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):
- 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.
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.