Earlier this week we had a look at how long it takes Google to process and release 3D imagery. For a few locations, we looked at the dates the imagery was captured as well as the dates that it was first discovered in Google Earth.
Now, GEB reader Anton Rudolfsson, who has been assisting us by delineating newly found 3D areas for our KML map, has also taken the trouble of tracking down the dates for the various 3D releases and categorizing all the areas by release date. So as of today, our KML file
includes the option to see the areas either categorized by country or by date discovered.
There are three regions that Anton was unable to track down the dates for: Hollister, El Centro and Truckee, all in California. So if any of our readers know approximately when these were first spotted in Google Earth, please let us know in the comments.
Colour coded regions by date discovered – Europe. White is oldest, Red is newest.
Colour coded regions by date discovered – North America. White is oldest, Red is newest.
About Timothy Whitehead
Timothy has been using Google Earth since 2004 when it was still called Keyhole before it was renamed Google Earth in 2005 and has been a huge fan ever since. He is a programmer working for Red Wing Aerobatx and lives in Cape Town, South Africa.
This was a fantastic update .For some reason an area north of New York city is marked white even though its from 2014.
Thank you for letting us know. I have fixed it.
Cool new feature. By the way, the northern area of Tokyo was released after the initial Tokyo release. I don’t know if you still have the data to fix that though.
It’s ok, but better if you could just left the borders marked, not all the surface of the 3D areas, because you can’t see it with all that orange “sea”. Anyway, great job!
Good to know about this update.. I am still hoping to see the world more with 3D Imagery 🙂
Why poland are not?
Hi – i think color coding the border might be better than obscuring the imagery with polygon fill.
Also probably want to pick easily differentiated colors – maybe check out http://colorbrewer2.org/
Will probably need an onscreen legend so we know which year is which color.
This is really cool effort. Thanks everyone!
Andrew | eResearch | Uni of Western Sydney
Thank you for the suggestions. I have implemented them.
The places list needs at least country id, otherwise, there’s lots of different places with the same name, both in the same and different countries.
Hello,
Today I stumbled at your blog first time when I am searching about 3D Imagery timeline how we will know. I am really happy after finding your blog.
Thanks for posting:)
Regards,
Mazid Umar
Austin has updated recently, at least downtown.
Montreal updated to Sept. 2014
Brighton and Hove in the UK are now 3D. Very impressive – check out the ferris wheel on the sea front.