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Only clear skies on Google Maps and Earth
41–50 of 64 posts
Re: Only clear skies on Google Maps and Earth
#42Wow. Google maps is literally beautiful now. I just spent several minutes zooming in and out, just marveling at the detail.
I've recently spent half an hour in Google Earth after turning on the ‘photorealistic atmospheric rendering’ feature + time slider. Makes for some landscapes…
(Update: Should've checked prior to posting… Photorealistic rendering is on by default in Maps with Earth plug-in, despite still being called experimental in Earth settings.)
Re: Only clear skies on Google Maps and Earth
#43Oh my god! I didn't know that the the united states is literally crisscrossed by roads in a relatively square grid fashion, as in [1]. This kind of detail was invisible in the previous version. Here is a frightening image of China [2]. Each of these patches is a town! This update of the maps is amazing! [1] https://maps.google.com/?ll=47.115467,-97.306595&spn=0.29298... [2] https://maps.google.com/?ll=38.002656,115.4…
A lot of the land in the western U.S. was given out by the government in square plots to anyone willing to settle there and plat some crops/trees. I believe this was under the homestead acts.
Re: Only clear skies on Google Maps and Earth
#44It's cool to see these images improve, but they just got this idea from MapBox, no? Just like they got the idea to move on vector and 3D from Apple. Is invention at Google Maps dead, and now we just watch as they ape their competitors to stay ahead? Reactivity is to be expected from the entrenched player, but aping competitors alone won't keep Google relevant forever.
You're so absolutely and completely wrong that you're probably trolling, but:
Google implemented vector maps on Android long before Apple introduced their own maps (i.e. ~years). Likewise, 3D buildings have been available through Earth for years, and rendering them in Maps was an obvious next step. Ultimately, both Apple and Google launched 3D at right around the same time.
Last, as a sibling poster pointed out, if you think all of this was started in reaction to MapBox's work (earliest public mention I found was April 1st) and completed less than 3 months later, then that's just fucking admirable execution right there. But alas, that probably wasn't copied either.
Re: Only clear skies on Google Maps and Earth
#45It's cool to see these images improve, but they just got this idea from MapBox, no? Just like they got the idea to move on vector and 3D from Apple. Is invention at Google Maps dead, and now we just watch as they ape their competitors to stay ahead? Reactivity is to be expected from the entrenched player, but aping competitors alone won't keep Google relevant forever.
You're so absolutely and completely wrong that you're probably trolling, but: Google implemented vector maps on Android long before Apple introduced their own maps (i.e. ~years). Likewise, 3D buildings have been available through Earth for years, and rendering them in Maps was an obvious next step. Ultimately, both Apple and Google launched 3D at right around the same time. Last, as a sibling poster pointed out, if y…
Now that you say it, you're totally right about the vector maps thing.
I don't think it's impossible cloudless aerials were inspired by MapBox though... I think you and your sibling overestimate how hard it is to chop up and process imagery with a cluster of computers.
Re: Only clear skies on Google Maps and Earth
#46I'm checking out the new Google Maps beta, and if you zoom all the way out in Earth mode, it actually puts the clouds back-in -- based on real-time satellite data. Pretty cool. Now if there were just a time slider... But it's also very cool that Google Maps no longers looks like a big patchwork of images from totally different satellites and sources. It actually looks seamless now, no matter where you're zooming. Tha…
A time slider used to be present in Google Earth software an year back. Don't know about it now though.
Re: Only clear skies on Google Maps and Earth
#47It's cool to see these images improve, but they just got this idea from MapBox, no? Just like they got the idea to move on vector and 3D from Apple. Is invention at Google Maps dead, and now we just watch as they ape their competitors to stay ahead? Reactivity is to be expected from the entrenched player, but aping competitors alone won't keep Google relevant forever.
The language and examples in the blog post above seems to have taken a lot of inspiration from posts by MapBox below. Regardless of whether or Google was working on it in advance or not - it's a feature I imagine you can't afford but not copy. Giving some attribution to the concept or at least a shout out to MapBox for pulling this off seems at least warranted.
http://www.mapbox.com/blog/cloudless-atlas-with-landsat/ http://www.mapbox.com/blog/huge-mapbox-satellite-update/
Re: Only clear skies on Google Maps and Earth
#48I'm checking out the new Google Maps beta, and if you zoom all the way out in Earth mode, it actually puts the clouds back-in -- based on real-time satellite data. Pretty cool. Now if there were just a time slider... But it's also very cool that Google Maps no longers looks like a big patchwork of images from totally different satellites and sources. It actually looks seamless now, no matter where you're zooming. Tha…
I've had quite a few crashes with the beta, and a number of features are now missing (Particularly, multiple stop directions). :(
Other problems I've noticed with the new google maps:
(1) performance really sucks on linux/firefox
(2) text renders incorrectly on linux/firefox to the point where much of it is barely readable
(3) they've futzed around with the UI in an apparent attempt to get rid of the "layers" concept, but this has negative effects (in particular this makes "transit mode", a temporary mode that turns off as soon you do anything else; in the old maps it's a setting that persists), and in general seems more confusing than the old way
One hopes they'll fix these problems before making the new maps the default, but ... the signs so far aren't very promising (the browser probs were around even in the old "webgl maps")...
Re: Only clear skies on Google Maps and Earth
#49Google has contributed numerous great things to the Internet / Web / computing technology of the last 15 years, but among all of that, Google Maps might just be my favorite. It's a great product and they keep improving it / investing into it, and I'm not aware that it generates much revenue (it seems to be the grocery store version of milk). Most companies slack big time once they're out in front, Google doesn't seem…
Completely agree. Aside from the practical, everyday application of maps, being able to jump into streetview and see the house I grew up in, zoom out and jump to the other side of the planet and jump back into streetview to see the house I lived in whilst living in New Zealand is almost magical.
Re: Only clear skies on Google Maps and Earth
#50Google has contributed numerous great things to the Internet / Web / computing technology of the last 15 years, but among all of that, Google Maps might just be my favorite. It's a great product and they keep improving it / investing into it, and I'm not aware that it generates much revenue (it seems to be the grocery store version of milk). Most companies slack big time once they're out in front, Google doesn't seem…
They do sell API access as far as I know.