Street View collections in Google Earth

Google has just released a huge variety of “special collections” for Street View, all of which can be seen from within Google Earth. This includes a wide variety of parks, all captured with the Street View “Trike” (a three-wheeled bicycle that has a Street View camera mounted on it). Among the parks are Kensington Gardens in London and Knuthenborg Safari Park in Denmark.

Of special note is High Line Park in New York City, an old elevated railroad track that has become a park since its closure in the 1980’s.

high-line.jpg

Not only does it look great in Street View, but Google has produced a short video to tell you a bit more about the High Line and what makes it special:

If you’re not familiar with how Street View works in Google Earth, check out this post for a quick overview. Be sure to check out Google’s “Parks of the World” Gallery to see some of these amazing new Street View sights. (via Google Lat Long Blog)

The new look of Google Maps

Hot on the heels of our new style for the Google Maps user interface, today we are pushing out some further improvements to our map design to match the updated look and feel and further improve the usability of our maps.

Amongst the changes you will find a plethora of subtle changes, designed to make the map cleaner, more focused, more visually harmonious, and easier to use. Some highlights to look out for are a brighter and more cheerful color palette, a more integrated and less visually noisy labeling style, subtle improvements to footpaths and minor roads, and cleaner building and land parcel rendering.

Most of these improvements, like many that we’ve made over the last couple of years, are gentle enough that many people won’t even notice the difference. When you add them together, however, and then compare to how the map looked even as recently as two years ago, it’s remarkable to see how dramatic the change is.

Compare how our maps of New York looked in 2009, then again the same time in 2010, and now with the new tiles for 2011. The improved colour scheme and less jarring label outlines help the labels to feel part of the map, as opposed to a distracting overlay. It’s also easier to distinguish the city name, neighborhoods, and roads through subtle changes in label color:

The visually heavy highway shields are now integrated into the road labels, and the brighter and cleaner style shifts the focus onto the road names and prominent landmarks in the area. London is one place that benefits from this:


The style evolution has enabled us to place more information whilst still making the map feel simpler. In the case of Sydney, thinner and cleaner roads, better representation of tunnels, more subtle footpaths in the parks, and more subtle labeling all contribute:


We hope you enjoyed this quick retrospective and find the new improvements to the map style helpful. There are many more than have been highlighted here, so have a look around Google Maps today and see if you can spot any improvements to your local area.

OpenCaching.com: Take the 2011 Kansas State Park Challenge

Having recently announced our new Series Caches, in which you can group similar caches to form a collection at OpenCaching.com, we’re excited that the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism has used this new tool to create their 2011 State Park Challenge. This statewide contest, which has a total of 31 participating State Parks and Wildlife Areas, began in May and ends on Nov. 1. Only Official KDWPT Challenge caches are eligible for this statewide contest, and a complete list of rules, prizes, and entry forms can be found at KDWPT’s website.

You can find the special KDWPT Series page at OpenCaching.com by clicking this link, which makes it simple to download the whole batch. And even if you don’t complete all 31 caches, you can still submit a partially completed form to KDWPT and be entered to win some great Garmin accessories. If you have a similar idea for a Series or a promotion, contact us at http://bit.ly/OCmail and we’ll work together to get things up

The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks currently manages 24 state parks across the state and The Prairie Spirit Trail. Most have access to reservoirs and wildlife areas. Many also have trails for hiking, biking or horseback riding. Fifteen state parks (Cedar Bluff, Cheney, Crawford, Cross Timbers, El Dorado, Eisenhower, Glen Elder, Kanopolis, Lovewell, Milford, Perry, Prairie Dog, Tuttle Creek, Webster, Fall River, Pomona and Wilson) now provide cabins, both primitive and modern. A few parks are preserved natural areas, allowing visitors to enjoy unspoiled wild Kansas. Many parks host annual events such as concerts, festivals, and competitions. Whatever your outdoor interest – hiking, camping, wildlife observation, fishing, bike riding, horseback riding, hunting, or just plain relaxing, a Kansas state park has what you’re looking for. If you’ve never been to a Kansas state park, visit the website at http://www.kdwp.state.ks.us/ to find brochures for each of the Kansas state parks.