Google Earth Blog

The amazing things about Google Earth


GEB FAQ

Adding pictures to Street View

This is part of a series of posts expanding on our Google Earth Blog FAQ.

We get quite a lot of email along the lines of: “Our business / rental property / property for sale is shown in Street View when it was under construction / being renovated and we feel this is negatively impacting us. Please update the Street View.” Google, however, does not capture Street View on demand and for good reason – they would be inundated with requests. But there is nothing stopping you from adding your own pictures to Google Maps and Google Earth and in most situations they will be treated with a greater priority than Street View imagery.

If you already have some good photos of the location, you can easily add them with Google Maps. Simply open the location in the Google Maps side panel either by searching for it or clicking on the place marker. Next, click ‘Add a Photo’ which appears both in the sidebar and as the last item in the list of photos. You can then upload your photo. Google Maps then shows a notice saying your photo will soon be available to be seen by the public. We assume that there is some sort of verification process to ensure that unsuitable photos are not displayed.

We found that you cannot add photos by this method to locations that do not already have markers.


Select a marker on the map (1) and then click ‘Add a Photo’ (either (2) or (3)

An alternative method is to use a smart phone and Google’s Street View app (Android iPhone). This will allow you to take panoramic photos and upload them to Street View with ease. Be sure to turn on your GPS for proper georeferencing. We believe that photos uploaded this way do not need to be attached to a placemark.

For more advanced options see this page from Google which also includes this interesting YouTube video, which has some interesting information about the trekker and how Street View is captured with it.

Correcting map data – claiming ownership of your business

This is part of a series of posts expanding on our Google Earth Blog FAQ. Yesterday we looked at how to make minor corrections to placemarks, such as moving misplaced placemarks, adding or correcting the information displayed or removing a placemark.

Today we are looking what to do if you own a business or are a person in authority relating to another type of placemark, such as a school or museum. As we said yesterday, Google Maps is the primary source of mapping data for Google Earth, so what we are talking about today must primarily be done in Google Maps.

Note also that some of the processes we are talking about today are only available in some countries. This relates to which countries currently have Google Map Maker or coverage by Google’s Ground Truth project. We found that you cannot add new placemarks in Zambia at present but you can claim an existing business. In South Africa, you can both create new placemarks and claim a business, but Map Maker is currently disabled there – but it is covered by the Ground Truth project. Both countries have had Map Maker enabled in the past and are waiting for Regional Leads to be appointed.

First of all, check whether or not there is already a placemark in Google Maps for your business. If you do not see a marker on the map, double-check by searching for your business name, as quite often markers are misplaced and it is preferable to correct the location of an existing marker, rather than create a duplicate. If you are sure there is no existing marker simply click on the location where your business is and Google Maps will show a small popup with the address.

Once you have located or created a placemark, open it in the sidebar, either by searching for it or clicking on it. You should then see ‘Claim this business’ as one of the options in the sidebar. If you do not see it then it is most likely that someone else has already claimed it.

Click on the ‘Claim this business’ link and it will open Google My Business.

Click “Get started”. You are then asked to confirm that you are authorised to manage the business and agree to the terms of service. If you are authorised and do agree to the terms then tick it and click continue. This will create a Google+ page which is tied to the placemark and used to manage the information displayed in the placemark. If you do not have a Google account you may require one.

We will not go further into the details of how to manage if from there as it is fairly straight forward and does have help pages if you need it. One important task you must carry out is to verify you own the business. This is done by Google sending a postcard to your address with a special code on it which you then enter into Google My Business. This can be a problem in countries like Zambia where the postal system is somewhat unreliable and some places do not have a postal address nor delivery to a street address.

There are a number of advantages to claiming ownership of a business placemark. First of all, it gives you more control over the data that is displayed and also prevents other people from making malicious changes to the data. It also gives you the opportunity to respond to user reviews.

Correcting map data – placemarks

Back in July last year we wrote a Google Earth Blog FAQ to try and answer some of the most common questions we receive via email. One of the questions we answered was about making corrections to mapping data. This post is intended to be a more detailed look at how to get corrections made to mapping data. In this post we will look specifically at the placemarks and even more specifically the easiest ways to update placemarks. In later posts we will look at other ways to update placemarks and other types of mapping data such as roads, road names and addresses and borders.

The first thing to note is that the primary source of mapping data is Google Maps. This data is replicated from Google Maps to Google Earth somewhat infrequently. So, the first thing to do when you notice an error in a Google Earth placemark is to find it in Google Maps and check whether or not it has already been corrected in Maps. If it has been corrected then you don’t need to do anything further and it should get replicated to Google Earth at some point.

The first step in correcting placemark errors is to open Google Maps and either click on the placemark or search for it in the search bar. The place should then be opened in the side bar on the left as seen below:

  1. The placemark is incorrectly placed in the centre of a crossroads.
  2. Clicking on the placemark or searching for it in the search bar opens it in the side panel.
  3. Click “Suggest an edit” in the side panel.

We found that in some countries (Zambia, for example) the “Suggest an edit” link is not shown. We believe that this is because Zambia does not yet have a Regional Lead for the Google Map Maker program. We will discuss Map Maker more in a later post. If you do not see the “Suggest an edit” link in your area then there is not a lot you can do to correct map data at this time unless you are willing to put in a lot of effort and get involved in the Map Maker program.

When you click “Suggest an edit” you should now see the “Report a data problem” window as seen below.

There are three main types of errors you may wish to fix: a misplaced placemark, incorrect information about the place, or a placemark that shouldn’t be there at all, such as a business that has closed down or a duplicate placemark. The first step for all three types of corrections is

Misplaced placemark: Simply drag and drop the placemark to the correct location. You may also wish to update the address as well, which you can do by simply clicking on the address then typing in the correct address. When done, click submit.

Incorrect information: Simply click on the information you wish to update and fill in the correct information. When done, click submit.

Removing a placemark: Click the button at the top where it says “Place is permanently closed or doesn’t exist”. You will then be given the option to say whether it is permanently closed, doesn’t exist, spam, private, moved elsewhere or a duplicate. Select the appropriate option and click submit.

The actual updates are managed via Google Map Maker. For most edits this will require someone from the Map Maker community or a Google employee to review your edit before it is published, so expect a few days before your edits show on the map. It may take significantly longer for the edits to show in Google Earth, depending on the type of edit. Some information in Google Earth, such as what shows in the popups, is essential live Google Maps data, whereas the locations of placemarks is not live and may take a lot longer to update.

Google Earth Blog FAQ

Quite a lot of the emails we get at GEB blog repeat the same questions or requests, so we thought it would be a good idea to create a short FAQ for GEB covering the most common questions and requests. Firstly, it is important to point out that we are a fan-based blog writing about Google Earth-related news and content. We are not part of Google.

I am having trouble installing Google Earth. Can you help?
The most common error recently has been 1603 on Windows. This is a known problem with the online installer and indicates that Google Earth is already installed. You could try just restoring the icons with instructions from here. If that fails, and for other types of installation errors, the offline installer found here resolves the majority of problems. Finally, consider installing a different version of Google Earth from the same set of links, either an older version, or Google Earth Pro instead of Google Earth.

Please make a correction to the map.
For single corrections use the ‘report a problem’ link at the bottom right hand corner of Google Maps. Alternatively, if you are willing to put in the effort and for larger updates use Google Map Maker and make the changes yourself. As of this writing, editing in Map Maker is temporarily disabled due to abuse, but it is expected to be re-enabled in early August 2015.

When will Google update my satellite / aerial imagery or Street View?
Google get their imagery from a wide variety of sources, and due to there being so many factors involved, it is impossible to predict when and where they will do updates. Frank did an excellent article about this found here. You should also keep in mind that the imagery displayed in Google Earth might not be the most recent available, so be sure to check the ‘Historical Imagery’ feature in Google Earth. More information about this can be found here. Instructions on how to use it, can be found here. An article about why the dates displayed in Google Earth may not always be completely accurate, can be found here.

Please update my satellite / aerial imagery, Street View or 3D imagery.
We have a detailed article about this question here. In summary, Google does not take requests for imagery updates. However, it is possible to add imagery to Street View using their Photo Sphere smartphone app.

Can I buy a satellite image of a particular location and time not found in Google Earth?
If you cannot find the date you are looking for in Google Earth and you are willing to spend money, one option is to purchase the satellite imagery. However, you may find the few other dates they have will have clouds, haze, or have other issues making them unsuitable for viewing. Suppliers of satellite imagery include:

For very low resolution imagery, consider the free Landsat 8 imagery. A better choice is to contact local commercial or government aerial photographers who may have larger archives of historical imagery for you to choose and acquire.

Please unblur an image in Street View.
As far as we know this is not possible. Google blurs images for privacy reasons and the process of verifying that you are the person in the image or have the necessary authority to ask for it to be unblurred would be just too complicated.


We do not know whether Google will, on request, fix cases like this where the face detection algorithm has blurred a statue’s face unnecessarily.

Blurring and unblurring Street View

Google have sophisticated software that automatically detects and blurs faces and number plates in Street View imagery in order to protect people’s privacy. It is not perfect, however, and we often get emails asking us to blur peoples faces or number plates in Street View. Occasionally people want all images of their house removed. Although we have explained how to do this several times in the past, it is worth reiterating:

  1. Open the location in the Google Maps version of Street View.
  2. Click the ‘Report a problem’ link found at the bottom right of the screen.
  3. A form appears asking you what you want blurred and where it is on the image. Fill in the form and click “Submit”.

Google will take appropriate action and let you know.

Blurred faces

Occasionally we get queries from readers asking whether it is possible to obtain copies of the original unblurred imagery. This is usually a request from relatives of a deceased loved one who appears in the imagery and they would like to have the unblurred imagery as a remembrance. Although it would be nice if Google were able to grant this sort of request, it is not possible. It would not be feasible to create a reliable system to verify the person in the image has granted their permission, whereas simply granting requests without verification would defeat the purpose of blurring the imagery in the first place. In addition, many of the countries in which Google has Street View, have privacy laws that require Google to blur faces and number plates and to destroy the original images within a reasonable amount of time and thus, releasing such images would be illegal.