Rediscover Historical Imagery in Google Earth 6

Historical imagery is one of the most powerful features of Google Earth, enabling you to go back in time and browse the visual historical record of our planet – from the evolution and rise of developing communities to the destruction caused by hurricanes, earthquakes and fires. With Google Earth 6, we’ve made it easier than ever to discover historical imagery. In addition to streamlining the timeline interface, we’ve added a date button to the status bar to notify you of past imagery that you might be interested in exploring. So now, when you zoom in on a location in our latest version of Google Earth, the button will appear highlighting specific years. Clicking it enables historical imagery and takes you back to the year you selected. For instance, when I zoom in on the headquarters of a certain company with a fruit namesake nestled in the heart of Silicon Valley, Google Earth suggests imagery from 1948. Clicking the date button reveals the fruit tree orchards that used to inhabit that very location. I wonder if they were apple trees.
Google Earth 6 suggests historical imagery to explore, e.g. of Silicon Valley in 1948
In the almost two years that historical imagery has been available, we have captured several moments of cultural significance, such as the inauguration of the first African American President of the United States, the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, and the transformation of South Africa in preparation for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Washington D.C., January 20, 2009. Can you spot where the jumbotrons were installed?
But the feature is more than just what historians deem significant. We built the historical imagery database to enable anyone to see and tell their own personal history. A great example comes from fellow historical imagery engineer Reuel Nash:

The construction of Terminal D at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport
We have a vast amount of data in our historical imagery archive, so you’ll be able to tell your own personal stories by browsing those places that are special to you. In fact, we have more square miles of high resolution imagery in our historical imagery archive than in our default view. In the coming years, we look forward to expanding this imagery collection even further. Visit the Historical Imagery Showcase to watch video tours of cities with imagery dating as far back as 1940.
Posted by Chris Co, Google Earth Software Engineer

In 1979, my wife and I spent the first night of our marriage in a hotel at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. It was still there in 1995, which you can see in Google Earth. The hotel and the surrounding area has since been replaced by Terminal D. You can see the terminal construction (and destruction of the hotel) literally from the ground up using historical imagery.

Google Places Verifying Business Listing Discrepancies with Owner

A number of users have sent me copies of a recent email communication that Google Places is sending to claimed business where there is possible problem with the listing. The emails detail potentially conflicting information with the listing when compared to information that Google has about the business in the “cluster”.

In one email example sent to the owner of a merged record, Google suggested a category that Google thought was more appropriate. The category was obviously for the other business in the merge and was inappropriate for this business. It was fascinating that Google was not accepting on face value the categories entered by the business owner.

In another example noted in the forums, Google couldn’t verify the street address that the business was using, perhaps because of the improper abbreviation of the word terrace. Google noted:

You provided:   20814 Houseman terr, Ashburn VA 20148, United States
Google was unable to identify the correct physical address for this business. This address is required for verification. Please edit your listing, and add the real, physical address. You can later choose to hide it from your Place Page, if your business doesn’t have a storefront or office.

Here is the copy of the email I received this evening for a listing that I manage:

Please review your listing

Hello from Google Places,

To help people searching for businesses like yours, Google is always working to improve the accuracy of local business listings. While reviewing your Places listing for Sundahl & Co Insurance, we found that this business may be permanently closed.

Is this place closed?

Sundahl & Co Insurance
58 Derrick Rd.
Bradford PA 16701
United States

Please log in to your Places account and let us know if this business is still open. If we don’t hear from you before January 31, 2011, we may remove this listing.

Thank you,

The Google Places Team

© 2010 Google Inc. 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043

Email Preferences: You have received this mandatory email service announcement to update you about important changes to your Google Places product or account.

The email is a refreshing effort to verify discrepancies with the cluster BEFORE a drastic, business affecting change takes place. It is also an effort to align the content of the Places page with Google’s best known information about the Place.

In my case, there has been a persistent record popping up for the business at their old address which was marked as closed. It is possible that the information from the old address, although closed, merged into the cluster for the current listing. Google’s misunderstanding in the situation is understandable.

This new outreach allows Google to double check information in the cluster against the person or people best able to suggest its accuracy… the business owners. It is a welcome step and one that should minimize improper closings, mergings and other errors and use owner provided data at lest when Google trusts the owner’s input.

Props to Google Places!

Here are the screen shots from the process of providing Google from the owner’s point of view…

Appears at the top of the Places List view:

The individual record is highlighted:

When the “Review and Correct” link is chosen it takes you to this screen:

This shows up at the end of the edit session: