Google

Google Maps

07 September 2008

Google Maps

(for a time named Google Local) is a free web mapping service application and technology provided by Google that powers many map-based services including the Google Maps website, Google Ride Finder and embedded maps on third-party websites via the Google Maps API. It offers street maps, a route planner, and an urban business locator for numerous countries around the world.

A related product is Google Earth, a standalone program for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux which offers enhanced globe-viewing features.

Features

Google Maps features a map that can be navigated by dragging the mouse, or using the mouse wheel to zoom in (mouse wheel up) or out (mouse wheel down) to show detailed street information. Users may enter an address, intersection or general area to quickly find it on the map.

Search results can be restricted to a certain area, thanks to Google Local. For example, someone can enter a query such as "Waffles in Ottawa" to find restaurants serving waffles near the city. This can be used to find a wide variety of businesses, such as theatres, restaurants and hotels.

Like many other map services, Google Maps allows for the creation of driving directions. It gives the user a step-by-step list of how to get to their destination, along with an estimate of the time required to reach it and the distance between the two locations. Since July 2007, it has been possible to drag a point on the route to another location, adding a waypoint, and instantly showing the revised route and length while dragging.

Google Maps offers four viewing modes by default: Map (topographic and street map), Satellite (satellite and high-resolution aerial photographs), Hybrid (Street maps overlaid on satellite and high-resolution aerial photographs) and Street View, this feature was introduced on May 30, 2007 (ground level 360 degree view of certain streets).

The "link to this page" link on each Google Maps map targets a URL which can be used to find the location on the map at a later time. The latitude and longitude can be used as input to NASA World Wind or TerraServer-USA, which in some cases have higher-resolution imagery.

Satellite view

This image is a candidate for speedy deletion. It will be deleted after Thursday, 25 October 2007.

Google Maps provides high-resolution satellite images for most urban areas in Canada and the United States (including Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands) as well as parts of New Zealand, Australia, Egypt, France, Germany, Iran, Iceland, Italy, Republic of Ireland, Iraq, Japan, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Kuwait, Mexico, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and many other countries. Google Maps also covers many cities including Moscow, Istanbul, and most of India.

All the images shown in Google Maps" satellite mode are at least a year old and in some places like New Jersey date back to 2001. Various governments have complained about the potential for terrorists to use the satellite images in planning attacks. Google has blurred some areas for security (mostly in the United States), including the U.S. Naval Observatory area (where the official residence of the Vice President is located), and until recently, the United States Capitol and the White House (which formerly featured erased housetop). Other well-known government installations are visible including Area 51 in the Nevada desert.

With the introduction of an easily pannable and searchable mapping and satellite imagery tool, Google"s mapping engine prompted a surge of interest in satellite imagery. Sites such as Google Sightseeing and Virtual Globetrotting were established which feature satellite images of interesting natural and man-made landmarks, including such novelties as "large type" writing visible in the imagery, as well as famous stadia and unique earth formations.

Although Google uses the word "satellite", some of the high-resolution imagery is aerial photography rather than satellite imagery.

Implementation

Like other Google web applications, a large amount of JavaScript was used to create Google Maps. As the user drags the map, the grid squares are downloaded from the server and displayed to the user. When a user searches for a business, the location is pin-pointed with a red pin, which is actually a transparent PNG placed over the map. The technique of providing greater user-interactivity by performing asynchronous network requests with Javascript and XML has recently become known as Ajax. Specifically, Google Maps was built using the AjaXSLT framework.

The GIS (Geographic Information System) data used in Google Maps are provided by Tele Atlas and NAVTEQ, while the small patches of high-resolution satellite imagery are largely provided by DigitalGlobe and its QuickBird satellite, with some imagery also from government sources. The main global imagery base called NaturalVue was derived from Landsat 7 imagery by MDA Federal (formerly Earth Satellite Corporation). This global image base provides the essential foundation for the entire application.

Extensibility and customization

As the Google Maps code is almost entirely JavaScript and XML, some end-users reverse-engineered the tool and produced client-side scripts and server-side hooks which allowed a user or website to introduce expanded or customised features into the Google Maps interface.

Using the core engine and the map/satellite images hosted by Google, such tools can introduce custom location icons, location coordinates and metadata, and even custom map image sources into the Google Maps interface. Some of the more well-known of these "Google Maps Hacks" include tools that display locations of Craigslist rental properties, student apartment rentals, and local map Chicago crime data (or check Misdaadkaart.nl showing crimes of one entire country). Other mashups visualise positions of trains or use the technology for map-based games. The script-insertion tool Greasemonkey provides a large number of client-side scripts to customize Google Maps data, and the mygmaps.com website provides an interface for easily adding your own set of locations and viewing them on Google Maps.

Combined with photo sharing websites such as Flickr, a phenomenon called "memory maps" emerged. Using copies of the Keyhole satellite photos of their home towns or other favorite places, the users take advantage of image annotation features to provide personal histories and information regarding particular points of the area.

Google Maps API

Google created the Google Maps API to facilitate developers integrating Google Maps into their web sites with their own data points. It is a free service, which currently does not contain ads, but Google states in their terms of use that they reserve the right to display ads in the future.

By using the Google Maps API you can embed the full Google Maps on an external web site. Start by creating an API Key, it will be bound to the web site and directory you enter when creating the key. Creating your own map interface involves adding the Google JavaScript code to your page, and then using Javascript functions to add points to the map.

When the API first launched, it lacked the ability to geocode addresses, requiring you to manually add points in (latitude, longitude) format. This has since been rectified.

At the same time as the release of the Google Maps API, Yahoo! released their own Maps API. Both were released to coincide with the O"Reilly Web 2.0 Conference. Yahoo! Maps lacks international support, but included a geocoder in the first release.

As of October 2006, Google Gadgets" Google maps implementation is much easier to use with just the need of one line of script. The drawback is that it is not as customizable as the full API.

In late 2006, Yahoo began a campaign to upgrade their maps, to compete better with Google Local and other online map companies. Several of the maps used in a survey were similar to Google maps.

Google Maps actively promotes the commercial use of their API. One of its earliest adopters at large scale are real estate mashup sites. Google"s case study is about Nestoria, a property search engine in the UK and Spain. Another adopter is property, jobs and cars search engine, trovit.

Google Maps for Mobile

In late 2006, Google introduced a Java applet called Google Maps for Mobile, which is intended to run on any Java based phone or mobile device. Most, if not all,[vague] web based features are available from within the application. There is also a full-featured version, including GPS Integration, available for Windows Mobile PocketPCs and smartphones.

Google Maps parameters

In Google Maps, the URL parameters may be tweaked to offer views and options not normally available through on-screen controls.

For instance, the maximum zoom level offered is normally 18, but if higher-resolution images are available, changing the z parameter, which sets the zoom level, will allow the user to access them, as in this view of elephants or this view of people at a well using the parameter z=23.

A list of Google Maps parameters and their descriptions is available.

Development history until recent issues

Google Maps was first announced on the Google Blog on February 8 2005. and was located at http://maps.google.com/. It originally only supported users of Internet Explorer and Mozilla web browsers, but support for Opera and Safari was added on February 25, 2005. Currently (July 1 2006) Internet Explorer 6.0+, Firefox 0.8+, Safari 1.2.4+, Netscape 7.1+, Mozilla 1.4+, and Opera 8.02+ are supported. It was in beta for six months before becoming part of Google Local on October 6 2005.

In early April 2005, an alternate view was activated to show Satellite images of the area displayed.
In late April 2005, Google created Google Ride Finder using Google Maps.
In late June 2005, Google released the Extensibility and customisation.
In mid July 2005, Google began Google Maps and Google Local services for Japan, including road maps.
On July 22 2005, Google released "Hybrid View". Together with this change, the satellite image data was converted from plate carrée to Mercator projection, which makes for a less distorted image in the temperate climes latitudes.
In July 2005, in honor of the thirty-sixth anniversary of the Apollo Moon landing, Google Moon was launched.
In September 2005, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Google Maps quickly updated its satellite imagery of New Orleans to allow users to view the extent of the flooding in various parts of that city. (Oddly, in March 2007, imagery showing hurricane damage was replaced with images from before the storm; this replacement was not made on Google Earth, which still uses post-Katrina imagery.
As of January 2 2006, Google Maps features road maps for the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, and certain cities in the Republic of Ireland. Coverage of the area around Turin was added in time for the 2006 Winter Olympics.
On January 23 2006, Google Maps was updated to use the same satellite image database as Google Earth.
On March 12 2006, Google Mars was launched, which features a draggable map and satellite imagery of the planet Mars.
In late April 2006, Google Local was merged into the main Google Maps site.
On April 3 2006, version 2 of the Maps API was released.
On June 11 2006, Google added geocoding capabilities to the API, satisfying what it called the most requested feature for this service.
On June 14 2006, Google Maps for Enterprise was officially launched. As a commercial service, it features intranet and advertisement-free implementations.
Beginning in February 2007, buildings and subway stops are displayed in Google Maps "map view" for parts of New York City, Washington, D.C., London, San Francisco, and some other cities.
On February 28 2007, Google Traffic info was officially launched to automatically include real-time traffic flow conditions to the maps of 30 major cities of the United States.
On May 29 2007, Google driving directions support was added to the Google Maps API.
On May 30 2007, Street View was added. It gives ground level 360 degree view of streets in some major cities in United States.
On July 31 2007, support for hCard was announced; Google Maps search results will now output the hCard microformat.

Coverage details

The specific features of Google Maps vary by country.

Maps, local business search, street-level search, and driving directions are fully functional for

Australia
Belgium
Canada
China (beta via ditu.google.com)
France
Germany
Hong Kong
Netherlands
Ireland
Italy
Spain
United Kingdom (local search only functional via maps.google.co.uk)
United States

Maps, local business search, and street-level search are fully functional for

Japan

Google Local Business Center for business owners to add listings to Google Maps is available in

Australia
Canada
China
Japan
France
Germany
Italy
Spain
United Kingdom
United States (is currently also the only country with street view)

Maps only are fully functional for

Afghanistan (highway coverage only)
African continent (street coverage in select major cities; highway coverage elsewhere)
Andorra
Antigua & Barbuda (street names in cities, street alignments elsewhere)
Aruba
Austria
Bahamas (street coverage in Nassau only)
Barbados (street names in cities, street alignments elsewhere)
Belgium
Belize (street alignments in Belize City and Belmopan; highway coverage elsewhere)
Belarus (highway coverage only)
Bhutan (highway coverage only)
Bolivia (street coverage in La Paz only)
Bosnia and Herzegovina (highway coverage only)
Brazil (street coverage - major cities and select other areas; highway coverage elsewhere)
Brunei (highway coverage only)
Bulgaria (highway coverage only)
Chile (street coverage in major cities; highway coverage elsewhere)
Cambodia (highway coverage only)
China (highway and passenger rail coverage only)
Colombia (street coverage in major cities; highway coverage elsewhere)
Costa Rica (street coverage in San José; highway coverage elsewhere)
Croatia (street coverage - major cities; highway coverage elsewhere)
Cuba (street coverage in Havana, highway and rail coverage elsewhere)
Czech Republic
Denmark
Ecuador (street coverage in major cities; highway coverage elsehere)
El Salvador(street coverage in San Salvador, highway coverage elsewhere)
Estonia
Finland
Gibraltar
Greece (street coverage for most cities, highway coverage elsewhere)
Grenada (street names in cities, street alignments elsewhere)
Guatemala (street alignments in major cities; highway coverage elsewhere)
Haiti (street coverage in Port-au-Prince; highway coverage elsewhere)
Honduras (street coverage in Tegucigalpa; highway coverage elsewhere)
Hungary
India (street coverage for most cities, highway coverage elsewhere)
Indonesia (highway coverage only)
Iran (highway coverage only)
Iraq (highway coverage only)
Jamaica (street names in cities, street alignments elsewhere)
Kazahkstan (highway coverage only)
Kyrgyzstan (highway coverage only)
Latvia (street coverage - cities, highway coverage elsewhere)
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia (highway coverage only)
Mauritius (highway coverage only)
Mexico (street coverage in major cities, highway coverage elsewhere)
Moldova (highway coverage only)
Monaco
Mongolia (highway coverage only)
Montenegro (highway coverage only)
Myanmar (Burma) (highway coverage only)
New Zealand
Nicaragua (street coverage in Managua; highway coverage elsewhere)
Norway
Oman (highway coverage only)
Pakistan (highway coverage only)
Panama (street coverage in Colón and Panama City; highway coverage elsewhere)
Papua New Guinea (highway coverage only)
Paraguay (street coverage in Asunción only)
Peru (street coverage in Lima only)
Philippines (highway coverage only)
Poland
Portugal
Réunion (highway coverage only)
Romania (highway coverage only)
Russia (street coverage – major cities, highway coverage elsewhere)
Saint Kitts & Nevis (street names in cities, street alignments elsewhere)
Saint Lucia (street names in cities, street alignments elsewhere)
San Marino
Saudi Arabia (highway coverage only)
Serbia (highway coverage only)
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
Sri Lanka (highway coverage only)
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Trinidad & Tobago (street names in cities, street alignments elsewhere)
Turkey (street names in Istanbul, Ankara, and Bursa only, street alignments shown in cities, highway coverage elsewhere)
Turkmenistan (highway coverage only)
Ukraine (highway coverage only)
United Arab Emirates (street names in Dubai and Abu Dhabi areas only, street alignments shown in cities, highway coverage elsewhere)
Uruguay (street coverage in Montevideo metro; highway coverage elsewhere)
Uzbekistan (highway coverage only)
Venezuela (street coverage in major cities; highway coverage elsewhere)
Vietnam (highway coverage only)
Yemen (highway coverage only)

Satellite imagery of varying resolution is available worldwide.

International

Google Maps is currently localized in 17 countries.

Country	Code	Link
Australia	AU	http://maps.google.com.au
Belgium	BE	http://maps.google.be
Canada	CA	http://maps.google.ca
China	CN	http://ditu.google.cn
Denmark	DK	http://maps.google.dk
Finland	FI	http://maps.google.fi
France	FR	http://maps.google.fr
Germany	DE	http://maps.google.de
Italy	IT	http://maps.google.it
Japan	JP	http://maps.google.co.jp
Netherlands	NL	http://maps.google.nl
Norway	NO	http://maps.google.no
Russia	RU	http://maps.google.ru
Spain	ES	http://maps.google.es
Sweden	SE	http://maps.google.se
UK	UK	http://maps.google.co.uk
United States	COM	http://maps.google.com

Google"s use of Google Maps

The main Google Maps site includes a local search feature, finding businesses of a certain category in a geographic area.
Google Ditu

Google Ditu (谷歌地图 lit. "Google Map") was released to the public on February 9, 2007, and replaced the old Google Bendi (谷歌本地 lit. "Google Local"). This is the Chinese localised Google Maps and Google Local services only cover China.

There are some differences in frontier alignments between Google Ditu and Google Maps. On Google Maps, sections of the Chinese border with India, Pakistan and Tajikistan are shown with dotted lines, indicating areas or frontiers in dispute. However, Google Ditu shows the Chinese frontier strictly according to Chinese claims with no "dotted lines" anywhere. For example the area now administered by India called Arunchal Pradesh (referred to as "South Tibet" by Chinese official sources) is shown inside the Chinese frontier by Google Ditu. Google Ditu also shows Taiwan and the surrounding islands as part of China.
Google Moon

Google Moon

In honor of the 36th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20, 1969, Google took public domain imagery of the Moon, integrated it into the Google Maps interface, and created a tool called Google Moon. By default this tool, with a reduced set of features, also displays the points of landing of all Apollo spacecraft to land on the Moon. It also included an easter egg, displaying a Swiss cheese design at the highest zoom level, which Google has since removed. Google Moon was linked from a special commemorative version of the Google logo displayed at the top of the main Google search page for July 20, 2005 (UTC) webarchive.org.

Google Mars

Google Mars provides a visible imagery view, like Google Moon, as well as infrared imagery and shaded relief (elevation). Users can toggle between the elevation, visible, and infrared data, in the same manner as switching between map, satellite, and hybrid modes of Google Maps. In collaboration with NASA scientists at Arizona State University, Google has provided the public with data collected from two NASA Mars missions, Mars Global Surveyor and 2001 Mars Odyssey. At present, the Google Earth desktop client cannot access the data, but the feature is in development.

It is currently not known if Google Mars will become a standalone program.

NASA has made available a number of Google Earth desktop client maps for Mars at http://onmars.jpl.nasa.gov/.

Google Ride Finder

Google launched an experimental Google Maps-based tool called Ride Finder, tapping into in-car GPS units for a selection of participating taxi and limousine services. The tool displays the current location of all supported vehicles of the participating services in major US cities, including Chicago and San Francisco on a Google Maps street map.

Google Transit

In December 2005, Google launched Google Transit. This is a web application (listed in Google Labs), that plans a trip using public transportation options. Google Transit launched with support for Portland, Oregon. Information for Eugene, Oregon; Honolulu, Hawaii; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Seattle, Washington; and Tampa, Florida was added on September 27 2006, with more added since. The service calculates route, transit time and cost, and can compare the trip to one using a car.

Google My Maps

In April 2007, My Maps was a new feature added to Google"s local search maps. My Maps lets users and businesses such as weather.com and Zvents create their own map by positioning markers, polylines and polygons onto a map. The interface is a straightforward overlay on the map. A set of eighty-four pre-designed markers is available, ranging from bars and restaurants to webcam and earthquake symbols. Polyline and Polygon colour, width and opacity are selectable. Maps modified using My Maps can be saved for later viewing and made public (or marked as private), but cannot be printed.

Each element added to a My Map has an editable tag. This tag can contain text, rich text or HTML. Embeddable video and other content can be included within the HTML tag.

Upon the launch of My Maps there was no facility to embed the created maps into a webpage or blog. A few independent websites have now produced tools to let users embed maps and add further functionality to their maps. This has been resolved with version 2.78.

Google Street View

Google Street View.

On May 25 2007, Google released Street View, a new feature of Google Maps which provides 360° panoramic street-level views of Chicago, Denver, Las Vegas, Miami, New York City, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix-Tucson, Pittsburgh, Portland, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Houston, and their surrounding metropolitan areas. This feature has raised some privacy concerns, with views found to show men leaving strip clubs, protesters at an abortion clinic, sunbathers in bikinis, and other activities. Google maintains that the photos were taken from public property. Before launching the service, Google removed photos of domestic violence shelters, and allows users to flag inappropriate or sensitive imagery for Google to review and remove. The process for requesting that an image be removed is not trivial. Images of potential break-ins, sunbathers and individuals entering adult bookstores have, for example, remained active and these images have been widely republished.

Google has plans in the near future to add other U.S. cities to Street View, including Richmond, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Jacksonville and Seattle. It is not known when other parts of the U.S. and world will be included.

Google plans to eventually release street view for Canadian cities, but due to Canadian privacy laws, faces and license plates will be blurred after Canadian federal privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart raised concerns about the program breaching Canada"s privacy laws. Canadian cities that Google plans to include are: Calgary, Edmonton, Mississauga, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec, Regina, Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg

Copyright

Google Maps Terms and Conditions state that usage of material from Google Maps is regulated by Google Terms of Service and some additional restrictions. Terms and Conditions, among others, state:

For individual users, Google Maps [...] is made available for your personal, non-commercial use only. For business users, Google Maps is made available for your internal use only and may not be commercially redistributed [...]

Criticism

Street map overlays, in some areas, may not match up precisely with the corresponding satellite images. The street data may be entirely erroneous, or simply out of date:

The biggest challenge is the currency of data, the authenticity of data," said Google Earth representative Brian McLendon. In other words: The main complaints the Google guys get are "that"s not my house" and "that"s not my car." Google Maps satellite images are not in real time; they are several years old.

Restrictions have been placed on Google Maps through the apparent censoring of locations deemed potential security threats. In some cases the area of redaction is for specific buildings, but in other cases, such as Washington, DC, the restriction is to use outdated imagery. These locations are fully listed on Satellite images censored by Google Maps.

Google Street View has also gained a significant amount of controversy in the days following its release; privacy concerns have erupted due to the uncensored nature of its panoramic photographs.

Canadian driving directions where the starting address is close to the US border have recently and mysteriously switched to imperial measurements, giving all directions in feet and miles, though the rest of Canada receives directions in standard metric. There is also no option to use the metric system in the United Kingdom, despite it being used officially alongside the Imperial system.

Go to Google Maps

Google Earth

07 September 2008

Google Earth

is a virtual globe program that was originally called Earth Viewer and was created by Keyhole, Inc. It maps the earth by the superimposition of images obtained from satellite imagery, aerial photography and GIS 3D globe. It is available under three different licenses: Google Earth, a free version with limited functionality; Google Earth Plus ($20), which includes additional features; and Google Earth Pro ($400 per year), which is intended for commercial use.

Formerly known as Earth Viewer, Google Earth was developed by Keyhole, Inc., a company acquired by Google in 2004. The product, renamed Google Earth in 2005, is currently available for use on personal computers running Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, or Vista, Mac OS X 10.3.9 and above, Linux (released on June 12, 2006), and FreeBSD. In addition to releasing an updated Keyhole based client, Google also added the imagery from the Earth database to their web based mapping software. The release of Google Earth caused a more than tenfold increase in media coverage on virtual globes between 2005 and 2006, driving public interest in geospatial technologies and applications.

The viewer displays houses, the color of cars, and even the shadows of people and street signs. The degree of resolution available is based somewhat on the points of interest, but most land (except for some islands) is covered in at least 15 meters of resolution.Las Vegas, Nevada and Cambridge, Massachusetts include examples of the highest resolution, at 15 cm (6 inches). Google Earth allows users to search for addresses (for some countries only), enter coordinates, or simply use the mouse to browse to a location.

Google Earth also has digital elevation model (DEM) data collected by NASA"s Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. This means one can view the Grand Canyon or Mount Everest in three dimensions, instead of 2D like other map programs/sites. Since November 2006, the 3D views of many mountains, including Mount Everest, have been improved by the use of supplementary DEM data to fill the gaps in SRTM coverage.

Many people using the applications are adding their own data and making them available through various sources, such as the BBS or blogs mentioned in the link section below. Google Earth is able to show all kinds of images overlaid on the surface of the earth and is also a Web Map Service client. Google Earth supports managing three-dimensional Geospatial data through Keyhole Markup Language (KML).

Google Earth has the capability to show 3D buildings and structures (such as bridges), which consist of users" submissions using SketchUp, a 3D modeling program. In prior versions of Google Earth (before Version 4), 3D buildings were limited to a few cities, and had poorer rendering with no textures. Many buildings and structures from around the world now have detailed 3D structures; including (but not limited to) those in the countries, the United States, Canada, Ireland, India, Japan, United Kingdom, Germany, Pakistan and the cities, Amsterdam and Alexandria. In August 2007, Hamburg became the first city entirely shown in 3D, including textures such as facades. Three-dimensional renderings are available for certain buildings and structures around the world via Google"s 3D Warehouse and other websites.

Sky mode

In version 4.2, released August 22, 2007, Google Earth added a Sky tool for viewing stars and astronomical images. Google Sky is produced by Google through a partnership with the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, the science operations center for Hubble. Dr. Alberto Conti and his co-developer Dr. Carol Christian of the Space Telescope Science Institute, plan to add the public images from 2007,as well as color images of all of the archived data from Hubble"s Advanced Camera for Surveys. Newly released Hubble pictures will be added to the Google Sky program as soon as they are issued. New features such as multi-wavelength data, positions of major satellites and their orbits as well as educational resources will be provided to the Google Earth community and also through Christian and Conti"s website for Sky. Also visible on Sky mode are constellations, stars, galaxies and animations depicting the planets on their orbits. A real-time Google Sky mashup of recent astronomical transients, using the VOEvent protocol, is being provided by the VOEventNet collaboration.

Wikipedia and Panoramio integration

In December 2006 Google Earth added a new layer called "Geographic Web" that includes integration with Wikipedia and Panoramio. In Wikipedia, entries are scraped for coordinates via the Coord templates. If the options to show Wikipedia or Panoramio entries are selected, users will be presented with clickable dots in their current Google Earth view. When any of these dots are selected, the user will be shown the Wikipedia or Panoramio entry right in Google Earth. There is also a community-layer from the project Wikipedia-World. More coordinates are used, different types are in the display and different languages are supported than the built-in Wikipedia layer. See: *dynamic resp. static layer. Google announced on May 30, 2007 that it is acquiring Panoramio.

Influences

The Google Earth interface bears a noted similarity to the ‘Earth’ program described in Neal Stephenson’s sci-fi classic Snow Crash. Indeed, a Google Earth co-founder claimed that Google Earth was modeled after Snow Crash, while another co-founder said it was inspired by Powers of Ten.

Specifications

Coordinate System and Projection
- The internal coordinate system of Google Earth is geographic coordinates (latitude/longitude) on the World Geodetic System of 1984 (WGS84) datum.
- Google Earth shows the earth as it looks from an elevated platform such as an airplane or orbiting satellite. The projection used to achieve this effect is called the General Perspective. This is similar to the Orthographic projection, except that the point of perspective is a finite (near earth) distance rather than an infinite (deep space) distance.
Baseline resolutions
- U.S.: 15 m (some states are completely in 1 m or better)
- Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Denmark, United Kingdom, Andorra, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Vatican City: 1 m or better
- Global: Generally 15 m (some areas, such as Antarctica, are in extremely low resolution), but this depends on the quality of the satellite/aerial photograph uploaded.
Typical high resolutions
- U.S.: 1 m, 0.6 m, 0.3 m, 0.15 m (extremely rare; e.g. Cambridge and Google Campus, or Glendale)
- Europe : 0.3 m, 0.15 m (e.g. Berlin, Zürich, Hamburg)
Altitude resolution:
- Surface: varies by country
- Seabed: Not applicable (a colorscale approximating sea floor depth is "printed" on the spherical surface).
Age: Images are usually less than 3 years old. The date next to the copyright information is often cited as the date the picture was taken, but this practice is incorrect.

Google Earth is unlikely to operate on older hardware configurations. The most recent downloads available document these minimum configurations:

Pentium 3, 500 MHz
128 MB RAM
400 MB free disk space
Network speed: 128 kb/s
16MB 3D-capable graphics card
Resolution of 1024x768, 16-bit High Color
Windows XP or Windows 2000 (not Windows ME compatible), Linux, Mac OS X

The most likely mode of failure is insufficient video RAM: the software is designed to warn the user if their graphics card is not able to support Earth (this often occurs due to insufficient Video RAM or buggy graphics card drivers). The next most likely mode of failure is Internet access speed. Except for the very patient, broadband Internet (Cable, DSL, T1, etc.) is required.

Mac version

A version for Mac OS X was released on January 10 2006, and is available for download from the Google Earth website. With a few exceptions noted below, the Mac version appears to be stable and complete, with virtually all the same functionality as the original Windows version.

Screenshots and an actual binary of the Mac version had been leaked to the Internet a month previously, on December 8, 2005. The leaked version was significantly incomplete. Among other things, neither the Help menu nor its "Display License" feature worked, indicating that this version was intended for Google"s internal use only. Google released no statement regarding the leak.

Currently, the Mac version runs only under Mac OS X versions 10.4 and 10.3.9. There is no embedded browser and no direct interface to Gmail. There are a few bugs concerning the menu bar when switching between applications and a few bugs concerning annotation balloons and printing.

From version 4.1.7076.4558 (released on May 9 2007) onward, Mac OS X users can now, among other new features, upgrade to the "Plus" version via an option in the Google Earth menu.Some users reported difficulties with Google Earth crashing in the latest version when zooming in.

Linux version

Starting with the version 4 beta, Google Earth functions under Linux, as a native port using the Qt-toolkit.

Minimum System Requirements

Kernel: 2.4 or later
CPU: Pentium III, 500 MHz
System Memory (RAM): 128 MB
Hard Disk: 400 MB free space
Network Speed: 128 kbit/s
Screen: 1024x768, 16 bit color
Tested and works on the following distributions:

Ubuntu 5.10/6.06/6.10/7.04
SUSE 10.1/10.2
Fedora Core 4/5/6/7
Linspire 5.1
Gentoo 2006.0
Debian 3.1/4
Red Hat 9

Slackware 11.0
FreeBSD 6.1/7.0 with Linux Emulation
Arch Linux 0.7.2 Duke
Xandros 3.0.3 Business Edition
Mandriva 2007
Sabayon Linux 3.26
PCLinuxOS 5.0

Resolution and accuracy

The Isles of Scilly, showing the very low resolution of some islands. The islands (green area) are about 10 km across.49°56′10.81″N 6°19′22.88″W / 49.9363361, -6.3230222

The west side of Gibraltar, tilted view showing the sea rising up the Rock of Gibraltar - claimed altitude of the sea just off the beach at Elliots Memorial, 252 m. 36°6′59.6″N 5°21′5.2″W / 36.116556, -5.351444

Most land areas are covered in satellite imagery with a resolution of about 15 m per pixel. Some population centers are also covered by aircraft imagery (orthophotography) with several pixels per meter. Oceans are covered at a much lower resolution, as are a number of islands; most notably, Tórshavn, the capital of the Faroe Islands, and the Isles of Scilly off southwest England, are at a resolution of about 500 m or less. These pictures are provided by Terrametrics.

Google has resolved many inaccuracies in the vector mapping since the original public release of the software, without requiring an update to the program itself. An example of this was the absence from Google Earth"s map boundaries of the Nunavut territory in Canada, a territory that had been created on April 1 1999; this mistake was corrected by one of the data updates in early 2006. Recent updates have also increased the coverage of detailed aerial photography, particularly in certain areas of western Europe, though not including Ireland where imagery remains extremely limited.

The images are not all taken at the same time, but are generally current to within three years. Image sets are sometimes not correctly stitched together. Updates to the photographic database can occasionally be noticed when drastic changes take place in the appearance of the landscape, like for example Google Earth"s incomplete updates of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, or when placemarks appear to shift unexpectedly across the Earth"s surface. Though the placemarks have not in fact moved, the imagery is composed and stitched differently. Such an update to London"s photography in early 2006 created shifts of 15-20 metres in many areas, noticeable because the resolution is so high.

Place name and road detail vary greatly from place to place. They are most accurate in North America and Europe, but regular mapping updates are improving coverage elsewhere.

Errors sometimes occur due to the technology used to measure the height of terrain; for example, tall buildings in Adelaide cause one part of the city to be rendered as a small mountain, when it is in fact flat. The height of the Eiffel Tower creates a similar effect in the rendering of Paris. Also, elevations below sea level are presented as sea level; i.e. Salton City, California; Death Valley; and the Dead Sea are all listed as 0 ft when Salton City is approx −200 ft; Death Valley is −286 ft; and the Dead Sea is −1,378 ft.

Where no 3 arc second digital elevation data was available, the three dimensional images covering some areas of high relief are not at all accurate, but most mountain areas are now well mapped. The underlying digital elevation model has been placed 3 arc seconds too far north and up to 3 arc seconds too far west. This means that some steep mountain ridges incorrectly appear to have shadows extending over onto their south facing sides. Some high resolution images have also been misplaced, an example is the image covering Annapurna, which is misplaced by about 12 arc seconds. Elevation data was recently updated to 10-meter (1/3-arc-second) resolution for much of the United States from the previous 30-meter (1-arc-second) resolution.

The "Measure" function shows that the length of equator is about 40,030.24 km, giving an error of −0.112% compared with the actual value of 40,075.02 km Earth; for the meridional circumference, it shows a length of about 39,963.13 km, also giving an error of −0.112% compared with the actual value of 40,007.86 km.

The Arctic polar ice caps are completely absent from the current version of Google Earth, as are waves in the oceans. The geographic North Pole is found hovering over the Arctic Ocean. There is very low resolution coverage of the Antarctic continent (1m resolution images of some parts of Antarctica were added in June 2007 for the first time). The tiling system produces artifacts near the poles as the tiles become "infinitely" small and rounding errors accumulate.

Cloud cover and shadows can make it difficult or impossible to see details in some land areas, including the shadow side of mountains.

National security and privacy issues

The software has been criticized by a number of special interest groups, including national officials, as being an invasion of privacy and even posing a threat to national security. The typical argument is that the software provides information about military or other critical installations that could be used by terrorists. The following is a selection of such concerns:

    * Former Indian president APJ Abdul Kalam has expressed concern over the availability of high-resolution pictures of sensitive locations in India. Google subsequently agreed to censor such sites.
    * The Indian Space Research Organisation has said Google Earth poses a security threat to India, and seeks dialogue with Google officials.
    * The South Korean government has expressed concern that the software offers images of the presidential palace and various military installations that could possibly be used by their hostile neighbor North Korea.
    * In 2006, one user spotted a large topographical replica in a remote region of China. The model is a small-scale (1/500) version of the Karakoram Mountain Range, currently under the control of China but claimed by India. When later confirmed as a replica of this region, spectators began entertaining military implications.
    * The Area 51 base in the Nevada desert is clearly visible, with no evidence of intentional obstruction or blurring. The base"s runways and even a number of planes are visible, but sources confirm that the government has knowledge of all nearby photography satellites, and personnel are instructed to cover any vital technology and stay within the buildings at all times when one is within range.
    * Morocco"s main Internet provider Maroc Telecom has been blocking Google Earth since August 2006 without giving any justification for it.
    * Operators of the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in Sydney, New South Wales asked Google to censor high resolution pictures of the facility. However, they later withdrew the request.

    * In July 2007, it was reported that a new Chinese navy Jin-class nuclear ballistic missile submarine was photographed at the Xiaopingdao Submarine Base south of Dalian.

Blurred out image of the Royal Stables in The Hague, Netherlands.

Some citizens may express concerns over aerial information depicting their properties and residences being disseminated freely. As relatively few jurisdictions actually guarantee the individual"s right to privacy, as opposed to the state"s right to secrecy, this is an evolving, but minor, point. Perhaps aware of these critiques, for a time, Google had Area 51 (which is highly visible and easy to find) in Nevada as a default placemark when Google Earth is first installed.

As a result of pressure from the United States government, the residence of the Vice President at Number One Observatory Circle is obscured through pixelization in Google Earth and Google Maps. The usefulness of this downgrade is questionable, as high-resolution photos and aerial surveys of the property are readily available on the Internet elsewhere. Capitol Hill used to also be pixelized in this way but this was lifted.

Critics have expressed concern over the willingness of Google to cripple their dataset to cater to special interests, believing that intentionally obscuring any land goes against its stated goal of letting the user "point and zoom to any place on the planet that you want to explore".

Google Earth Community

The Google Earth Community is an online forum which is dedicated to producing placemarks of interesting or educational perspectives. It may be found on the Google Earth webpage or under the Help section on the program itself. After downloading a placemark, it will automatically run Google Earth (if not opened), and fly to the area specified by the person who placed it. Once there, you can add it to your "My Places" by right clicking on the icon and selecting "Save to My Places". Additionally, anyone can post a placemark for others to download; as long as you have an account.

Google earth also can be used to locate "disasters". Currently a user can find these items within the google earth community. An example is a capsized ship off the shore (69°15′32.22″N 33°14′17.11″E / 69.25895, 33.2380861 (GE Community: Capsized ship)) or a burning car, on A3 autobahn near Gieslenberg, N of Leverkusen, Germany (51°4′47.04″N 6°59′17.77″E / 51.0797333, 6.9882694 (GE Community: Burning car)).

Copyright

Currently, every image created from Google Earth using satellite data provided by Google Earth is a copyrighted map. Any derivative from Google Earth is made from copyrighted data which, under United States Copyright Law, may not be used except under the licenses Google provides. Google allows non-commercial personal use of the images (e.g. on a personal website or blog) as long as copyrights and attributions are preserved. By contrast, images created with NASA"s globe software World Wind using Blue Marble, Landsat or USGS layer, each of which is a terrain layer in the public domain. Works created by an agency of the United States government are public domain at the moment of creation. This means that those images can be freely modified, re-distributed and used for commercial purposes.

Google Earth Plus

Google Earth can be upgraded to a "Plus" edition for a $20 annual subscription fee. Google Earth Plus is an individual-oriented paid subscription upgrade to Google Earth and adds the following features:

    * GPS integration: read tracks and waypoints from a GPS device. A variety of third party applications have been created which provide this functionality using the basic version of Google Earth by generating KML or KMZ files based on user-specified or user-recorded waypoints. However, Google Earth Plus provides direct support for the Magellan and Garmin product lines, which together hold a large share of the GPS market. The Linux version of the Google Earth Plus application does not include any GPS functionality.
    * Higher resolution printing.
    * Customer support via email.
    * Data importer: read address points from CSV files; limited to 100 points/addresses. A feature allowing path and polygon annotations, which can be exported to KML, was formerly only available to Plus users, but was made free in version 4.0.2416.
    * Higher data download speeds

Google Earth Pro

For a $400 annual subscription fee, Google Earth Pro is a business-oriented upgrade to Google Earth that has more features than the "Plus" version. The Pro version includes add-on software such as:

    * Movie making.
    * GIS data importer.
    * Advanced printing modules.

These used to cost extra in addition to the $400 fee but have recently been included in the package.
Flight Simulator

In Google Earth v4.2, a flight simulator was included as a hidden feature.

    * Google Earth Flight Simulator Controls

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