[UPDATE Oct 24: – Yesterday Google posted another series of riddles suggesting some of the locations. Today they not only provided the answers, they also provided a complete list of all the major locations with new imagery. Look at the bottom of this post for the full list. I’m very glad to see Google post a more complete list of imagery updates. The recent trend of doing riddles is fun, but give us the full information and we are more likely to look at places with new data.]
A bunch of new imagery for Google Earth has been released. This came to my attention courtesy of an E-mail from GEB reader Artak in Germany. No word yet from Google on the official list, but here is a summary of places found so far (the list started by folks at the KugelErde.de – German Google Earth forum, others added as reports come in – and as I find them):
- Germany – Wilhelmshaven, Hamburg, Lübeck, Travemünde, Timmendorfer Strand, Münster, Magdeburg, Chemnitz, Stuttgart, Rostock, Erfurt, Freiburg, Saarbrücken, Sylt, Aurich, Wiesmor, Mellum, Wangerooge, Spiekeroog, Langeoog, Norderney, Juist, Memmert, Borkum, Wiesmoor
- Netherlands
- Yerevan, Armenia
- Tunisia
- Syria
- Oregon, USA
- Marshall Islands, French Polynesia
- North Carolina, USA joins the list of entire state coverage with high resolution imagery
- At least portions of Puerto Rico are updated – the blimp has moved.
- Leeds, UK
- Reykjavik, Iceland
- Derby, England
- Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and substantial portions of Pennsylvania
- Niagara Falls, New York
Also, according to GEB reader Dan Saxton, Canada has much better 3D terrain now.
This is the second imagery update in October. A highly unusual occurrence. Usually it’s about 60 days between imagery updates.
About Frank Taylor
Frank Taylor started the Google Earth Blog in July, 2005 shortly after Google Earth was first released. He has worked with 3D computer graphics and VR for many years and was very impressed with this exciting product. Frank completed a 5.5 year circumnavigation of the earth by sailboat in June 2015 which you can read about at Tahina Expedition, and is a licensed pilot, backpacker, diver, and photographer.
Good news! but i’m waiting for a update of Spain 🙁
Please also note that much of PA has high-res imagery now, most notably the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area, which has long been ignored till now.
Also, check out Canada! They’ve updated their 3D terrain and what used to be the worst 3D in the world is now vastly improved! Vancouver, BC mtns are especially impressive.
Looks like PA got updated
The Reykjavík update has old pictures 🙁
I checked lots of spots in the Netherlands. The imagery is the same, but the colors/contrast has been changed. Untill today in Amsterdam there were parts in different contrast. Now all of the Netherlands has the same colors (gamma, contrast, how do I say it in English…).
And honestly: it looks great!
But I’m a little disappointed that there still is no high-res imagery for Slovenia, one of the most beautiful countries in Europe…
Only the capital Ljubljana is in high-res, the coastal area and a few other spots, but most of the country is in poor low-res quality…
The new imagery for Derby, England is very recent it seems 🙂 I haven’t been there for a few months and from what I can see of the construction of the new shopping centre/mall it looks like I saw it, don’t think it can be more than 4-5 months old, which is always nice to see 🙂
STILL no update for Hamilton/Cambridge region of New Zealand. This has been the lowest quality since GE started! I wanna see my house! 😛
I agree that Reykjavik is an older image cleaned up. No imagary for Ireland, Scotland, Isle of Man, but I think Swansea Wales gets new images.
Maybe I never noticed before, But Tunisia is all CNES/spot image. Syria got a cnes/spot update too (although not clear enough to see recent Attack). Cyprus get full coverage too.
WHYYYYYYY won’t they update Scotland? *sob* There are clouds over all the places I want to look at!
Not sure if your list entry of Niagara Falls is supposed to refer to the picture posted, but if so, the Horseshoe Falls lie in Ontario, Canada, not New York as the list says. The American Falls are northeast of the Canadian falls, past Luna Island.
Blah. The picture of my house is still at least four years old.
Looks like there has been NO update to any of Australia this time around. 🙁
I just found that Cuyahoga County, OH has been updated with new imagery. It appears to be high res now, which is great.
Google Earth, if you are reading this, would you please provide a 3-D image for Iguasu Falls? They are beautiful.
I can’t tell if my area has been upadated, by the looks of the image, it hasn’t. Anyone know how you can tell if an area has been updated?
The 9th clue, “9) You can tour the Royal Navy’s first iron-hulled, armor-plated warship in this town.” refers to the imagery update for Portsmouth, UK, not Leeds UK, as stated.
Except Leeds, Plymouth – UK was also updated, but it does not appear in the list of updated locations. :-/
This city and some of the surrounding area, is changing fast.
Lebanon now has full coverage
I feel very disappointing about the very low resolution coverage of the most beautiful country in the world : Ireland. And it’s always the same thing after each update. Scotland is in the same problem.
However, the progressive coverage of US State (Oregon, North Carolina this time), it’s a good news.
The google maps of Belfast (Ireland) are about 6 years old. Is there a definitive list of all map updates?
Still no decent resolution for the vast majority of Scotland! This is beginning to get tiresome.
Adonet is waiting for an “update” of Spain, how lucky you are to be in that position. I am waiting for initial basic coverage of Ireland, even the greater dublin area would be nice (40% of the total population live in Dublin and the three surrounding rural counties). I thought Dublin was supposed to be the second biggest google centre on the planet. Dont get me wrong all the extra content features are superb but the 99% quality shot of west dublin taken in april 2007 should be a priority release even just to put Google on par with yahoo maps. The release of coverage for Navan and Drogheda just north of Dublin in the summer is appreciated.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh…give us some denver and the foothills.
please.
New Imagery for Exeter and East Devon also Portsmouth and Chatam areas.
A large part of Mediterranean coast of France (Languedoc-Roussillon Coast and Camargue) has new imagery 🙂
The imagery for the Netherlands, like a previous poster said, is indeed exactly the same as it was before, except that they give all the different patches more or less the same color sceme, which is quite amazing actually; and it looks a lot fresher than before, the greens are greener and the water is much blueer. Still, most of the imagery is already two years old, I hope all the work they put in this face-lift doesn’t mean we’ll have to wait much longer for a real update.
“2) Every year, this city plays host to the U.K.’s largest outdoor (temporary) ice rink”
Think thats Leicester… atleast the Leicestershire images have been updated.
What about central Poland? Lodz aglomeration (1 million residents) has no high-res coverage. Even yahoo maps has it.
It’s wonderful how more and more regions are updated and I am extremely grateful for the fact google earth exists, but it’s a shame vienna, austria a rapidly growing city with a populatin of about 2 million still has imagery of at least 2003 with clouds all over and hasn’t been updated since septemer 2005 (that update was the one which made everything worse). PLEASE Google Earth, why do you update germany but leave out its wealthier (and more beuatiful ;)) also geman speaking nighbouring country austria?
Where is this “Castilla (Colombia)” that they refer to in the updates?
For what its worth, the approximately seven year old image of Sedgefield has been updated with something very recent.
Excellent new images of places like Portsmouth in England, but why is most of the magnificent terrains of Wales and Scotland, aside from new images of Edinburgh, still at low resolution? Are there problems over copyright or royalties with government agencies or commercial publishers?
I wonder when are they going to update more than 6 years old imagery of Chicago, IL?
Lithuania’s maps haven’t been updated for years 🙁
Vilnius’s imagery is 5years old!!! 🙁
Well it looks like for once I’m the one happy with the update and everyone else isn’t!
Been waiting YEARS for Pennsylvania. Thanks, Google — I would have probably had an aneurysm if the poor state was passed up yet again 😉
El Paso still isn’t updated
The Imagery is almost 6 years old
Unfortunately imagery of Singapore has gone backwards.
http://www.singeo.com.sg/?p=170
Finally we can see the Neuschwanstein castle!
There still is a very small part of southern Germany not in high-res.
Why is it that the pictures are over four years old when will it all be updated.
I’m not happy with the new imagery of the Netherlands. Although the contrast is better and the zoomed-out map doesn’t look like patchwork anymore, zoomed-in the resolution is worse than the previous imagery.
Has the Las Vegas coverage gotten worse?
Well, they have replaced the 3″ resolution imagery with some new aerial imagery. The new stuff is very good quality, but more like 6″ resolution. It also has more shadows than the earlier stuff. But, the new imagery is newer and you can see more new casinos under construction.
Reykjavik is obviously old imagery. Same road constructions going on as last time. Resolution the same. Your information must be wrong.
Do you have any way of comparing before-and-after images after imagery updates?
I noticed that downtown Detroit Michigan has been up dated with new imagery and last I checked, it hasn’t been uploaded to google maps yet.
Sweet! They finally updated Atlanta!
Poor old Scotland has yet to get a major update.
The West Coast and the Hebrides would benefit.
Good news, But I’m waiting for updates for Manila, Apalit (in Pampanga) and the rest of the Philippines. Please!!!!
The maps on the niagara region of Ontario Canada and the overview images of the terrain are over 5 years old. Very very disappointing, I would have thought that google earth would have been updated by now with new terrain images. Life advances quickly on this planet but google does not.
….:(…. Some southern parts of India…(Especially Parts of kerala) are not imaged properly…
I am disapointed that Carmarthenshire in Wales (UK) is very low resolution. I wonder when this will be rectified.
Does anyone know why the UK high res stops at the England -Scotland border?
Wow. Almost all the areas I’ve looked at seem to have degraded imagery compared to when I last looked. I can understand the desire to update and provide more recent imagery. I also understand the need to degrade imagery of politically or militarily sensitive locations, but sometimes older, higher-resolution imagery is a damn sight more interesting and/or useful when there are no security implications.
Sorry but the images of parts of Scotland (Perthshire etc) are TERRIBLE and have been for EONS. Can you PLEASE PLEASE find a resolution (LOL) for this.
Andy Brown.
When Street View will be Available for Leicester?????
Please do let me know!
I was so excited when this improvement came out! Like Dan said, Google finally showed wilkes barre some love. first thing I did was look up my office building (http://cititowerwb.com/) lol
Why is southren Scotland such poor resolution?
when the rest of the UK is good?
Is there any plans to increase resolution on my favorite part of the world?