Four New Writers for our Fourth Birthday!

We would have loved to have accepted everyone who applied, but sadly we had to choose just a handful. However we did end up taking on more people than expected - and now in a bit of very fortuitous timing, we're celebrating our fourth birthday by introducing four new writers!

So, in alphabetical no particular order, the first of our new writers is Kevin Batdorf:

"Originally from St. Petersburg, Florida, I am currently living in Tokyo, Japan where I'm a full time student. I have been reading Google Sightseeing for about a year now, but have been using Google Maps ever since it was launched. I love to travel and learn about new places, but it's always fun to check here for the stuff you don't normally find. I'm excited to join the team and I look forward to reading your comments and discussing all the interesting posts with you all."

Next up, Evan Brammer is a Geography teacher at an international school near Jakarta, Indonesia:

"My love for all things geo was planted as a seed early in my life. I began doing worldwide sightseeing when I was twelve years old and moved from small town America to a US Army base in Germany. Since then I have spent many years travelling and living throughout the world. I am married and have two lovely boys. My toddler's favourite pastime is when I put Google Earth up on our Touchsmart and let him stand on the table and spin the world. Maybe we'll let him randomly choose our next destination."

Alex Steinberger works for a Geographic Information System consultancy in Los Angeles, CA.

"I am employed at a GIS-services consultancy that specialises in 3D city models. I spend at least 8 hours a day working with Google Earth and Maps and have turned into somewhat of a Google Geo-Addict. When my eyes are not glued to a spinning virtual globe, I enjoy hiking, camping, and above all, skiing."

Finally, Rob Kingston is a newspaper subeditor from Hampshire, England, working mostly on travel and property pieces:

"I have always been fascinated by travelling and exploring - whether in the real world or, the next best thing, poring over maps - so of course I am a huge Google Earth and Maps fan. The only problem is that when I have to use them to look something up for work, I often end up getting distracted!"

We've got a post from each of our new writers lined up for the rest of the week, so we hope you enjoy them. Thanks again to everyone who sent us an application or wrote a sample post, it really was heart-warming to see how many people would have liked to write for the site.

Now, on with the sightseeing!