Here's recent Google-related geonews.

From the official sources:

• Google changed its basemap data for ten countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Liechtenstein, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa and Switzerland. Google already switched to their own data for the U.S. and Canada in the not so distant past.
• Following a previous entry Costa Rica and Nicaragua boundary in Google Maps, Google Lat Long and Ogle Earth discuss the matter
• Google Maps tiles have been significantly updated for Japan
• There's contest for SketchUp 3D modelers
• You can now perform spatial queries in Fusion Tables

From other sources:

• An entry on using SketchUp to model interiors
• An excellent flight simulator for Google Earth
• Here's an entry on the state of the Berlin Wall, as seen using the Google Earth Plugin
• An online tool for Satellite Tracks And Visibility In Google Maps
• We mentioned BatchGeo a few times in the past, via APB I learned that BatchGeo was forced to disable extracting geocoded coordinates because it's a violation of Google's Terms of Service. We rarely saw similar enforcements as far as I can remember.

Glenn Letham on his GISUser Blog reported the launch of Mapbiquity's new web mapping tools, "Here’s a tip off about a cool, new web service that enables anyone to easily and quickly create, embed, and share a map." Full story here...

Here's the recent geonews in batch mode.

On the Google front:

• The Maps Data API is being deprecated, replaced by Fusion Tables in the Maps API v3
• In addition to the Maps API for Flash, Styled Maps launched for the Static Maps API
• There was an imagery update this week for Google Maps and Earth
• Google also previewed StreetView imagery for Germany
• There's an official Panoramio Photo Contest

On the FOSS4G front:

• The next version of QGIS will feature raster masks, explained in this entry
• GeoServer gets a new file chooser

In the miscellaneous category:

• Slashdot started a discussion today named Nicaragua Raids Costa Rica, Blames Google Maps
• The GEB details Breadcrumbs, a software to visualize your GPS tracks in 3D
• The Russians are serious mapping land use land cover, with 12,000 Landsat-5 scenes acquired in
• TMR shares a review of the DeLorme GPS/Communicator Combo
• DigitalGlobe is reporting is third consecutive down quarter
• Everyblock released their API

In the maps category:

• A quick look at this map with a reversed Mercator effect for Africa and Greenland makes obvious how maps projections can be misleading, especially the omnipresent Mercator projection

Here's a few Google-related geonews for this week.

• Google just announced the introduction of Place Search: "Today we’re introducing Place Search, a new kind of local search result that organizes the world’s information around places. We’ve clustered search results around specific locations so you can more easily make comparisons and decide where to go." Screenshot of what it looks like included in the entry.
• Ogle Earth claims Google Maps is doomed in China: "In short, things are still not looking up for Google. Sina's article references government sources who state that Google will definitely not get its license by the end of the year, when China's laws on internet mapping will begin being enforced in earnest. The implication is that the site will thenceforth be blocked in China." Explanations available in the entry.
• The GEB has an entry on Google's Panoramio is now adding photos from the Ocean.
• Yesterday evening Slashdot was running a discussion named FTC Ends Probe of Google StreetView Privacy Breach.
• The FGT blog mentions a "quick and dirty heatmaps" solution for Google Maps named Tixik Heatmaps.
• We mentioned custom snail mail envelopes with maps in the past, here's the 'Map Envelope' website to help you print and fold map envelopes yourself.

Recent Google-related geonews that weren't shared yet.

• The official blog offers an entry named more transparency and control over location, in short: "Today we’re moving your location setting to the left-hand panel of the results page to make it easier for you to see and control your preferences."
• The official Google LatLong blog has an entry on historical imagery: "There are history books, movies, and photographs, but they portray isolated places and events more than the connected whole. So we’ve addressed this by launching historical imagery in Google Earth in a number of new areas, including London in 1945, in coordination with archivists in these countries."
• The last official entry is on a similar topic, Main Streets using Google SketchUp for Historic Preservation

From other sources:

• The GEB informs us there are New KMLs for Panoramio photos in Google Earth
• The same blog prepares us: Comet Hartley 2 will approach Earth over the next few days; view it in Google Earth
• Yes again, New Google Earth Imagery - October 19
• Slashdot discussed a story this morning about Google Is Going Postal In Sweden, using Google Maps to deliver paper advertising

GeoSweep are launching a new lottery based on geographic locations in the UK. See a longer article in the Guardian. From the article: "The game is developed using Google Maps technology allowing users to 'buy' locations with a 10p stake. These plots are then entered into two daily draws – the first pays out a guaranteed minimum prize pot of £5,000 and the second gives players the chance to win £1million. That's got to be better than a load of numbered balls spinning round in a glorified washing machine!"

Here's a few recent Google-related geonews:

• Today Google announced that StreetView is now available on all continents: "[...] with the addition today of Brazil, Ireland and Antarctica. You can now see images from around the world spanning from the beaches of Brazil, to the moors of Ireland, to the icy terrain in Antarctica."
• The Photo layer in Google Maps has been revamped, it's much nicer now (link includes a before-after screenshot).
• The GEB explains how historical imagery works in Google Earth 5, nothing that "the newest imagery in Google Earth can often be found in this historical imagery feature."
• The GEB also mention that there's new imagery for Washington DC.
• APB informs us that in a test, half of Google's Android apps shared location data without user consent.

Here's the now traditional weekly dose of geonews in batch mode. On the ESRI front:

• ArcGIS Viewer For Flex 2.1 Now Available
• There's an new white paper on GIS In The Cloud, The Esri Example

On the Google front:

• Here's an entry on AlterEarth, a new gaming platform for Google Earth, and yes, you can play Grand Theft Auto on Earth
• The Google elevation service now available in the Maps API for Flash

On the open data / open source front:

• MapQuest adds OpenStreetMap data of four more countries: Spain, Italy, Germany and France
• Here's GeoSpatial for Java Workbooks available

In the LBS category:

• O'Reilly links to locationlabs' Universal Location Service: "Remotely locate 250+ million phones. The Universal Location Service [ULS] aggregates location access across major tier 1 carriers including AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon."
• A friend sent me a link to a small entry stating that your Facebook friends can check you in to places
• O'Reily also have an entry on a crowdsourced and location-aware bird watching app called BirdsEye
• Here's an entry on a Offline Map Viewer And GPS Tracker For Android

In the miscellaneous category:

• Emma wrote to let us know Slashgeo is amongst their top 50 Scholarly Blogs for Climate Science Students
• Bing Maps is now integrated directly in some HP printers
• I forgot that share that one before, you can now embed MapQuest maps on websites
• Arctic Web is a site to look for geospatial data of the artic
• You can now map your LinkedIn connections via a third-party

In the maps category:

• TMR has an entry on the National Geographic's Maps of the Gulf of Mexico's Oil Infrastructure
• Slashdot discussed a story named "Microwave Map of Entire Moon Revealed"

Here's recent Google geonews that we haven't shared yet. From the offical LatLong blog:

• Google Earth Pro 5.2 is no longer beta, and adds a few features such as vector and image 'regionation': "In a nutshell, Regionation allows Google Earth Pro to display huge amounts of data. It does so by breaking the data or imagery into the smallest necessary components".
• Google Earth itself got a brand new website
• There's another round of imagery update from Google

From the official developers blog:

• Directions are now draggable in the Maps API v3

From other sources:

Some Google-related geonews for the last two days:

• Google SketchUp 8 has been released: Major new features for modeling in geospatial context and for creating new 3D building models for Google Earth. [...] new “Solid” tools in SketchUp Pro for common additive/subtractive modeling operations [...] additional features in LayOut for documenting models professionally.
• Google added business logos to Google Maps.
• The FGT blog offers an informative 2-parts article on Android and the future of consumer GPS. An excerpt: "Android has the capability to turn GPS into a commodity market, meaning less control and more competition, leading to lower prices. And this is an environment that the old-school GPS vendors may have trouble with." FGT also decided to launch a new blog named AndroGeoid.
• Google's Ed Parsons wonder if 'When' is the next big thing after the 'Where'.
• Here's an entry named Mapping with Google Fusion Tables .
• The GEB has an entry on 3D sound with the Google Earth plug-in.