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January 25, 2008
New Layer Goodness for Google Earth - January 2008
Today Google Earth got some substantial new layer updates. A quick summary of the updates are (read further for more details on where to find these):
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New roads layers for 26 countries!
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2 million new photos to the Panoramio layer
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A substantially updated Earthquake layer, and link to the USGS Earthquake monitoring tool
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National Geographic Magazine articles for three more continents
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Other Regularly Updated Layers
For more details on what was updated and where to find them, keep reading below.
Details about some of these updates were posted at the Google LatLong blog today. But, I've got some other interesting information they failed to point out.
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New road layers - here's a list of the 26 countries added: Russia, Malaysia, Thailand, Aruba, Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, St. Kitts and Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Place names in Taiwan, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and Turkey. The roads will be labeled in their local language. Bodies of water will be labeled in the language you have Google Earth set to.
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2 million new photos - Read all the details about the Panoramio layer update here.
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Updated Earthquake Layer - Some of you may not have been aware that under the "Places of Interest" layer folder there is a folder called "Geographic Features" and under that layer is an "Earthquake" layer. This layer presents historic earthquake epicenters of magnitudes greater than 3 for the entire world over the last 40 years. Google has updated the layer substantially (with help from the USGS), and not only that - the placemarks in this layer now link to the USGS Real-time Earthquake Monitoring network link (which I've written about many times).
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National Geographic Magazine - If you turn on the layer: "Gallery->National Geographic Magazine", you now get placemarks for three new continents: Europe, Asia, and South America. These placemarks point to locations of stories from the magazines many years of publication. The placemark descriptions show photos and snippets to the article and provide links to their web site for more on each story. Great stuff!
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Other updated layer - Google doesn't say it in their post, but they also update regularly many other layers like those found under the Geographic Web layer like the "Best of GEC" posts, and the "Wikipedia" layer. Not only that, but the YouTube layer is updating every day with videos which have been geotagged at that site! If you haven't checked out the "Gallery->YouTube" layer lately - check it out again. There's thousands of new videos in the layer since the last time you looked! Personally, I think this layer should be made part of the Geographic Web layer. It's a perfect fit.
Posted by FrankTaylor at January 25, 2008 03:48 PM
Comments
Posted by: Sam at January 25, 2008 05:00 PM
I check out the YouTube layer frequently, and ironically, I've been thinking it should be moved to Geographic Web layer as well. In my opinion, they should also put a News layer in that section, to make it more worth checking out (not that it isn't already worth a look).
Posted by: Roy at January 26, 2008 10:16 AM
Thailand roads (finally!) aren't labeled in the local language, which is strange; because they are on Google Maps.
Posted by: Ick of the East at January 27, 2008 06:32 AM
Also Poland borders layer has been updated and now shows powiats' borders (one administrative level lower than voivodeships).
Posted by: Dawid H. at January 27, 2008 08:37 AM
When roads in Argentina?
Posted by: ediz at January 28, 2008 08:19 AM
agreed with Sam, i've noticed it too. i wonder is there will be a new GE version to fix it? looks like it has happened because of increased placenames localisation.
Posted by: ACiD at January 28, 2008 10:43 AM
yeah... Long awaited Argentina roads layer!, I wonder if there is any kind of issue preventing more layers for Argentina... I'll keep waiting, I trust Google guys! Keep going with the great job!
Posted by: guille at January 28, 2008 01:09 PM
Thank each an every one of you at Google!
I LOVE all of you.
Google is my sanity
my outlet
my hope
the MOST time spent on any one thing other than work and sleep
They could take away Beef and I would be ok as long as I have google
Take away sex, Yes I'll be ok as long as I have google ( hey I am nearly 60 don't get any anyway)
I have a confession: I have never been hooked on much of anything, drugs or otherwise. But Please
DO NOT EVER EVER EVER EVER TAKE AWAY MY GOOGLE.
Thank you sooooooooooooo much for listening.
Posted by: Brian Kenward at January 29, 2008 09:59 PM
I may have missed it, but it would be helpful to be able to determine the resolution of photography at each geographical area being viewed. I'm fascinated that in Uroguay, I can view down to about '1000ft' and see actual vehicles, while in the good old USA, Boone County IL, I can barely make out my house at '10000ft'.
Posted by: eddie walls at February 6, 2008 05:26 PM
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NOTE: Please use English. Comments are moderated.
There is a bug in this new layers update.
Placemarks of the layer "Populated Places" doesn't show informations like population and State/Country any more.