51–60 of 64 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My hometown still looks horrible :'( https://maps.google.com/?ll=65.14846,-13.690295&spn=0.015042...
Hehe, even the middle of the Indian Ocean is better: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Port-aux-Fran%C3%A7ais,+Terre... it was even updated this year.
The clouds have gone, but the now defunct and abandoned military complex near my hometown in Ede, The Netherlands is still rendered 'classified': https://maps.google.com/maps?q=52.067359,5.699562&num=1&t=h&... Which is weird, because even Area 51 is completely visible in high-res.
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=52.067359,5.699562&ll=52.0645...
Oh 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…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Land_Survey_System
I've messed around with building 'road pressure' maps using the Tiger data from the census, in states like Michigan (at least in the lower peninsula), there is very little land that is not within about 1/2 mile of a public road.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
If you seriously believe that _any_ mapping provider (including Microsoft, Nokia, or Google) hasn't been actively removing clouds from their imagery for a very, very long time, then you haven't been paying attention. No one needed MapBox to give them the idea of removing the giant patches of white obscuring everything in view.
In any case, your willingness to comment on a subject that you obviously know little about -- and then extrapolate your wrongness into a statement about the industry -- is impressive. Every sentence of your original post is wrong.
It's pretty funny how far Google will go to avoid talking about the weather. They even put barometers in all their phones but aren't building a weather network or buying any weather startups (like mine)! What gives? They algorithmically remove weather, create an unused network of 50,000,000 barometers, gah!
Perhaps because Google Weather[1] will actually control the weather. A Google Pumping station every half kilometer or so, they are going to use the barometers in Android phones to give feedback on their actions. So if you need sunny weather the pumping stations will pull air from outside the area in and heat it up, if you want it to rain they will create a low pressure zone by pumping air out to a different zone. The…
http://reportermag.com/article/crowdsourcing/campus-rumors
Check out Rumor #9...
"Under Dr. Al Simone, the weather machine was used nearly flawlessly, as tour days always meant good weather, and the day after always rained."
It'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.
MapBox announcement seems to be not more than a couple of months old. If you think that someone can take inspiration, get data, process, QA test and launch such a feature in such a short duration, you should be impressed anyway. Google Earth had 3D for a long time. Vector maps is again a huge undertaking and takes time to get right. Some companies didn't take their time, some did.
It'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.
MapBox announcement seems to be not more than a couple of months old. If you think that someone can take inspiration, get data, process, QA test and launch such a feature in such a short duration, you should be impressed anyway. Google Earth had 3D for a long time. Vector maps is again a huge undertaking and takes time to get right. Some companies didn't take their time, some did.
It's pretty funny how far Google will go to avoid talking about the weather. They even put barometers in all their phones but aren't building a weather network or buying any weather startups (like mine)! What gives? They algorithmically remove weather, create an unused network of 50,000,000 barometers, gah!