Such awkward coed adventures may soon exist only in the trunks of nostalgia if Google has anything to do with the modern college experience. Earlier this year they announced that they’d given a few university campuses the Street View treatment. Perhaps realizing the scale required to map out each individual university campus in the United States and Canada, though, Google’s decided to call in the experts on college campuses: the students themselves.

Through their Google+ page, Google Maps announced the inaugural Map Your University competition for all students in the U.S. and Canada. Through the use of Google’s Map Maker, Google is asking current students to create detailed maps of their campuses that will be viewable on Google Maps and Google Earth. Winners of the competition will be award fun Google-y prizes such as Android tablets, phones, GPS devices, and more.

Full details of the event can be found on the official Map Your University page. Entries are only being accepted February 13 through March 9, so attention interested students: here’s your hot plans for Spring Break 2012!

As Google Maps is ever expanding, taking you inside hotels and local small businesses, now you can tour around the vineyards of Cape Town, South Africa, and explore and practice your best novice-level sommelier performance as you virtually tour the vineyards of the 30 wineries that are now included within Street View. Later, look forward to Street View to include Botswana cities and tourist landmarks.

Julie Taylor, head of communications and public affairs for Google in Sub-Saharan Africa, told a local news agency, “We are delighted to be updating Street View with more Cape winelands imagery and look forward to bringing our cutting-edge Street View technology to Botswana.”

As with all of the Google Street View features Google has been rolling out, these Maps locations offer a fully 360-degree surveillance of the entire countryside. Go have a look at the breath-taking views of Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden in Cape Town. And kudos to the Google Street team for having a mind for good timing and grabbing these photos on a particularly beautiful day.

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At least now you don’t have to embarrass yourself in front of actual vino aficionados and can tour the vineyards from the humble privacy of your own office.

That exciting non-discovery illustrates how much fun you can have (and how famous you can almost be) exploring the underwater parts of our world, and after today we might be in for more potentially amazing oceanic discoveries. In a post on their Lat Long blog, Google announced that, to mark the third anniversary of Google Earth implementing a fully navigable map of the ocean floor, they have released a “major update” that promises to give users a “clearer view” of Earth’s subterranean landscape.

The new update, which they’re calling bathymetry, is the product of Google’s collaboration with Scripps Institution of Oceanography, NOAA, the US Navy, NGA and GEBCO (along with contributions from a few other organization) that promises Google’s “most accurate view of the seafloor to date.” To get the clearer imagery, though, Google had to get away from Earth-based technology and rely on “spacecraft measurements of bumps and dips in the ocean surface.”

But let’s get back to what we really care about: Atlantis. Given the story I mentioned above, for any of you persistent believers who aren’t buying Google’s explanation, take a look at the before and after of that same area near Greece’s coast where Atlantis was “found.” The image on the left was captured using Google Earth’s earlier technology and the image on the right was captured using the updated technology. Brace your tinfoil hats, readers:

Yikes. No more “Atlantis.” You can still see faint lines that were once more pronounced before Google Earth’s update, but a few odd lines does not a city of legend make.

Here’s a few more before-and-afters to give you a sample of the improved quality to Google Earth’s map of the ocean floor so you naysayers out there will hopefully not dismiss the disappearance of “Atlantis” as a conspiracy.

The Mediterranean Sea (before is left, after is right):

The Mariana Trench (before is left, after is right):

But some of you just aren’t going to be convinced by this evidence, are you? Incorrigible, you lot are.

It sounds a bit far-fetched, but through the use of Google’s Maps technology, you can now create a virtual tour for your customers that will basically create a Street View experience for people look. In a post on their LatLong blog yesterday, Google announced that they were making their Business Photos pilot program available to all small businesses who want to participate. To get a glimpse of what it can make your business look like, check out the example provided by Google of Spice Market, a business located in New York City:

As you see, it’s literally the 360-degree virtual experience you get when you apply Street View to any Google Maps.

Getting your small business the Street View treatment isn’t really all that hard, either. Google has created a website called Trusted Photographers that are basically proxy photographers small business owners can contract to come take photos of their business on behalf of Google. The photographer will then upload the photos to Google, who will then render the 360-degree panoramic interior of your business on Google.com, Google Maps, and on your Google Places listing. Google provided a testimonial video from a small business in Austin, Texas, that took advantage of Business Photos:

As of right now, Google has proxy photographers in 14 U.S. cities and photographers located in the U.K., France, Australia, and New Zealand. Additionally, Google encourages business owners to make suggestions of cities that would benefit from having Google’s Trusted Photographers.

From Google’s Lat Long Blog:

Since no bike path is the same, many users have requested an easier way to differentiate the different types of bike routes that are available. Starting today, a new legend feature can help you understand what the different colors on the bike maps symbolize.

As you can see, the options are now featured in the drop-down menu that’s located in the upper-right corner of the map. In other words, you choose how often and intensely you want to jockey against cars when you’e biking through mid-town traffic on your lunch break. Or, if you choose, chance an adventure among hostile drivers who will not so much as flinch when they nudge you off the road.

Additionally, Android devices will have access to the biking directions by going to the Google Maps page on your mobile browser.

Go forth and bike your own adventure, Google-friended bicyclists.

They also recently launched a site called “Get More Out Of Google+,” which discusses ways to use Google’s social network with other popular Google products like search, Gmail, YouTube, Maps and Blogger.

And of course there’s a big old button to “upgrade to Google+” for those who aren’t already signed up.

In the search section, it just basically highlights all of the new integration from the controversial “Search Plus Your World” feature set.

The Gmail section talks about finding email from people in your circles, sharing photos and seeing what else your friends are saying.

The YouTube part talks about seeing the videos your friends are sharing, watching videos together with Hangouts, finding new videos to share, and sharing videos with “the right people”.

The Maps part talks about sharing directions with “just the right people”.

Finally, the Blogger part talks about sharing blog posts on Google+ whenever they’re published.

There’s not much in the way of new information on the site (at least at this point), but it is a good place to see Google’s various integrations with other products. Such integration will only continue to expand.

It kind of helps you look at Google+ more as a feature of Google than as a separate network.

Today’s videos feature a magical fire show, a too cute for life Corgi chasing a flash light, serious Go-Karting, and Home Alone gone wrong.

As a David Bowie fan I should probably be extremely offended, but it’s so silly I can’t help but laugh.

Sometimes you just need a mash-up to see how messed up certain movies are…Home Alone will never be the same.

If the real world had an actual Portal gun, here’s how dudes would get use out of it…

When pyro-maniacs go to sleep, I think this is what they dream of. Some brave ladies there.

Fire Show from Vistoff.com | production factory on Vimeo.

There’s nothing quite as upsetting as people who don’t know how to drive Go-Karts. If you’re not going to take it seriously, GET OFF THE TRACK.

Quite possibly the most amazingly useless thing I’ve seen created, and of course it is brought to us by Google Maps.

I’ll probably never be able to use this descriptor again, so here goes, this is hypnotically satisfying.

Where Did The Night Go’ from Steffen K on Vimeo.

This is so adorably cute it feels like I should be listening to Tom Bergeron, or for the more old school, Bob Saget in the background.

The post includes updates to Google’s mapping satellites as well as several upgrades to existing services:

we’ve continued to add new satellite and 45 degree imagery on Google Maps and Google Earth, which reached 1B downloads last year, as well as expand our imagery coverage of Street View to Belgium, business interiors, partner locations like parks and even museums with the Art Project. If you want to follow these imagery updates, we expanded Follow Your World so you can get notifications about locations that interest you.

The post also points out the aesthetic improvements to the existing maps thanks to the introduction of Google Maps GL. Through the use of WebGL, they say, buildings and imagery appear much better and have a sharper 3D quality to them as you duck between city blocks and wander to your next class.

One sobering update Google made this past year was to their maps of northern Japan, which was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami last March. Because of their timely updates, Google said, “relief and aid organizations were able to access imagery after the earthquake and tsunami hit.”

As for 2012, Google says that they’re going to continue to make the “physical world morem accessible and tailored” to our needs. I dunno if they were aware, but my world was pretty accessible with feet before they came along, but then again I suppose I can’t stretch my feet across the Gulf of Mexico and visit Cuba (hell, even if I could, I probably wouldn’t be allowed to stretch my feet to Cuba). Hopefully Google won’t unintentionally shut down anymore major highways as they continue to build upon their 3D model of Earth.

The decision to include college campuses as part of the Street View is well-timed as it’s getting close to that time of year when high school seniors will begin finalizing their decisions on where to – if they must – attend college this coming fall. As much as visits to universities by prospective students is one of the mainstays of any campus landscape (I always delighted in seeing doe-eyed teenagers herded together so as to protect them from the coed wildlife), Google seems to think it’s a burden that could be easily alleviated if you could tour campuses from the comfort of your sofa. From today’s blog post:

Whether you’re a current student trying to familiarize yourself with campus, an applicant assessing your options or an alumnus feeling nostalgic, the Street View feature in Google Maps can be your tour guide without the backward walking. We recently added imagery of more university campuses to the existing special collections already available via Street View through our Partner Program.

One bonus for you future coeds: it’ll be a lot harder for your parents to embarrass you on campus tours if you’re doing it via Google Street View. FYI.

Google has included universities from around the world in their campus-touring Street View such as Sunderland University (Great Britain), Waseda University (Japan), McMaster University (Canada), Stanford University (U.S.), and Uniwersitet Warszawski (Poland). The full list is available here. Additionally, anyone interesting in virtual-touring a campus can visit the Street View gallery of university campuses. Since you’re here, though, why not go ahead and take a look-see around Dartmouth College:

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No word yet on how long it’ll be until you can use Google Maps to attend your class in real-time. Sorry, kids.

There’s not a whole lot of info about the game that I can see, beyond its YouTube description, which says:

Coming soon, play your world like never before with a game from the Google Maps team on Google+ Games powered by WebGL.

At the end of the video, it says the game will come to Google+ in February.

It links to what appears to be essentially a help center, albeit an interactive one, for Google Maps itself.