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June 21, 2006
New Satellite Data Now in Google Maps Too
The huge database update for Google Earth, which was first reported here at Google Earth Blog on 9-June, has now migrated to the Google Maps! At the Google Geo Developer Day, Google announced that this database update included nearly 4 times the amount of aerial/satellite photos, and now covers 1/3 of the world's population. Here's Google's official announcement on the new data. So, if your house wasn't previously found in Google Earth/Maps, you might want to check again! See also story at GoogleMapsMania. Here's the location in the photo of Simpson Bay, St. Martin viewable in Google Earth 
or in Google Maps.
From my original story, here's some of the places updated: Russia, China, Africa, Taiwan, USA, Canada, Bermuda, the Caribbean Islands, many islands in the Pacific, Puerto Rico, South America, New Zealand, Australia, etc., etc.
Posted by FrankTaylor at June 21, 2006 8:18 AM
Comments
Posted by: Andrew at June 21, 2006 4:09 PM
It's especially annoying when the updates replace previous versions of a map which *didn't* have clouds. I'd personally rather have an older non-clouded satellite image than an updated image in which half of the landforms/topography can't be seen due to cloud cover.
Posted by: Christopher J B Scholten at July 31, 2006 4:36 PM
On that note, Google Earth replaced a great, recent, high res image of the central 80% of Winnipeg in the summer, with an older image of the entire city in the fall (some of it under cloud cover). Now, a few key buildings, bridges, and roads are no longer in the image.
Couldn't the good people at Google have just replaced the low res parts?
Posted by: Basil at September 28, 2006 6:56 PM
Yea...and most of my country (Belize, C.A.) is covered by clouds... can't see sh**.
Posted by: Anthony Borland at April 24, 2008 10:49 AM
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I haven't seen any improvement to Canadian satellite images. Of Canada's major cities, Toronto is dull and has cloudy spots, Ottawa has a cloud over downtown, Montreal has a lot of clouds, and Calgary has a misaligned downtown. Only Vancouver has images of a quality which I would call good, although all of the above cities have "high resolution" imagery. I wish that Google Maps would replace the imagery of Canada's major cities with cloud-free, high-resolution imagery. Surely Toronto, Canada's largest city, deserves the beautiful ultra-high-resolution imagery that New York and Paris have already!