Google Earth Blog

The amazing things about Google Earth


Mickey Mellen

How to remove imagery from Street View

We get a few emails every week from people asking how they can get their image removed from Google Street View, so we thought we’d discuss it here. Thankfully, it’s a fairly simple process.

As you likely know, Google automatically blurs any faces or license plate numbers that appear in the imagery, as seen here:

street view blur

However, sometimes a face will be missed or you’ll have some other reason to request that an image be removed. The steps are as follows:

  1. Locate the image in Street View.
  2. Click “Report a problem” in the bottom-right of the image window.
  3. Complete the form and click “Submit”.

That’s it! They’ll review your report and take appropriate action. You can use a similar technique in Google Maps to help update the map if you see any incorrect information (misspelled street names, etc).

For more, check out the privacy section on the Google Street View website.

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.

Mapping the 2014 Tour de France

As he’s done for a few years in a row (2013, 2012, 2011), Dennis at CyclingTheAlps.com has built some great tools to help track the Tour de France in Google Earth.

tour de france 2014

Each course features a map overview, elevation profile, and a 3D tour. Check it all out for yourself at https://www.cyclingthealps.com/#tour-de-france-2014-stages. The race starts on July 5, be sure to keep an eye on Cycling the Alps to see what the riders are up against at each stage.

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.

Google I/O begins today

Google I/O, the company’s annual conference, begins today in San Francisco. There’s no word if we’ll see anything for Google Earth unveiled, but Google Maps will certainly have a solid presence. From the Google Geo Developers blog:

Google I/O starts tomorrow, and as always, Google Maps is a big part of the show. The team has been working hard to give developers a great experience. We’re looking forward to seeing you there, or your comments online on our videos. There will be lots of maps engineers, developer relations team members, product managers and more around I/O. So if you’re there, find us, say hi and show us your apps!

In their post yesterday, Mano Marks laid out the four different Maps-related sessions that will be offered this year at I/O. He also showed off a new video they’ve released, titled “Map Up your Apps!”, encouraging mobile app developers to integrate Google Maps.

The four Maps-focused sessions sound interesting, and we’ll certainly keep you posted on any Google Earth news that comes out of I/O.

Will any of you be in attendance at I/O?

(via Google Geo Developers blog)

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.

Sharing adventure trek plans with Google Earth

Private Expeditions is a company founded by Paul and Jane Deakin, that takes people to some of the largest mountains around the world, such as Kilimanjaro, Everest and Machu Picchu, for private expeditions. They’ve recently added narrated videos that heavily feature Google Earth imagery to help show details of each of their routes. A great example is this route map of Mera Peak in Nepal:

From their press release:

The popular company recently launched 3D videos of all its trekking routes. These high-quality videos use Google Earth technology to show potential hikers the exact trails they will take when traveling with Private Expeditions. With a concise narration, graphic trail designation, and added photos of climbing conditions, the 3D videos give viewers a sense of where they are headed when choosing a particular route.

It’s a great use of Google Earth and an excellent way to help show this kind of information. I would hope that they’d release this data in a format that you can explore on your own, such as a KML, but for now it’s simply embedded in their videos.

Learn more and see the videos for yourself at PrivateExpeditions.com.

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.

The 2014 World Cup Stadiums in Google Earth

The 2014 World Cup is well underway, being played in 12 beautiful stadiums across Brazil. All 12 stadiums have awesome 3D models in Google Earth, so we thought we’d show them off to you. Here is an example of a model in Google Earth; this is Arena de São Paulo, located in São Paulo, Brazil.

sao paulo arena

The other stadiums look equally amazing, many of which seemed to have been auto-generated using Google’s 3D Imagery technique. We’ve put together a Google Earth KML file for you to download, that will fly you directly to each of the 12 stadiums so you can view them for yourself. Grab the file here and have fun exploring!

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.