Comments on: Google Maps UK

Google Maps UK

Protocols of the Elders of Awesome — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 07:54:09 -0800

Google's UK satellite photos have been drastically improved

By: wakko

wakko — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 07:59:06 -0800

Their US ones still pretty much blow though.

By: greycap

greycap — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 08:05:52 -0800

About time. Thankfully the Lancaster bomber over Huntingdon still lives on....

By: sindark

sindark — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 08:08:55 -0800

Not of Oxford, unfortunately.

By: devon

devon — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 08:19:29 -0800

They still seem quite dated though. Lots of new buildings near me aren't there, and there's someone else in my parking space

By: runkelfinker

runkelfinker — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 08:30:01 -0800

Nice, I've just found my parents' cars...

By: 327.ca

327.ca — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 08:34:12 -0800

About time. Thankfully the Lancaster bomber over Huntingdon still lives on.... What's the story about this photo?

By: cillit bang

cillit bang — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 08:35:08 -0800

They've added two more zoom levels to the whole thing. It's not just the UK, though they have improved the coverage. More here.

By: tnai

tnai — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 08:41:14 -0800

odd, the aerial photo of my road looks like somewhere i would like to live rather that the overbuilt and overpopulated housing estate that it actually is.

By: smackfu

smackfu — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 08:49:29 -0800

Their US ones still pretty much blow though. "Wildly inconsistent" would be my description. Some states like Massachusetts and Indiana have public domain statewide aerial photos, so those states have excellent coverage. The rest of the country seems pretty random. For instance, the little square in Connecticut that I live in has been very bad resolution since Google Maps was introduced. Yet just in the last couple of months, it was silently updated to current hi-resolution data that's not more than a year old.

By: imperium

imperium — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 08:53:55 -0800

No improvement whatsoever in Central Edinburgh, where this is the best they can do. Hardly worth bothering with.

By: greycap

greycap — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 08:54:51 -0800

327.ca - it's part of the RAF's Battle of Britain memorial flight. The "City of Lincoln", to be precise.

By: swell

swell — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 09:01:36 -0800

Neat, greycap. 327.ca, read here.

By: wsg

wsg — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 09:07:22 -0800

The old photos of Buckingham Palace just happened to be taken during the changing of the guard, which was kinda cool.

By: jonson

jonson — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 09:15:50 -0800

I was disappointed to see Oxford still blurry as well, but the little corner of Summertown that I lived in 20 years ago was fortunately still hi-res, so I could see the park, & my house, but not the rest of the town.

By: eriko

eriko — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 09:15:52 -0800

Their US ones still pretty much blow though. Depends. The ones of St. Louis are very good, but southern IL does blow. The old photos of Buckingham Palace just happened to be taken during the changing of the guard. It looks like this one is as well, but just before the start -- note the tourists gathering at the fence and on the Victoria Monument, and the unit marching in formation that's just crossing the road, with an mounted officer on the left. I think Lizzy needs to do something more with that courtyard. Boring! Nice yard, though would it have killed them to clean the film before they scanned it?

By: caddis

caddis — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 09:20:24 -0800

I am not sure these are all satellite photos. I think they use regular aerial photography for the highest resolutions.

By: bonaldi

bonaldi — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 09:20:49 -0800

Ayrshire's still rotten (in resolution, ahem), except near the military base. I wonder why the best resolution is always near targets of military interest.

By: keijo

keijo — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 09:21:06 -0800

Thanks mate, good to see this

By: rolypolyman

rolypolyman — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 09:24:07 -0800

Nope, still the same old cruddy image of Teletubby Land.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 09:26:38 -0800

Wow, you can see individual cars and even people. Seems like much better then 1m resolution. How long untill we get a constilation of sats snapping shots each saturday, so we get quickly-updating data automaticaly. That would be cool.

By: eriko

eriko — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 09:30:10 -0800

Wow, these are much nicer. London Heathrow Terminal 4. Now boarding, British Airways Flight 001 to New York JFK.

By: smackfu

smackfu — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 09:41:51 -0800

Those Concorde pics are interesting and they mean those photos date to pre-2003.

By: PurpleJack

PurpleJack — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 09:46:49 -0800

That's cool, I can now make out my parents' garden shed. The whole street was one big blurry mess before.

By: dodgygeezer

dodgygeezer — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 09:50:40 -0800

There's some interesting perspective problems like this one at Chalk Farm Station.

By: Protocols of the Elders of Awesome

Protocols of the Elders of Awesome — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 09:53:55 -0800

that's great dodgygeezer

By: Saucy Intruder

Saucy Intruder — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 09:57:35 -0800

New York and Boston can now be seen at that level as well. Very cool.

By: booksandlibretti

booksandlibretti — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 10:01:50 -0800

Wow, smackfu, I live in the same square. I can see my house now -- and even the vegetable garden! I think the previous pictures of our area were from 1991. These are more recent (although not within the last two years, from clues I can see). These were taken during what seems like a godawful early winter, though, and the next town over's still enjoying a beautiful summer.

By: coach_mcguirk

coach_mcguirk — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 10:10:36 -0800

Chalk Farm has gone all M.C. Escher. Superb.

By: nthdegx

nthdegx — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 10:12:02 -0800

What the hell is happening at Stamford Bridge? Whatever it is they should probably do it again given the state of the pitch this afternoon.

By: nthdegx

nthdegx — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 10:15:57 -0800

Err, I ballsed that up.

By: nthdegx

nthdegx — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 10:17:47 -0800

So what the hell is happening at Stamford Bridge?

By: Samizdata

Samizdata — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 10:50:15 -0800

Woot! I'm still a big green blur!

By: smackfu

smackfu — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 10:50:37 -0800

They still don't have Bath, which I would love to see in high-rez.

By: 13twelve

13twelve — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 10:50:42 -0800

Dope I can see my house. Cant find my car though!

By: 13twelve

13twelve — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 10:54:16 -0800

oh found it! (probably)

By: iain

iain — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 11:33:29 -0800

I'm assuming you've not been using google earth recently then...? I think this data was introduced there on 2nd December.

By: 327.ca

327.ca — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 11:40:39 -0800

Neat, greycap. 327.ca, read here. Amazing. Thanks, swell and greycap.

By: lupus_yonderboy

lupus_yonderboy — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 12:03:56 -0800

Hmm, it seems like the photo of my neighborhood in Brooklyn has also improved. I always wondered what was behind the tall fences at 140 Kent Avenue and now I know. I've made love here -- it was out over the water on those old concrete pilings... wow! (Note the interesting artefact of stitching the images together in that second one).

By: slimepuppy

slimepuppy — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 13:00:57 -0800

Finally, West London is something more than a green blurry blob. At least on google maps.

By: scaryduck

scaryduck — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 13:02:33 -0800

Nope they still haven't updated my locale.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 13:05:43 -0800

iain, I'm sure the Google Earth BBS knows that, but I certainly had no idea. Yeah, they've brought Chicago up to the GE level of detail (I can see my friend's van in her driveway), but my hometown in Wisconsin is as blurry as ever. Fortunately, we have Windows Live, which gives us 1, 2, 3, no 4 views of our property from just a couple hundred feet. When I saw it I finally realized what the helicopter criss-crossing over town last summer was doing (I'm actually surprised I couldn't find myself working outside in any of the pics). Then again, they only did the city proper. Personally, I like the effect that competition is having. Terraserver didn't change once in -- what? -- four or five years? Despite promises.

By: bruzie

bruzie — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 13:19:29 -0800

Dunsfold Park has been updated. For those of you who don't know, it's where Top Gear is filmed. Although the photo predates the current incarnation as there's no markings on the test track and the roof of the hangar doesn't have the logo.

By: matkline

matkline — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 13:31:36 -0800

double-deckers!

By: marvin

marvin — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 13:40:25 -0800

the faceless grey trolls from Redmond add aerial photos now

By: Phantomx

Phantomx — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 13:45:13 -0800

I seem to recall my neighborhood in Indianapolis having greater resolution. As in I could see car blobs, but not make out the cars. Now its hard to make out the car blobs. Maybe I'm just remembering it wrong. I do find the Indiana higher resolution image thing kind of amusing since it makes the state look grey compared to the rest of the country. Until you zoom in a little bit it almost looks like the whole state is a city, but that couldn't be further from the truth.

By: Phantomx

Phantomx — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 13:50:50 -0800

I didn't see this until after I posted my last comment. The 'birds eye' view that Windows Live has is pretty neat. But the above shots of my house still suck. But I was talking about GEarth (I pronounce it 'girth') in my previous post.

By: smackfu

smackfu — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 13:52:58 -0800

The non-functionality of Windows Live Local in Safari is maddening. It doesn't even say it's not supported. It just doesn't work. Even the help and about items don't do anything.

By: marvin

marvin — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 14:08:56 -0800

smackfu- use Mac Firefox.

By: rhymer

rhymer — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 14:15:30 -0800

They are cool, but I agree about the datedness. My house is clearly visible but all the hard work I've done in the garden isn't.

By: StephenB

StephenB — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 14:28:24 -0800

You have to have boundaries between images, especially over cities. I imagine there are a lot of places where you can see these effects.

By: laukf

laukf — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 14:34:29 -0800

This is very cool - just moving flats and really interesting to see sat pics of the surrounding area.

By: Cranberry

Cranberry — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 14:36:52 -0800

Google pinpointed the house next door as my address. Heh! For once, I know more than Google.

By: polaroid

polaroid — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 16:04:21 -0800

The ones over central london now appear to be 2-3 years old instead of 10+. You can see the ring-fence around an almost-completed pedestrianised north side of Trafalgar square.

By: cillit bang

cillit bang — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 16:47:41 -0800

The Redmond Trolls also manage to label London's St James's Park "St James Square", which in reality is the little green dot above Pall Mall.

By: scruss

scruss — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 18:02:23 -0800

Yay; Coal Clough Wind Farm is no longer a blob.

By: eriko

eriko — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 18:09:58 -0800

The ones over central london now appear to be 2-3 years old instead of 10+ Other keys -- Paternoster Sqaure is under construction -- the pavement looks about half done. There's no Congestion Charge "C"s in the roadways, as far as I could tell. The Millenium Bridge is open and full of people.

By: heydanno

heydanno — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 18:40:36 -0800

The reason much of the aerial photo resolutions are inconsistent in the US is that the highest-resolution data are available only for the 133 most-populated urban areas. At least, that's for images from the USGS, which is the source for the vast majority of orthoimagery available online. List of urban areas and high-resolution photo dates

By: keno

keno — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 19:31:26 -0800

Oh this still sucks. Damn Google. I want my money back... oh hang on...

By: flod

flod — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 21:42:31 -0800

Yay, Honolulu happens to be one of those 133 urban areas, and newly updated. At maximum zoom, you can see individual gravestones in Punchbowl.

By: Phantomx

Phantomx — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 22:41:24 -0800

I think that is the coolest cemetery I have ever seen.

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 22:51:55 -0800

This cemetary in Sydney always amazed me (I wonder what the price per plot might be these days) when I walked by on the coast trail. Nice view, even if you can't enjoy it when you're dead.

By: rikabel

rikabel — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 03:20:35 -0800

Hm, our college accommodation is still a building site.

By: eriko

eriko — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 05:37:42 -0800

The new Chicago images are sharp, but whoa, it is as if Sim City Went Crazy. Scroll around -- there's lots of perspective fun.

By: CrunchyGods

CrunchyGods — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 06:26:07 -0800

Just went flying over Paris for a while. God, I love this thing...

By: darren

darren — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 07:43:45 -0800

London looks great, but you still can't see Stonehenge.

By: Boo!

Boo! — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 08:04:24 -0800

polaroid, I'm pretty sure that's Buckingham Palace. Trafalgar Square is over here, on the opposite end of the Mall.

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 10:48:05 -0800

Someone wanna click the "Sim City" link four up, pan right, and tell me wtf is going on there in the water? Did Chicago build an artificial lake-bottom for the boats?

By: caddis

caddis — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 12:35:46 -0800

I think you are looking at the border between two separate photos, if I understand your question correctly.

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 13:01:58 -0800

Having found a couple of boats that are cut in half by the demarcation between dark grey and water, yes: two separate photos. But I'm still curious: the bouy system is obviously patterned and intended for docking all those boats -- and there is no sign whatsoever of that system having existed in the bordering photos, despite the cut-in-half boats and such. My best guess is that Chicago dropped a ton of construction debris into the lake to build a shallow, sheltered harbour near downtown, for the benefit of the boat owners.

By: caddis

caddis — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 15:24:55 -0800

Many places take out their mooring buoys in winter.

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 15:44:05 -0800

More fun with perspective and map joins.

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 16:06:28 -0800

Ah! That would explain it!