.
There’ll be joy and laughter And peace ever after, Tomorrow When the world is free,
The shepherd will count his sheep The valleys will bloom again, And Jimmy will go to sleep In his own little room again,
There’ll be blue birds over The white cliffs of Dover, Tomorrow Just you wait and see.
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Mecca – View Placemark
noknok, those were in Iraq, not Kuwait
Another type of Pyramid.This on looks different
View Placemark