130 Countries Covered In Google Earth Update

Google Earth enthusiasts should prepare to lose another chunk of their lives to the program – a new update has been made, and this one covers “approximately 130 countries.”

The last time Google made a major map-related update, I calculated the percentage of the world’s nations that were involved; 54 out of 192 equaled about 28 percent, and I was impressed.  This go-around, Google hit 67.7 percent, and in some small, non-literal way, my jaw hit the floor.

Of course, coverage in these countries is not uniform.  And the pictures of a whole lot of the rest of the world remain in fairly low resolution.  Still, the update, which involved 60-centimeter (or about two feet) satellite imagery, seems quite impressive.

I have to say “seems,” though, because the high-resolution imagery is rather hard to find.  On the Google LatLong Blog, Matt Manolides, a GIS specialist, provided clues leading to 11 updated locations.  The rest are sort of catch-as-catch-can, but on the Google Earth Blog, Frank Taylor and his readers are discovering a lot of them.  Try the cities of Vladivostok, Russia, and Canakkale, Turkey, for starters.

Lastly, there’s one more piece of news that came out of the LatLong Blog post: Manolides promised that a Google Maps will “follow shortly.”