Loads More Birds Eye View

Mezquita-Catedral

Google Maps today has a lot more aerial view imagery. The update includes new 45° imagery in the U.S., Canada, Germany, Argentina and Spain.


Parliament, Ottawa

Here's a list of the updated cities:

Augsburg, Germany. Barstow, CA. Bartlett, TX. Big Bear, CA. Blackstone, VA. Catalina Foothills, AZ. Córdoba, Spain. Delano, CA. Desert Hot Springs, CA. Richmond, VA. Elgin, TX. Healdsburg, CA. Helendale, CA. Hemet, CA. Houston, TX. Mendoza, Argentina. Midlothian, VA. Napa Valley, CA. New Braunfels, TX. Ojai, CA. Ottawa, Canada. Pensacola, FL. Porterville, CA. Plant City, FL. Rancho Del Lago, AZ. Rosario, Argentina. Santa Clarita, CA. Sarasota, FL. Taylor, TX. Temecula, CA. Treasure Island, CA. Troy, IL. Twentynine Palms, CA. Wakefield, VA. Yucca Valley, CA.


Rathaus, Augsburg

Via: Google LatLong

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More Birds Eye View

Dodger Stadium, LA

Not content with pushing out the biggest update to Street View Google Maps has today also received a lot more aerial view (or Bird's Eye view) imagery.

The full list of the new additions to Google Maps' aerial view is; Anaheim, CA. Jacksonville, FL. Tampa, FL. North Las Vegas, NV. Los Angeles, CA. Downey, CA. La Chaux de Fonds, CH. Visalia, CA. Corona, CA. Meadowlake, NM. Continental Ranch, AZ .Picture Rocks, AZ. Greater Sun Center, FL, Bastrop, TX. Martinez, CA. Paradise Valley, AZ. West New Orleans, LA. Fentress, VA.

Aerial View Map

This Aerial View map includes some of the amazing aerial views that can be found on Google Maps. The map includes some pretty stunning imagery from Venice, Rome, the USA and South Africa.

Via: Google LatLong

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New 45° Imagery on Google Maps

Google have added new 45° imagery on Google Maps for Rome.



New bird's eye views have also been added in:

St Louis, MO
Honolulu, HI
New Orleans, LA
Rome, Italy
North Austin, TX
West Norfolk, VA
Scottsdale, AZ
San Rafael, CA
Palm Springs, CA
Lake Forest, CA
Boulder City, NV

Aerial View Map

I've updated my Aerial View map to include some of the amazing sights around Rome captured in Google's new 45° imagery. The map also includes some pretty stunning imagery from Venice, the USA and South Africa.

Via: Google LatLong

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45° Imagery Added to Google Maps API 3

Google's oblique aerial view imagery has now been added by default to maps created with the Google Maps API. When 45° imagery is available a submenu option is added to the Maps API Satellite button. In three weeks time aerial view, where available, will automatically become the default satellite view, as it is in the main Google Maps website.



You can see the cities where 45° imagery is currently available on this map.

In addition to the new 45° imagery an Overview Map Control is being added to maps created with the Google Maps API v3. This Overview Map Control is the small interactive thumbnail map you can see on the bottom right of Google Maps.

The addition of the Overview Map Control is the latest in some nice subtle changes Google have added to the design of Google Maps created with the API. Recently Google also changed the Google logo in API maps to a white logo instead of the usual multi-coloured logo and the buttons have also been made a lot more attractive.



Via: Google Geo Developers Blog

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More Google Maps 45º Imagery

Google Maps have released more Bird's Eye imagery in a number of US cities.


Tower of the Americas, San Antonio

The new cities given Google Maps' oblique satellite views are:

Contra Costa County, CA
Escondido, CA
Long Beach, CA
Norfolk, VA
New Orleans, LA
San Antonio, TX
St Petersburg, FL
Tucson, AZ
Van Nuys, CA

I've updated my pick of Google Maps Aerial Views - Aerial View Map - to include aerial imagery from the latest cities added.



Via: Google LatLong

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New Orleans Gets Birds Eye View

New Orleans is now covered by Google Maps' oblique satellite views. I'm sure there must be more cities that have been recently added but New Orleans is the only one I've found so far.

This Google Map shows the cities around the world that Google have aerial views for (New Orleans has yet to be added). I've updated my Aerial View Map to include aerial imagery of the Louisiana Superdome and Jackson Square in New Orleans.

I've also updated the Bird's Eye View with the new imagery. This map allows you to compare Bing Maps' Bird's Eye View side by side with Google Maps' aerial view.

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Plane Crash on Google Maps

Aerial View Map

Google Maps aerial view has got some great shots of a simulated plane crash that was created for the television series Trauma. The mock airliner crash was filmed on the runway of the former Navy base at Alameda Point.

A Boeing airliner was used as the mock-up of the crashed plane. I think the episode was filmed in 2009. Google's aerial view imagery of the area was released at the end of 2009, so I assume the imagery was gathered at some point during that year.

If you go to my Aerial View Map the plane crash can be viewed by clicking on the 'Simualated Air Crash' link. You can see the crash from different angles by using the Google Maps compass or the directions buttons above the map.

Here is the plane crash itself in NBC's Trauma,



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New Aerial Imagery Released

Google have released new aerial imagery on Google Maps.

Google's aerial view is similar to Bing Map's bird's eye view, giving an oblique rather than an overhead view. The new imagery is available in Tuscon, Arizona, Norfolk, VA, San Antonio,TX and Albuquerque, NM.

This Aerial View Map now includes aerial imagery from a number of US locations and from Venice and South Africa.

Bird's Eye View

This application places Bing Maps' Bird's Eye View side by side with Google Maps' aerial view. You can view the same locations as seen by Bing and Google Maps.

I have added an image from the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tuscon to the map.

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Street View Added to Building Maker

Google Builder Maker

Builder Maker is a Google Maps / Google Earth / Google Aerial Imagery interface to help you build 3D models for Google Earth. Now Google have also added Street View images to Google Builder Maker.

Google have added some very clever magic to Builder Maker that allows you to grab a Street View image, align it with your building and then use the image as the texture for the building. Check out the video below to see it in action:



Six new cities have also been added to Building Maker:

Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Florence, Italy
Vienna, Austria
Pittsburgh, PA, United States
Santa Cruz, CA, United States
Riverside, CA, United States

The cities in Builder Maker all have Google's oblique aerial imagery. It is therefore a pretty good guide to which cities will have aerial views soon added to Google Maps and the Google Maps API.

Here's a little something I put together to compare Bing Maps Birds Eye view with aerial view in Google Maps:

Bird's Eye View

The application places Bing Maps' Bird's Eye View side by side with Google Maps' aerial view.

Via: Google LatLong

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Aerial Imagery Now on Google Maps

A few months ago Google released Aerial imagery for the Google Maps API for a few select cities in the USA. Today the aerial imagery has graduated to Google Maps and the coverage has increased as well.



Aerial imagery in Google Maps is obviously inspired by Bing Maps 'Birds' Eye' view. Somehow it seemed inevitable that after Bing Maps started copying 'Street View' that Google would respond with their own Bird's Eye view.

Currently 'Aerial' imagery is available in Dortmund, Venice, South Africa and selected locations in the USA. When the oblique view imagery is available an 'Aerial' button will appear next to the other buttons in Google Maps.

You can view some selected locations in Google Maps Aerial View from the USA and South Africa in this map I created with the Google Maps API. Imagery from the new locations will start appearing on this map soon ...



Via: Google LatLong

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World Cup Venues in Aerial View

World Cup Stadia

I was checking out the 2010 South Africa World Cup venues in Google Maps today and noticed that most of the new stadium now appear in Google Maps Aerial View.

I have quickly thrown together a Google Map that lets you view the new aerial (bird's eye) view imagery of each stadium alongside a video of the same stadium from YouTube.

Forgive the look of the page, I literally threw it together in 30 minutes, but I think it works OK. When Google releases the Street View imagery for South Africa (which I'm guessing will be in the next few weeks) I'll add the Street Views for each stadium as well.

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Viewing Webcams with Aerial View

Webcams.travel

Webcams.travel have added Google Map's new aerial view to its maps of travel cams. Currently aerial view is only available in Google Maps Labs or, to developers, through the Google Maps API.

The use of aerial view really adds to the user experience in surfing the map for webcams. The aerial view imagery allows you to rotate the map image to more closely match the view as shown in the selected webcams.

Aerial view is currently available in Oakland, Sacramento, San Jose, San Diego and Portland. If you browse Webcams.travel in satellite view the map will automatically switch to aerial view where it is available.

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Google and Bing Maps Bird's Eye View

Bird's Eye View

This map places Bing Maps' Bird's Eye View side by side with Google Maps' new Aerial View. It took me a few hours to put this together last night and provides a good comparison of the imagery available in each map.

I've selected a number of views to choose from. To view a location just click on one of the buttons under the map.

The map does have a few bugs. For some reason the map controls in the Google Map have gone a bit wonky. Bing Maps always zooms in too far for some reason and I have still to work out how to get both maps to synchronise properly. I'd like to develop this so that when you pan or rotate one of the maps the other map will update automatically. But I'll leave that for another day - or for someone with a little more patience.

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More Cities get Aerial View

Google has unveiled more Aerial View imagery. Portland, OR, Sacramento and Oakland, CA all now have Google's version of 'bird's eye' imagery.

The new imagery gives much closer zoom levels and allows the map user to view buildings and streets from four different directions. Orbitz, Redfin and Trulia have already updated their websites to include the new imagery.

Orbitz is now displaying this imagery for their Sacramento hotels. Redfin is showing an "Angled" view of their properties in Oakland. Trulia is presenting a "Perspective" view for properties in Sacramento. Toggle to the "Perspective" view from the map for each listing.

If you are interested in using aerial view in you own maps take a look at the concepts, reference and examples of the Google Maps API documentation. Or have a look at the code of some of the demos I've put together myself:

• Sea World Tour - Combines Aerial imagery with the Street View special collection of Sea World
  
• Driving Directions on Street View + Aerial - Fun demo that drives your route
  
• Nice views from San Jose and San Diego

Via: Google Geo Developers Blog

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A Red Light Street View Tour

San Diego Zoo Tour

I've updated my San Diego Seaworld Street View tour to include imagery from San Diego Zoo, which was added to Google Maps yesterday.

Now, as well as viewing dolphins in Street View, you can see some elephants, giraffes and rhino. Google Maps Bird's Eye imagery is available in San Diego. So as well as the Street Views my tour includes oblique aerial view imagery of San Diego Seaworld and San Diego Zoo.

Istedgade Street View Tour

Microformats.dk has put together a Street View tour of Istedgade, Copenhagen. Istedgade is a red-light street in Copenhagen. However it also has a more heroic past. The citizens of this area began the resistance to German occupation during World War Two.

The title of the map "Istedgade overgiver sig aldrig" means "Istedgade never surrender", a phrase used by Copenhagen's resistance movement. The tour uses Google Maps' driving directions so all you have to do is press the button to load the route and press 'drive'.

The tour is accompanied by a YouTube video of Danish singer Peter Belli. I'm informed that the song is about a girl who works as dancer in a bar and tells the story of the men who fight over her.

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Sea World Dolphins in Street View

Sea World Tour

I was just checking today to see if Google had added any more aerial view imagery to the Google Maps API. It looks like San Jose and San Diego are still the only areas to have Google Maps' version of Bird's Eye View imagery. However I did find that San Diego Sea World is covered in aerial view and in Google Street View.

This means that it is possible to explore Sea World via my Street View and Aerial View synchronised map and get a wonderful view of some performing dolphins.

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Bird's Eye View Driving Directions

Street View & Oblique View Driving Demo

One of my favourite examples in the Google Maps API Demo Gallery is Thor Mitchell's Street View with Driving Directions. The demo shows how to integrate Street View with driving directions.

With Google's recent addition of oblique view to the Maps API it is now possible to synchronise the map view with the Street View direction. I've hacked Thor's example so that now as you play a driving route in Street View the map will rotate to face the direction that you are driving.

In the demo just press 'route' and then 'drive'. Oblique view is currently only available in San Jose and San Diego

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Bird's Eye View Synced with Street View

Aerial View Synced to Street View

Google's new Aerial View imagery can be synced with Street View. In this little proof of concept example if you rotate the Street View image the Aerial View will rotate to face in the same direction.

Kinda cool!

Some Nice Aerial Views

This example of the new Aerial View imagery contains a small collection of sights in San Diego and San Jose. The collection includes the Googleplex, Petco Park, the Qualcomm Stadium and a few other Californian sights.

Aerial View with Buttons
Here is another example map using Google Map's new Aerial View. This time the map comes with 'north', 'south', 'east' and 'west' buttons.

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Bird's Eye View Comes to Google Maps

Google have today unveiled Bird's Eye view in Google Maps only Google are calling it 'Aerial View'. Aerial View allows map developers to show satellite imagery from north, south, east and west perspectives. The imagery is only available through the Google Maps API and so far is only available for San Jose and San Diego, California. However Google will be increasing the amount of imagery over the coming months.

As Mickey Mellen has pointed out on the Google Earth Blog the new Aerial View imagery seems to be the same imagery used in Google's Building Maker tool. Esa has created a nice list of cities around the world that have Aerial View imagery in Building Maker. You can view the list on the Google Maps Discussion Group.

Here is a simple example of Aerial View in action (spin the compass in the top left corner to change perspective).

You can learn more about how you can add Google's Aerial Imagery and the map type collections by taking a looking at the concepts, reference and examples.

Websites Orbitz , Redfin and Trulia have already added Aerial View to their Google Maps mashups.

You can also read more about the release on the Google Latlong Blog.

Via: Google Geo Developers Blog

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