google maps

A Google Map Image Overlay in Google Earth

January 27, 2016

Last year, when experimenting with Google Earth popups we created a popup with a Google Map in it. It was intended only as a demonstration of the functionality of Google Earth popups, and not as a permanent service. It still works, but is dependent on a server for its functionality and we make no guarantees that it will work in the future.

However, we have recently been studying KML in detail and one of the features we came across is the ability to refresh an image overlay as if it was a network link. This gave us the idea of putting a Google Map in an image overlay instead of a popup. The advantage of doing it this way is that it does not require an independent server to work. There are disadvantages, however. The map is just an image whereas the popup version was a fully interactive map complete with Street View. With the overlay technique we can provide a few different map types and a Street View image, but they are not interactive. Another problem is that the technique results in a map that is slightly lower resolution than the view in Google Earth. This is because the Google Static Maps API automatically adds a margin to the map and there is no way to include calculations in the process. One way to resolve this would be to trim the edges of the overlay using KML, but that would cut out the Google Logo and copyright notices, which would be a violation of the licence agreement.

To try out the image overlays in Google Earth download this KML file

The standard street map view.

One possible use is to compare satellite imagery between Google Maps and Google Earth.

The Street View overlay knows which way you are looking.

We chose to make the overlays a fixed size, as that works best with the Static Maps API. However, you could make it automatically scale with screen size, change it to a size of your choosing or put it in a different corner by editing the KML file.

It would have been nice to add overlays for maps from other mapping providers, but we couldn’t find any that had a simple API and there may be licensing issues with displaying their maps in Google Earth.

Correcting map data – claiming ownership of your business

January 15, 2016

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 India many businesses make technology to its advantage such as Emaar-MGF and its director Shravan Gupta work hand in hand with new technologies. 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

January 14, 2016

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:

The placemark is incorrectly placed in the centre of a crossroads.
Clicking on the placemark or searching for it in the search bar opens it in the side panel.
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 placemark popups: part 2

January 5, 2016

Yesterday we had a look at what appears in Google Earth placemark popups for placemarks in the “Borders and Labels” layer. Today we are looking at places from the “Places” layer.

The information shown in the placemarks comes from Google Maps and is largely identical to what you see in Google Maps, but often not as nicely formatted. Some information, including the name, address, phone number, website and working hours can be edited via Google Map Maker. Also, the category of the location can be set there (e.g. Airport, School, Hospital, which also determines the icon used in Google Earth). It doesn’t seem to be possible to set the photo in Map Maker. As far as we can tell, the photo displayed is typically the default automatically selected image from Street View (which includes and prioritises user contributed photos).

The White House South Lawn Fountain has its own placemark, including a phone number and reviews.

As seen above, the Google Earth popups tend to add a scroll bar when the photo is too big, so many placemarks require you to scroll down to see all the information, even when there is plenty of screen space.

We found that for some special types of places, the popups are broken in Google Earth. For example, some train stations and bus stops have schedules available in Google Maps but in Google Earth it doesn’t show all the information correctly. Given that Google Earth has a very capable browser built in there is no good reason why the schedule functionality could not be fixed (hint to Google).

We found some places that give an error message in the popup. We believe this is because the placemarks are ported to Google Earth rather infrequently and the placemark has been deleted in Google Maps but the change has not yet been carried over to Google Earth.

If you own a business or are an authority for one of the institutions marked with a placemark, then the best way to ensure your information is correct is to sign up for Google My Business. It is free and essentially gives you a Google+ page where you can fill in all the details of your business, including changing the photo that is displayed and adding extra photos. For best results, you should also verify your address. To accomplish this, Google sends a postcard with a special code to your address, which you then enter into Google My Business to confirm that you received it.

Google Earth placemark popups

January 4, 2016

We noticed a few months ago that the Google Earth placemark popups now usually include a photo, a short description and some basic facts about a place. It turns out that the information displayed is identical to what is shown in Google Maps when you search for a location.

Today we are looking at only the popups for places found in the “Borders and Labels” layer. Tomorrow we will look at places from the “Places” layer.

As far as we can tell, the data cannot be managed through Google Map Maker, so it must be managed by Google staff. The information seems to come from a variety of sources, sometimes Wikipedia, sometimes UNData and sometimes it is not stated where it comes from. The choice of facts shown also seems to vary considerably.

We have seen listed: province, municipality, county, federal division, prefecture, region, population, area, area code (telephone), postal code, unemployment rate, the name of the mayor (does this get updated each election?), elevation, founders, date of establishment, number of airports, parishes, ecclesiastical province, dialect, bird (common in Japan) and flower.

Although the text often comes from Wikipedia the other statistics do not appear to do so. For example, the population statistics are often quite a bit older than what is available on Wikipedia.

The photos can also be somewhat inaccurate. For example the photo for Linda, a township in Livingstone, shows a picture of the gorges below the falls. It was probably automatically picked from the photos layer and had been originally incorrectly placed. The photo for Zimba, another town in southern Zambia just shows a view of trees and grass. The photo probably does come from a location nearby but is not really representative of the town.

If any of our readers knows when the placemarks were changed to their current format please let us know in the comments.

As with all mapping data in Google Earth if you notice mistakes the way to get it corrected is via feedback links in Google Maps, as Maps is the primary source of the data in most cases. If you are willing to put in more effort then you can also use Google Map Maker.

While researching this post we discovered a mistake with the Capital of Belgium. It is shown in Google Earth twice as Brussels and Brussel. We believe the issue is in Google Maps data, which shows two versions of the border, depending on whether you search for Brussels or Brussel and has other issues as well.

Mountains have their own special type of placemark, which doesn’t exactly match Google Maps. In the case of Mount Rainier above, the Google Maps version has a more up-to-date copy of the Wikipedia text but lacks the elevation profile data.