[EAS] Google (Satellite) Maps

Sat Apr 9 20:58:16 EDT 2005

Dear Colleagues -

Below I forward you a copy of the widely distributed newsletter
TOURBUS, describing a new Google feature -- maps, high-resolution
satellite maps.

My reactions to this are more complex than TOURBUS's Patrick
Crispen, who tends to write in the future-perfect tense. I'm more in
the Mark Morford school
<http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2005/04/08/notes040805.DTL&nl=fix>,
but haven't really figured out my attitude. Until you do, it's more
fun to have Mark Morford give you his initial impressions of this
new beast.

    --PJK

>Approved-By: crispen at NETSQUIRREL.COM
>Date:         Sat, 9 Apr 2005 15:45:43 -0400
>Reply-To: TOURBUS-Request at LISTSERV.AOL.COM
>Sender: The Internet TourBus - A virtual tour of cyberspace
>               <TOURBUS at LISTSERV.AOL.COM>
>From: Patrick Douglas Crispen <crispen at NETSQUIRREL.COM>
>Subject: Tourbus - 9 Apr 05 - Google Maps
>To: TOURBUS at LISTSERV.AOL.COM
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>               TOURBUS Volume 10, Number 56 -- 09 Apr 2005
>                  Tourbus Home - http://www.TOURBUS.com
>               Tourbus Forums - http://forums.TOURBUS.com
>   [ For best results view this with a monospace font like Courier. ]
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>                   TODAY'S TOURBUS TOPIC: Google Maps
>
>Howdy, y'all, and greetings once again from deep behind the orange
>curtain in beautiful Irvine, California, birthplace of the red
>Swingline stapler.
>
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>
>On with the show...
>
>----------------------------
>Google Maps
>Audience: Everyone [kind of]
>----------------------------
>
>Well, it looks like the evil scientists at Google Labs
>[ http://labs.google.com/ ] have been busy over the past few months.
>Back in February, Google introduced "Google Maps" at
>
>      http://maps.google.com/
>
>Google Maps is Google's response to other popular map sites like
>MapQuest [ http://mapquest.com/ ] and Yahoo Maps
>[ http://maps.yahoo.com ].  Hop on over to maps.google.com, type in
>what you're looking for--an address, a city, a point of interest, an
>airport code, etc--and Google will display a really high-quality map
>of that location.
>
>For example, if you search for SNA [the airport code for Orange
>County's John Wayne International Airport] Google shows you where I
>live.  No, I don't actually live in an airport although at times it
>sure does feel like I do.  I live directly north-northeast of the Duck
>Ponds.
>
>Now for the cool part.  Once you've located John Wayne airport on your
>map, click on the map with your mouse, hold your mouse button, and
>drag your mouse up and to the right.
>
>That's right, folks: Google maps are draggable!  Keep dragging up the
>California coastline and you'll end up in Los Angeles.  Oh, and you
>can zoom in too.  On the left side of the map, click on the plus or
>drag the slider up.
>
>Wait.  There's more.  Do a search for "pizza Irvine."  Not only will
>Google show you the location of most of the pizza joints in beautiful
>Irvine, California, if you click on any of the map's "push pins" or
>click on one of the pizza places' names on the right side of the
>screen, a shadowed balloon appears showing you the pizza place's name,
>phone number, address, website link, and even a link to get driving
>directions.  And if you click on another company's name, the map will
>automatically scroll to that new company's location.
>
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>
>Oh, and Google Maps also does driving directions.  Go to
>maps.google.com and above the search box click on the "Directions"
>link.  Then, just key in your starting and ending addresses.
>
>-------------
>The New Stuff
>-------------
>
>Maps are cool, I guess--and I *REALLY* like the interactivity that
>Google has built into its map site--but have you ever wanted to see
>what your house or school or business looks like from space?
>
>Well, just go to maps.google.com, search for a particular address, and
>then, in the upper right corner of the screen, click on the
>"Satellite" link [it's at the far right side of that orange horizontal
>bar.]
>
>Yes, you heard right: GOOGLE MAPS NOW SHOWS SATELLITE IMAGES!
>
>Oh, and all those search features we talked about before work on the
>satellite maps as well.  Do a search for "pizza Irvine" and you'll see
>what Irvine's pizza places look like from space.  And if you click and
>drag your mouse, you can scroll around beautiful Orange County.
>
>And it's not just Irvine that is viewable from space.  In fact, all-
>around nice guy James Turnbull has spent the better part of a week
>[Google added the satellite feature on Monday] finding cool stuff from
>space and posting it to his Google Sightseeing blog at
>
>      http://www.shreddies.org/gmaps/
>
>Make sure to browse through the archives.  Turnbull has found a BUNCH
>of neat stuff hidden in Google's satellite images.
>
>------------
>The bad news
>------------
>
>Now for the bad news:
>
>      - Google Maps is still in beta, so expect some bugs from time to
>        time.
>
>      - You can only use Google Maps to search for locations in the
>        United States and Canada.  More locations are coming soon,
>        though.
>
>      - There some places in North America that aren't covered by
>        Google's satellite images, especially if you zoom in all the
>        way.  A good example is the southern parts of Disney's Epcot
>        Center in Orlando.
>
>      - The satellite images are "current" but not exactly up to date.
>        For example, the satellite image of the closed Tustin Marine
>        Corps Air Station [northeast of SNA] still shows base housing
>        even though the houses were demolished last summer.  [Oh, and
>        those two really big buildings are blimp hangars which aren't
>        going anywhere.]
>
>      - When you zoom all the way in on a map, especially a satellite
>        map, the address balloons are sometimes about 25 feet [7.6
>        meters] off.  For example, when I searched for my family's old
>        house in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the balloon pointed to the house
>        across the street.
>
>Still, for what you're paying for this service [NOTHING!], these
>"problems" are trivial.  All in all, maps.google.com is one of the
>more exciting things to come along in a while.
>
>
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>
>
>That's it for today.  I'm off to Baltimore for the Blackboard
>conference, so we'll talk again in a week or so.  Have a safe and
>happy week!
>
>=====================[ Tourbus Rider Information ]===================
>    The Internet Tourbus - U.S. Library of Congress ISSN #1094-2238
>      Copyright 1995-2005, Rankin & Crispen - All rights reserved
>
>         Tourbus News Service - http://tourbus.com/news.html
>
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>====================================================================
>            .~~~.  ))
>  (\__/)  .'     )  ))       Patrick Douglas Crispen
>  /o o  \/     .~
>{o_,    \    {              crispen at netsquirrel.com
>   / ,  , )    \           http://www.netsquirrel.com/
>   `~  -' \    } ))    AOL Instant Messenger: Squirrel2K
>  _(    (   )_.'
>---..{____}                  Warning: squirrels.