Google Earth Blog

The amazing things about Google Earth


kyle kusch

Exploring kudzu infestation in the US

Living in the southeast United States, I’m very familiar with the vine known as kudzu. Introduced to the US from Japan in 1876, kudzu is spreading at an amazing rate of 150,000 acres each year. Kyle Kusch at Google Sightseeing has taken advantage of Google Street View imagery to showcase some amazing examples of kudzu growth.

kudzu

Thanks to Street View’s historical imagery feature, we can look back to 2007 and see the same building with virtually no growth on it.

less kudzu

Check out Kyle’s full post for many other amazing examples of kudzu growth. As always, Google Sightseeing provides a very helpful KMZ file so you can explore those locations for yourself.

You can also read the Wikipedia article about kudzu to learn more about it and how to combat its growth.

Amphitheatres around the world

We enjoy the work of the folks over at Google Sightseeing, as they post some excellent stories. We’ve shown you things such as fake buildings, roller coasters, hockey and many other interesting posts from them over the years.

Their latest post from Kyle Kusch tracks down amphitheatres around the world using Google Earth satellite and Street View imagery.

Hollywood Bowl amphitheatre

They look at a wide variety of amphitheatres from across the globe, and I encourage you to check out their full post here. You can also grab this KML file to view them in Google Earth.

A fun side note from the article: The Hollywood Bowl, seen above, was one of their very first posts nearly nine years ago.

Fake buildings in Google Earth

The folks at Google Sightseeing do an excellent job of finding interesting items on Google Earth that many of us have overlooked.  A recent article from Kyle Kusch is a great example of that, as he finds buildings around the world with false facades.

The items in his list typically look like real buildings, but are often concealing empty alleys or other eyesores, or are completely fake (such as the fake airplane crash seen below and fake a McDonald’s restaurant that he highlighted).

fake-plane-crash

Many of the examples rely on Street View to appreciate them, but some are seen clearly from above as well.  You can check out his full article to see all of them, or grab this KML file to view them all in Google Earth.

Nice work, Kyle!