New Google Earth imagery coming this week

 

In a bit of a surprise move, rather than allowing us to discover new imagery in Google Earth, Google has pre-announced an imagery update that is due out later this week.

[UPDATE: The imagery is now live in Google Earth. See the bottom of this post for a list of updated areas.]

Part of the update will include some high-quality imagery from Abbottabad, Pakistan, which was captured in May, 2010. They’re offering a preview of that imagery via this KML file.

 

new-imagery.jpg 

In addition, the very new GeoEye imagery of Abbottabad that we mentioned yesterday will be available in the historical imagery feature of Google Earth soon. Remember, historical imagery is sometimes newer than the base imagery.

It sounds like it’s quite a major update, and we’ll be sure to let you know when it goes live. Here is the full list of areas that will be getting fresh imagery:

High Resolution Aerial Updates:
USA: Brookshire, TX; Brownsville, TX; Dallas, TX; Ft Stockton, TX; Hebbronville, TX; Houston, TX; Laredo, TX; McAllen, TX; Milwaukee, WI; Padre Island, TX; Wharton, TX; Zapata, TX;
Australia: Central Coast, New Castle, and Salamander Bay
Norway: Buskerud, Fredrikstad, and Oslo

Countries/Regions receiving High Resolution Satellite Updates:
Algeria, Angola, Antarctica, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belarus, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guinea, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Lithuania, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Svalbard, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, The Gambia, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, West Bank, Western Sahara, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Bing Maps venue maps now feature nine largest US malls

Last December we introduced detailed shopping mall maps. Since then, we’ve been adding more mall maps every week. In fact as of this post we’ve finished more than 148 malls in more than 20 states — including the nine largest enclosed malls by square feet in the US.*  These are:

*As listed by the International Council of Shopping Centers
For most of our mall maps, you can see parking, ATMs, entrances, as well as many other mall services. Additionally, when searching on Bing Maps for a certain mall or store within that mall, you will be shown a “mall map” link in the search results contact card.


Want to find out if your favorite mall is covered? Just go to bing.com/maps, type in its name, and click on Mall Map in the listing if it appears.
As always, we’d like to know what you think. Please comment below on what you like and don’t like about venue maps. Are there other malls you’d like covered? How about other venues? How can we make the maps even more helpful?

SketchUp 8: Now in a dozen languages

In November, we promised SketchUp 8 in three more languages. Well, today’s the day. All of us here at SketchUp HQ are pleased to let you know that Russian, Dutch and Simplified Chinese are ready and waiting to be downloaded from our website. They join French, Spanish, Italian, German, Japanese, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, Traditional Chinese and English (UK and US) for a total of twelve languages.

To see the SketchUp website in another language, use the Change Language drop-down menu in the upper-right corner of any page.