More Street View cities to explore (Update)

Posted by Brittany Bohnet, Associate Product Marketing Manager

As some of you may have already heard, we've added Street View imagery to six new cities in Google Maps: Chicago, Portland, Pittsburgh, Phoenix, Tucson and Philadelphia. To celebrate, we've created a new video that follows the adventures of our lovable Street View character as he karaokes his way through our newly added cities.





If you're interested in making your own Street View video, don't forget to right-click and download this free MP3. Reply with a video response for a chance to be featured as a YouTube karaoke star! Bonus points go to those of you who have the best Street View lyrics and costume.

And if you haven't already yet, be sure to check out our new Street View additions. We think they'll have you singing in the streets, too!

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More Street View cities to explore

Posted by Stephane Lafon, Software Engineer, Google Maps

For those of you who have been eagerly awaiting new cities to be added to Street View in Google Maps, your patience is about to pay off. Today, we're announcing the addition of Street View imagery in not one or two but six new cities!

Now you can check out 360-degree views of Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland and Tucson. As an added bonus, the images in Phoenix, Tucson and parts of Chicago are all in high resolution.

But wait! There's more. Ever wish you could pan up to the very top of a 50-story skyscraper using Street View? Well, prepare yourself for some serious sightseeing; we've introduced the ability to pan up in most new cities.

To get started, check out this incredible view of Sears Tower. (Remember to use caution if you have a fear of heights!)

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What Are You Doing This Weekend?

Posted by Steve Miller, Product Manager

Last week, Google announced an International Cleanup Weekend on October 13th and 14th, encouraging Googlers and Google Maps users around the world to head out and clean up local parks, beaches, trails, and other places close to home. To date, we have received more than 130 cleanup maps from people who have enlisted the help of their friends, family members and coworkers to make the world a cleaner, better place. That brings our total to more than 1,200 people.

If you haven't yet, we hope you'll join us in our efforts this weekend and post plans of your own. All you have to do is organize a cleanup event, log into Google Maps to make a map of it, and send it to us. Remember to keep your group small (groups of 6-10 people work best) and close to home, to simplify the planning process.

As Google Maps aficionados, we know that the best maps will likely come from you. Make sure to show off your savvy map-making skills by posting photos and videos to your map! Check out this example for inspiration:

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Where in the world is... (Answers)

Posted by Matt Manolides, GIS Specialist

Great job figuring out the answers to all the clues, I am always impressed at how people scattered all across the globe team up to solve these riddles.

1) I don't mean to "flatter," but this remote Northwestern cape is very beautiful.
- Cape Flattery, WA
2) You can now explore the ruins of this ancient Mayan city, first discovered in 1934.
- Becan, Mexico (it's a little cloudy, but you can still see plenty of ruins)

3) This small Peruvian village attracts many tourists each year for the Incan ruins atop nearby hills.
- Pisac, Peru
4) This city claims to be the southernmost city in the world, with approximately 64,000 residents.
- Ushuaia, Agentina
5) Home of the Russian Pacific Fleet, this city is also Russia's largest Pacific coast harbor.
- Vladivostock, Russia

6) Named after Saint Irene, though sometimes referred to as Thera, this island is a popular Greek tourist destination.
- Santorini, Greece

7) The Trojan horse from the 2004 movie Troy is visible in this city.
- Çanakkale, Turkey























8) This city is the second most populated metropolitan area in Africa, second to Cairo.
- Lagos, Nigeria
9) For better or for worse, the testing done at this site changed the world forever. In 1965 it was declared a U.S. National Historic Landmark.
- Trinity Site, White Sands Missile Range - New Mexico
10) Odessos was the original name of this large city, then a trading colony.
- Varna, Bulgaria
11) This was the first port on the Shandong peninsula to be opened to the west in the 1800s.
- Penglai City, China

























Remember, this was only a small sampling, there's lots of new imagery out there to discover.

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Now Playing: The Google Maps Video Tour

Posted by Jess Lee, Product Manager, Google Maps

Over the past few months we've put together some fun YouTube videos to help educate people about features in Google Maps, like Street View and our mapmaking tools.

Now, you can learn about all of these features in one place on the Google Maps Video Tour page.

We've also added a brand-new Getting Started video that explains the basics. It's perfect for educating beginner users, like the aunt who always calls you for tech support help.




Let us know what you think of the video by leaving some comments on YouTube. We'd love to hear from you.

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Google Transit Graduates from Labs

Posted by Christoph Oehler, Product Manager

It may be back-to-school season, but Google Transit has just graduated from Google Labs! We're excited to say it's now a fully integrated feature in Google Maps. This means that when you look up directions for areas where we have transit coverage you'll now have the option of seeing how to get there using public transportation.

Let's say you live in Mountain View and want to head over to Great America amusement park . What do you do? First, buy some tickets. Then, go to Google Maps to get directions to the arena. You'll notice we kept driving directions as the default, but if you look at the top of the panel, you'll see a new option to 'Take Public Transit.' You can select the time you'd like to depart or arrive (under 'Options') and choose from a few alternate routes. Also, in some areas, we even give you the ability to compare the cost of taking public transit with the cost of driving.


In looking at this example, the answer is pretty clear: public transit is cheaper, probably faster since you know you'll have to sit in some rush-hour traffic if you drive, and, of course, more environmentally friendly.

If you're already an old hand at using Google Transit, don't worry. The main Google Transit page, will still be in place. You can use that page to see which transit agencies are currently within our coverage areas. In the past few weeks alone, we've added Bay Area Rapid Transit (San Francisco Bay Area), Santa Clara (CA) Valley Transportation Authority, and Hampton Roads (VA) Transit - among many others. (If you're going to Japan or China, we've got you covered! ). We're still working hard to make Google Transit useful for as many people as possible, and we'll keep you posted as we add new regions. And if you happen to be a transit agency reading this, you can find out here how to take part.

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Where in the world is...

Posted by Matt Manolides, GIS Specialist

Greetings Earthlings,

Today we've published a significant amount of new or updated 60cm satellite imagery for Google Earth, with the Google Maps update to follow shortly. Much of this imagery is concentrated in the U.S., Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, India, China, Australia and New Zealand. I encourage everyone to go exploring -- you never know what you might find.

To help you get started, we've put together some clues pointing to interesting areas where we now have high-resolution imagery.

1) I don't mean to "flatter," but this remote Northwestern cape is very beautiful.
2) You can now explore the ruins of this ancient Mayan city, first discovered in 1934.
3) This small Peruvian village attracts many tourists each year for the Incan ruins atop nearby hills.
4) This city claims to be the southernmost city in the world, with approximately 64,000 residents.
5) Home of the Russian Pacific Fleet, this city is also Russia's largest Pacific coast harbor.
6) Named after Saint Irene, though sometimes referred to as Thera, this island is a popular Greek tourist destination.
7) The Trojan horse from the 2004 movie Troy is visible in this city.
8) This city is the second most populated metropolitan area in Africa, second to Cairo.
9) For better or for worse, the testing done at this site changed the world forever. In 1965 it was declared a U.S. National Historic Landmark.
10) Odessos was the original name of this large city, then a trading colony.
11) This was the first port on the Shandong peninsula to be opened to the west in the 1800s.


The imagery we're publishing today touches approximately 130 different countries, so there's plenty out there to discover!

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