It’s been quite a day for Google Earth. First they announced their one billionth download (which we’ll discuss more tomorrow), and now it seems that they’ve released a fairly substantial imagery update. Thanks to GEB reader ‘Andreas’ for being the first to let us know about it.
As is usually the case, you can use Google Maps to determine for sure whether or not a specific area is fresh. This new imagery isn’t in Google Maps yet, so you can compare Earth vs. Maps to see what’s new; the fresh imagery is already in Google Earth, but the old imagery is still in Google Maps. If you compare the two side-by-side and they’re not identical, that means that you’ve found a freshly updated area in Google Earth!
[UPDATED - 5-October, 3:03pm EST]
- Germany: Kiel — thanks ‘Munden’
- Greece: Vrontamas — thanks ‘Andreas’
- Spain: Castellar de Santiago, Villanueva de los Infantes — thanks ‘Andreas’
- United States: Colorado (Durango), Iowa (Mason City), Kansas (Salina), Montana (Great Falls), Oregon (Burns, Eugene, Warm Springs), Texas (Dumas), Utah (Logan), Washington (Walla Walla), Wyoming (Gillette) — thanks ‘Andreas’
If you find any other updated areas, please leave a comment and let us know!
About Mickey Mellen
Mickey has been using Google Earth since it was released in 2005, and has created a variety of geo-related sites including Google Earth Hacks. He runs a web design firm in Marietta, GA, where he lives with his wife and two kids.
Germany: Area around Kiel (they left Kiel with the higher resolution, but older imagery)
I don’t see an update on Dodge City, Kansas. I see imagery from an update not too long ago.
-Gillette,Wyoming
-Durango,Colorado
-Mason City,Iowa
-Salina,Kansas
-Logan,Utah
Kursk oblast, Russia
Vrontamas – Greece
Castellar de Santiago – Spain
Villanueva de los Infantes – Spain
Heiligenhafen, Germany is also updated.
The new imagery for the city of Kiel will most likely be visible in the historical imagery once the KML is updated, just as it happened with all the other major German cities which still have high-res imagery from AeroWest as the main layer but the new updates in the historical imagery. Hopefully thats also what happenes in Bremen and Bremerhaven, because once they’re updated the whole country of Germany will have received new imagery over the last three updates.
North shore of Auckland, New Zealand, was updated a week ago. Don’t recall hearing of any others that day.
Romania – south-east of Vaslui county (Banca, Șuletea, Epureni, Găgești, Dodești, Giurcani and more).
Santiago, Chile (August 11, 2011)
Greenland has been updated.
Singapore, Singapore (October 19, 2009)
Southern part of the Danish island Romo and down to the German island Sylt has been updated.
Japan: Sotogahama, Rumoi, Nosegawa, Totsukawa
USA:
Alabama: Birmingham
Tennessee: Nashville, Memphis, Jackson
USA:
California: Lucerne
Cluj-Napoca,Romania.
Spokane, WA U.S.A.
Lausanne, Switzerland
They’ve already updated the KML. That was fast.
you guys need to update southwest Bakersfield, Ca. theres been a lot of construction. Theres a mall behind my house that wasnt there and a new freeway that doesnt show….lots of construction! Fix it please, even a main Avenue and numerous 4 lane roads aren’t on google earth……
Livingstone, Zambia
Meridian and Boise, ID