Category Archives: Google LatLong Blog

News and notes by the Google Earth and Maps team

Let your loved ones know you’re safe with our new personal safety app

Whether it’s hiking alone or walking down a street after dark — sometimes you want to know someone's got your back. To help you feel safe and give your friends and family peace of mind, today we're launching Trusted Contacts. This new personal safety app lets you share your location with loved ones in everyday situations and when emergencies arise — even if your phone is offline or you can’t get to it. 

Here’s how it works: Once you install the Android app, you can assign “trusted” status to your closest friends and family. Your trusted contacts will be able to see your activity status — whether you’ve moved around recently and are online — to quickly know if you're OK. If you find yourself in a situation where you feel unsafe, you can share your actual location with your trusted contacts. And if your trusted contacts are really worried about you, they can request to see your location. If everything’s fine, you can deny the request. But if you’re unable to respond within a reasonable timeframe, your location is shared automatically and your loved ones can determine the best way to help you out. Of course, you can stop sharing your location or change your trusted contacts whenever you want.

TrustedContactsGIF

Here’s a little more detail on how Trusted Contacts might work, starring Elliot and Thelma:

personalsafety app_contacts.png

Get help even if your phone’s offline

Elliot heads out for a hike on his own, telling Thelma he’ll meet her for coffee later. About an hour in, Elliot realizes he’s strayed off the path and lost service. When Elliot doesn’t show up at the coffee shop, Thelma starts to worry. Because Trusted Contacts works even if a phone is offline, Thelma requests Elliot’s location and in five minutes can see that his last known location was in the middle of the canyon. Thelma calls the nearest ranger station, they send out a rescue party, and find Elliot in a few hours.

personalsafety app_2.png

Invite a trusted friend to virtually walk you home if you feel unsafe

Elliot stayed at the office later than normal and notices it’s awfully dark out. He opens Trusted Contacts and shares his location with Thelma. Now Thelma can walk him home — virtually. When Elliot gets home, he simply taps the banner at the top of the screen or from the lockscreen and stops sharing his location.


screen_sharing_notif.height_800.png

Whether you just need a little reassurance or you’re actually in an emergency, Trusted Contacts helps connect you with the people you care about most — at the times you need them most. Download Trusted Contacts today from the Play Store and visit the help center for more info. If you're an iOS user, click here to get notified when the iOS app is available

Source: Google LatLong


Let your loved ones know you’re safe with our new personal safety app

Whether it’s hiking alone or walking down a street after dark — sometimes you want to know someone's got your back. To help you feel safe and give your friends and family peace of mind, today we're launching Trusted Contacts. This new personal safety app lets you share your location with loved ones in everyday situations and when emergencies arise — even if your phone is offline or you can’t get to it. 

Here’s how it works: Once you install the Android app, you can assign “trusted” status to your closest friends and family. Your trusted contacts will be able to see your activity status — whether you’ve moved around recently and are online — to quickly know if you're OK. If you find yourself in a situation where you feel unsafe, you can share your actual location with your trusted contacts. And if your trusted contacts are really worried about you, they can request to see your location. If everything’s fine, you can deny the request. But if you’re unable to respond within a reasonable timeframe, your location is shared automatically and your loved ones can determine the best way to help you out. Of course, you can stop sharing your location or change your trusted contacts whenever you want.

TrustedContactsGIF

Here’s a little more detail on how Trusted Contacts might work, starring Elliot and Thelma:

Elliot & Thelma

Get help even if your phone’s offline

Elliot heads out for a hike on his own, telling Thelma he’ll meet her for coffee later. About an hour in, Elliot realizes he’s strayed off the path and lost service. When Elliot doesn’t show up at the coffee shop, Thelma starts to worry. Because Trusted Contacts works even if a phone is offline, Thelma requests Elliot’s location and in five minutes can see that his last known location was in the middle of the canyon. Thelma calls the nearest ranger station, they send out a rescue party, and find Elliot in a few hours.

Requesting Location

Invite a trusted friend to virtually walk you home if you feel unsafe

Elliot stayed at the office later than normal and notices it’s awfully dark out. He opens Trusted Contacts and shares his location with Thelma. Now Thelma can walk him home — virtually. When Elliot gets home, he simply taps the banner at the top of the screen or from the lockscreen and stops sharing his location.


Sharing Location

Whether you just need a little reassurance or you’re actually in an emergency, Trusted Contacts helps connect you with the people you care about most — at the times you need them most. Download Trusted Contacts today from the Play Store and visit the help center for more info.

Source: Google LatLong


Let your loved ones know you’re safe with our new personal safety app

Whether it’s hiking alone or walking down a street after dark — sometimes you want to know someone's got your back. To help you feel safe and give your friends and family peace of mind, today we're launching Trusted Contacts. This new personal safety app lets you share your location with loved ones in everyday situations and when emergencies arise — even if your phone is offline or you can’t get to it. 

Here’s how it works: Once you install the Android app, you can assign “trusted” status to your closest friends and family. Your trusted contacts will be able to see your activity status — whether you’ve moved around recently and are online — to quickly know if you're OK. If you find yourself in a situation where you feel unsafe, you can share your actual location with your trusted contacts. And if your trusted contacts are really worried about you, they can request to see your location. If everything’s fine, you can deny the request. But if you’re unable to respond within a reasonable timeframe, your location is shared automatically and your loved ones can determine the best way to help you out. Of course, you can stop sharing your location or change your trusted contacts whenever you want.

TrustedContactsGIF

Here’s a little more detail on how Trusted Contacts might work, starring Elliot and Thelma:

Elliot & Thelma

Get help even if your phone’s offline

Elliot heads out for a hike on his own, telling Thelma he’ll meet her for coffee later. About an hour in, Elliot realizes he’s strayed off the path and lost service. When Elliot doesn’t show up at the coffee shop, Thelma starts to worry. Because Trusted Contacts works even if a phone is offline, Thelma requests Elliot’s location and in five minutes can see that his last known location was in the middle of the canyon. Thelma calls the nearest ranger station, they send out a rescue party, and find Elliot in a few hours.

Requesting Location

Invite a trusted friend to virtually walk you home if you feel unsafe

Elliot stayed at the office later than normal and notices it’s awfully dark out. He opens Trusted Contacts and shares his location with Thelma. Now Thelma can walk him home — virtually. When Elliot gets home, he simply taps the banner at the top of the screen or from the lockscreen and stops sharing his location.


Sharing Location

Whether you just need a little reassurance or you’re actually in an emergency, Trusted Contacts helps connect you with the people you care about most — at the times you need them most. Download Trusted Contacts today from the Play Store and visit the help center for more info. If you're an iOS user, click here to get notified when the iOS app is available

Source: Google LatLong


Have a holly jolly time in Santa’s Village — now open

Santa’s elves are back at the North Pole working to make sure old Kris Kringle is ready for his journey around the world on December 24 — and that means Santa’s Village is now officially open. Each day until the sleigh takes off, we’ll unlock a new experience that’ll get even the biggest grinch into the holiday spirit.   

                                        

From sliding penguins to dancing elves, the residents of the North Pole are having the time of their lives, and now you can join in the merriment. This year you’ll find several new games in Santa’s Village, including four new ones only available on the Android app — including Present Quest, where you try your hand at recovering Santa’s misplaced gifts out in the real world.

                                     

Just in time for CSEdWeek this December 5 through 11, we’ll unwrap three coding games to help kids of all ages learn the basics of coding. In Code Boogie, for example, you can help Santa’s elves learn dance moves by combining patterns and creating sequences.

                                      

Within the gates of Santa’s Village, the new educator resource page is filled with lesson plans and educational games spanning subjects from computer science to geography. Teachers and parents can sort by category to easily find and download lesson plans for use in the classroom or at home.

                                    

Be on the lookout for more holiday cheer throughout the month, and don’t forget to return on December 23-24 (depending on your time zone) to track Santa’s journey around the world as he brings gifts and joy to people worldwide. Until then, make merry with the residents of the North Pole on web (desktop and mobile Android/iOS), Android app, Google Maps (desktop and mobile), Android TV and Chrome.  


Source: Google LatLong


Our most detailed view of Earth across space and time

In 2013, we released Google Earth Timelapse, our most comprehensive picture of the Earth's changing surface. This interactive experience enabled people to explore these changes like never before—to watch the sprouting of Dubai’s artificial Palm Islands, the retreat of Alaska’s Columbia Glacier, and the impressive urban expansion of Las Vegas, Nevada. Today, we're making our largest update to Timelapse yet, with four additional years of imagery, petabytes of new data, and a sharper view of the Earth from 1984 to 2016. We’ve even teamed up again with our friends at TIME to give you an updated take on compelling locations. 

Miruuixiang

Meandering river in Nyingchi, Tibet, China [view in Timelapse] (Image credit: Landsat / Copernicus*)

Leveraging the same techniques we used to improve Google Maps and Google Earth back in June, the new Timelapse reveals a sharper view of our planet, with truer colors and fewer distracting artifacts. A great example of this is San Francisco and Oakland in California:

Bay Bridge
San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge reconstruction [view in Timelapse] (Image credit: Landsat / Copernicus*)

There’s much more to see, including glacial movement in Antarctica, urban growth, forest gain and loss, and infrastructure development:

Shirase Glacier Antarctica
Shirase Glacier, Antarctica [view in Timelapse] (Image credit: Landsat / Copernicus)
Hourihan Glacier
Hourihan Glacier, Antarctica [view in Timelapse] (Image credit: Landsat / Copernicus*)
Dalian Liaoning
Dalian Liaoning, China [view in Timelapse] (Image credit: Landsat / Copernicus*)
Nuflo
Nuflo de Chavez, Bolivia [view in Timelapse] (Image credit: Landsat / Copernicus*)
O'Hare Chicago
O'Hare Airport, Chicago, Illinois [view in Timelapse] (Image credit: Landsat / Copernicus*)

Using Google Earth Engine, we sifted through about three quadrillion pixels—that's 3 followed by 15 zeroes—from more than 5,000,000 satellite images. For this latest update, we had access to more images from the past, thanks to the Landsat Global Archive Consolidation Program, and fresh images from two new satellites, Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2.

We took the best of all those pixels to create 33 images of the entire planet, one for each year. We then encoded these new 3.95 terapixel global images into just over 25,000,000 overlapping multi-resolution video tiles, made interactively explorable by Carnegie Mellon CREATE Lab's Time Machine library, a technology for creating and viewing zoomable and pannable timelapses over space and time.

Ft. McMurray

Alberta Tar Sands, Canada [View in Timelapse] (Image credit: Landsat / Copernicus*)

To view the new Timelapse, head over to the Earth Engine website. You can also view the new annual mosaics in Google Earth's historical imagery feature on desktop, or spend a mesmerizing 40 minutes watching this YouTube playlist. Happy exploring!

*Landsat imagery courtesy of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and U.S. Geological Survey. Images also contain modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2015- 2016.

Source: Google LatLong


A totally rebuilt Sites, customer-tested and open for business

Earlier this year, we announced that a totally rebuilt version of Google Sites was on the way. Since then, we’ve worked with a set of customers through an Early Adopter Program to test the new Sites and fine tune the experience. Today, the new Google Sites is ready for all customers.

We’ve started turning customer feedback into new and improved features.  For example, some customers asked for the ability to measure how much engagement their sites were getting. You can now track site performance with Google Analytics. Other customers asked for more customization and different designs, so you can now choose between six themes to give your site the right look.

Nadia Lee, a product and change manager at Dow Jones, tested the new Sites to build a few informational sites for her teams and had this to say: “Sites is much more user friendly than other tools I’ve used, especially for non-technical people. It’s nice that I can collaborate in real-time with colleagues and see the edits they’re making. And, the final product looks clean and well-designed.”

Since its launch in 2008, Sites has made it possible for employees to build working team and project sites without writing a single line of code (no HTML, CSS or any other all-caps acronym.) But, web technologies have progressed a lot in the past decade, and the new Sites is an even more approachable way to build a site.

Sites as easy to create as a doc

Now, it’s easier than ever to create a site and add text, links, images and more with a quick cut-and-paste, or simply drag-and-drop to rearrange and resize elements on the page.

Sites integrated with your favorite apps

The new Sites is built to work with your favorite Google apps so you can insert content from the tools you use most. It’s easy to embed a schedule from Google Calendar, a video clip from Google Drive, or a location from Google Maps. You can also insert content from Docs, Sheets, Slides and Forms and a live version will be presented within the site.

Sites GA GIF

Sites built together

The new Sites is the first truly collaborative tool for building team and project sites. Using the same technology as Google Docs, the new Sites brings real-time, multi-user coauthoring so the whole team can add and update a project site without worrying about conflicts or locked pages.

Sites that are beautiful and functional on any screen

The new Sites also includes themes and layouts designed to intelligently scale and flex to any screen size, so they look great when you access them on a 30-inch monitor at your desk or on your smartphone during your commute. And, an integrated preview mode lets you see what your site will look like on a desktop, a tablet and a smartphone while you’re editing so you can build the most useful team and project sites.

The new Google Sites is open for business. If you’re a G Suite customer with Google Sites enabled, you can get started building on the new Sites now or learn how to enable Sites in the Admin Console. Customers can continue to use classic Sites as we continue to add capabilities and improve the new Sites.

Source: Google LatLong


Two new (and one tried-and-true) ways to get through turkey day with Google Maps

We’re just days away from Thanksgiving – the busiest American travel holiday of the year. Just in time for the mad dash to grandma’s house or your bestie's friendsgiving across town, we’ve got two new and one tried-and-true way for Google Maps to get you where you’re going without the holiday traffic hassle.

Beat event traffic with real-world info 

If you spend Thanksgiving in Chicago, Detroit, Houston or New York City then the local Thanksgiving Day parades are likely a popular pre-feast activity. But what often comes with the fun is gridlock, roadblocks, and longer commute times. This year we’ve incorporated the road closures, transit schedule changes, and detours associated with the parades into Google Maps in each of these cities. Now those headed to the parade – or trying to avoid it – will see the parade route visualized on the map and Google Maps navigation will take into account the real-life local changes when navigating you around these cities.

       

Beat the gridlock with real-time traffic alerts and re-routing

Don’t live in one of those cities? Don’t worry. We’ve already told you the best and worst times to leave for and return from your Thanksgiving road trips and once you’re on your way we’ll keep you on track with traffic alerts and real-time rerouting. Just input your destination and you get alerted about upcoming traffic conditions. While on the road, you’ll get a heads up if congestion lies ahead along with an estimate of how long the delay will be. When a faster alternative route is available, Google Maps will suggest it to you.

Real-time Traffic

Beat the crowds with Popular Times in real-time 

We looked at historical Google Maps data to determine the top five trending locations during the Thanksgiving holiday. It’s safe to say that if you’re planning to stop by a ham shop, outlet mall, pie shop, electronics store, or Christmas tree lot around Thanksgiving, you’ll run into throngs of last minute shoppers and deal hunters just like yourself. So just in time for holiday hordes, we've added a real-time look at how crowded a place is right now to help you decide when to go or whether you should head somewhere else.

 

If you’re dreading a holiday headache, let Google Maps be your Thanksgiving guide to a hassle free holiday.


Source: Google LatLong


Two new (and one tried-and-true) ways to get through turkey day with Google Maps

We’re just days away from Thanksgiving – the busiest American travel holiday of the year. Just in time for the mad dash to grandma’s house or your bestie's friendsgiving across town, we’ve got two new and one tried-and-true way for Google Maps to get you where you’re going without the holiday traffic hassle.

Beat event traffic with real-world info 

If you spend Thanksgiving in Chicago, Detroit, Houston or New York City then the local Thanksgiving Day parades are likely a popular pre-feast activity. But what often comes with the fun is gridlock, roadblocks, and longer commute times. This year we’ve incorporated the road closures, transit schedule changes, and detours associated with the parades into Google Maps in each of these cities. Now those headed to the parade – or trying to avoid it – will see the parade route visualized on the map and Google Maps navigation will take into account the real-life local changes when navigating you around these cities.

       

Beat the gridlock with real-time traffic alerts and re-routing

Don’t live in one of those cities? Don’t worry. We’ve already told you the best and worst times to leave for and return from your Thanksgiving road trips and once you’re on your way we’ll keep you on track with traffic alerts and real-time rerouting. Just input your destination and you get alerted about upcoming traffic conditions. While on the road, you’ll get a heads up if congestion lies ahead along with an estimate of how long the delay will be. When a faster alternative route is available, Google Maps will suggest it to you.

Real-time Traffic

Beat the crowds with Popular Times in real-time 

We looked at historical Google Maps data to determine the top five trending locations during the Thanksgiving holiday. It’s safe to say that if you’re planning to stop by a ham shop, outlet mall, pie shop, electronics store, or Christmas tree lot around Thanksgiving, you’ll run into throngs of last minute shoppers and deal hunters just like yourself. So just in time for holiday hordes, we've added a real-time look at how crowded a place is right now to help you decide when to go or whether you should head somewhere else.

 

If you’re dreading a holiday headache, let Google Maps be your Thanksgiving guide to a hassle free holiday.


Source: Google LatLong


Google Earth: The 25-Year Search

Remember back to the time when you first opened Google Earth. Where did you fly? Nearly all of us search for the same place: Home. The starting point. Where we fit into the bigger picture, and one way we define our sense of identity.

Imagine if you didn't know where "home" was? What would you search for first?

In 1986, 5-year-old Saroo Brierley fell asleep on a train parked at a rural station in central India. He awoke to find himself locked in an empty carriage barrelling through the Indian countryside to an unknown destination. After two days and nearly 1600 kilometers, the train reached its final stop, the enormous Howrah station in the sprawling Indian megacity, Kolkata. Saroo disembarked alone, far away from family and no way to get home. Living on the streets for months, Saroo survived a series of harrowing encounters before he was taken to an orphanage. In time, he was adopted by an Australian couple and brought to Tasmania.

Saroo

The Brierleys gave Saroo a loving home and a second chance, but memories of his birth family haunted him. As he grew older, these echos became louder until his early 20's when he was finally compelled to search for his lost home and family. Right around this time, Saroo heard about a new program called Google Earth. He realized he could use the tool's satellite imagery to find familiar landmarks, and lead him to the train station from his fleeting memories of that fateful night. Night after night for three years, Saroo followed train lines from space, combing through thousands of stations until one day in early 2012, he finally found the proverbial needle in a haystack.

Thanks to his unwavering determination, Saroo reunited with his birth mother after 25 years. Saroo's improbable story has been a source of inspiration to all of us on the Earth team and to many around the world. We're especially excited his story will reach new audiences with the release of the new film, Lion, on November 25.
Earth

To celebrate the film's upcoming release, we invite you to retrace Saroo’s journey through the Finding Home experience now available in Google Earth’s Voyager layer. The experience takes you behind-the-scenes of Saroo’s search—what he used to guide him, the odds he faced, and how with a lot of will and a bit of luck, he was able to find home.

Source: Google LatLong


Google Earth: The 25-Year Search

Remember back to the time when you first opened Google Earth. Where did you fly? Nearly all of us search for the same place: Home. The starting point. Where we fit into the bigger picture, and one way we define our sense of identity.

Imagine if you didn't know where "home" was? What would you search for first?

In 1986, 5-year-old Saroo Brierley fell asleep on a train parked at a rural station in central India. He awoke to find himself locked in an empty carriage barrelling through the Indian countryside to an unknown destination. After two days and nearly 1600 kilometers, the train reached its final stop, the enormous Howrah station in the sprawling Indian megacity, Kolkata. Saroo disembarked alone, far away from family and no way to get home. Living on the streets for months, Saroo survived a series of harrowing encounters before he was taken to an orphanage. In time, he was adopted by an Australian couple and brought to Tasmania.

Saroo

The Brierleys gave Saroo a loving home and a second chance, but memories of his birth family haunted him. As he grew older, these echos became louder until his early 20's when he was finally compelled to search for his lost home and family. Right around this time, Saroo heard about a new program called Google Earth. He realized he could use the tool's satellite imagery to find familiar landmarks, and lead him to the train station from his fleeting memories of that fateful night. Night after night for three years, Saroo followed train lines from space, combing through thousands of stations until one day in early 2012, he finally found the proverbial needle in a haystack.

Thanks to his unwavering determination, Saroo reunited with his birth mother after 25 years. Saroo's improbable story has been a source of inspiration to all of us on the Earth team and to many around the world. We're especially excited his story will reach new audiences with the release of the new film, Lion, on November 25.
Earth

To celebrate the film's upcoming release, we invite you to retrace Saroo’s journey through the Finding Home experience now available in Google Earth’s Voyager layer. The experience takes you behind-the-scenes of Saroo’s search—what he used to guide him, the odds he faced, and how with a lot of will and a bit of luck, he was able to find home.

Source: Google LatLong