My Google Map Blog

Dutch flag in german town Leipzig with Dutch text on it. The text on the flag says “We do have tickets!” I don’t know what it’s about…

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Google Earth has just rolled out some fresh imagery for us! Thanks to GEB reader 'orb2222' for being the first to let us know about it.

As is almost always the case, you can use Google Maps to determine for sure whether or not a specific area is fresh. This new imagery isn't in Google Maps yet, so you can compare Earth vs. Maps to see what's new; the fresh imagery is already in Google Earth, but the old imagery is still in Google Maps. If you compare the two side-by-side and they're not identical, that means that you've found a freshly updated area in Google Earth!

[UPDATED -- 8-September, 8:59pm EST]

• Canada: Quebec -- thanks 'Steven'
• China: Western areas -- thanks 'Steven'
• Ecuador: Latacunga -- thanks 'Snakeye'
• Kyrgyzstan: Western areas -- thanks 'Steven'
• Poland: Various cities -- thanks 'orb2222'
• Spain: Basque Country -- thanks ''Neutravo'
• Sri Lanka: Various -- thanks 'Steven'
• United States: NW Bay Area, CA : Dover, DE : Louisville, KY : Philadelphia, PA : Houston, TX : Richmond, VA : Spokane, WA -- thanks 'belmaktor', 'Steven' and 'ChrisK'

If you find any other updated areas, please leave a comment and let us know!

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Back in July, Stefan Geens of Ogle Earth had a chance to visit Kashgar, a city in west China. It's a place he's wanted to visit for a long time, but had to hurry to see it; the government is in the process of demolishing 85% of the old town!

He spent more than a week in the city, photographing and documenting everything he possibly could. The result is nothing short of amazing.

As you can likely guess, Stefan took all of that data (georeferenced photos, GPS tracks and a superimposed map) and created an impressive file for Google Earth.

You can download that KMZ file here, and I highly recommend you visit his blog to read the entire story.

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Glasgow Pollokshaws Towers were imploded and here is what is left from them

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Second tower

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Video of the implosion.

One of the neat things included as part of SketchUp 8 was the new way that it pulled in imagery from Google Earth. Rather than using the Google Earth COM API, as it had for years (Frank covered it in 2006), it pulls in imagery via Google Maps which results in color imagery instead of the black and white that you're used to.

While the color imagery is certainly a great feature, it appears there is another reason for the change as well -- Google is eliminating the COM API.

Instead, Google is encouraging developers to take advantage of the powerful JavaScript API that was released in 2008 along side the Google Earth Plug-in. This allowed for a wide variety of applications, like the popular "monster milktruck!" demo.

It's worth noting that current and all past versions of Google Earth (5.2 and earlier) will continue to support the COM API, but future versions will not.

If you're a developer, what do you think of this news? Have you moved on to the JavaScript API already and this is a non-event? Or does this have you scrambling to make sure your app will work with future versions of Google Earth?