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March 10, 2010
Use StreetView to make Points of Interest more precise
For a long time now, my biggest complaint about the points of interest (restaurants, car dealers, etc) in Google Earth and Google Maps was that they weren't accurate enough. They were close, but not precise. Google has already provided tools to help place markers more accurately, but now you can use StreetView to put them right on the buildings!
The process is quite simple. First, click on a marker, then click "more", then click "Move marker", as seen below:
After you do that, you'll be presented with a split screen. Move the marker on the map or in the StreetView window to place it as accurately as possible.
Be sure to save you changes and you're done! Over time, this will help to make the layers in Google Earth considerably more accurate.
In a sad twist of fate, we've also learned that Google may stop updating their StreetView imagery in Europe. Google and the European Union continue to disagree on the length of time that Google should hold the unblurred imagery in storage, which has lead Google's Michael Jones to say:
"I think we would consider whether we want to drive through Europe again, because it would make the expense so draining," Michael Jones, Google's chief technology advocate and founder of Google Earth, said in an interview at the Cebit Technology Fair in Hanover.
At this point it seems unlikely that Google would stop capturing StreetView imagery over there, but the possibility now exists that they might.
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Posted by mickmel at March 10, 2010 8:06 AM
Comments
Posted by: Kevin at March 10, 2010 10:15 AM
Interesting. Some of the businesses in my area have "move marker" grayed out, so I couldn't attempt to fix the wrong ones. Curiously, while in overhead-map view, some markers are in the wrong spots, if you go to StreetView, they ARE in the right spots. An odd disconnect.
I did find two places that allowed me to use the "move marker," but after I selected "save," the markers bounced back to its original place. I'll check later if anything was changed.
Posted by: Stuart Goldman at March 10, 2010 10:30 AM
I have the same problem with the move function grayed out. Why is that? Does anyone know? I know I could help out alot for my area.
Posted by: Ed at March 10, 2010 12:31 PM
Anyone have any idea what the trigger for enabling/disabling the Move Marker and Edit commands actually are? I get these items (neatly localized into Dutch even), but never saw them anything else than disabled no matter where I tried.
Posted by: peSHIr at March 10, 2010 2:38 PM
So far, it looks like the Move Marker feature is only enabled in the My Maps section.
Posted by: Chack at March 12, 2010 9:37 PM
Same problem here. I want to move, or delete, or report a problem, but these options are greyed out.
Posted by: Martin at April 9, 2010 2:37 PM
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They gave in so easily with many things in the existing Streetview that in many places it's really choppy and useless with big gaps etc.
There are so many places that they could cover if this does happen though. Already the National Trust has allowed them to use the trikes to go around some of their stately homes. There is certainly a large range of privately owned/run places that could be covered this way.