Although Google Earth now sports that very appealing 3D imagery for several metropolitan areas, Google Maps continues to keep up with its sister geoservice site and made an announcement recently about how it plans to excel to the next level. The announcement, which has been labeled The Decision, includes updates of 45° satellite imagery to 31 locations throughout the world (although mostly in the United States), including Miami, Florida, where Google Maps hopes to finally achieve its goal of winning a championship ring.
With some reporters taken aback by Google Maps decision to do what it sees is best for its future, Google Maps addressed the criticism, asking, “What should I do? Should I admit I’ve made mistakes? Should I remind you that I’ve done this before?”
Google Maps then went on to detail the updates, starting with Miami, which is home to the recently crowned NBA champions, Miami Heat. Below you can see the American Airlines Arena, which is the team’s home court and where the they won the championship last month, seen below.
Miami is also home to the second-largest performing arts center in the U.S., the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. Strangely, if you browse just a little bit north of the center, you’ll come across a billboard on the side of a building that depicts somewhat alien looking figures (it’s the same picture as in the lead image for this article).
Since most of the United States is currently experiencing a relentless heat wave, we’ll finish off this preview of Google Maps’ talent update with another beach-y locale. The next stop is North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, site of many a coed calamity where young, bright-eyed college students go to act out their best (or worst) Jersey Shore fantasy during the soused and sloppy week known as Spring Break. I never subjected myself to the pangs of Spring Break get-aways (at least, not to raucous beach locales) and, to be perfectly honest, looking at Myrtle Beach here with Google Maps is about as close as I think I ever care to get to that experience. Google must have gathered the imagery for the city’s 45° during winter or after some warning of shark attacks because the beach is sparsely attended and literally nobody is in the water. I think Google dropped the ball on this map because it would have been much more of an honest depiction of the American birth rite known as Spring Break if Google Maps would’ve grabbed the imagery during the last week of March or sometime near then.
Although Google Maps did in fact take its talents to South Beach and North Myrtle Beach, it also spread those talents to 29 other locations:
U.S.: Albany, NY; Anniston, AL; Aurora, IL; Buffalo, NY; Champaign, IL; Chico, CA; Cleveland – Westlake, OH; Council Bluffs, IA; Eugene, OR; Grand Junction, CO; Greenville – Lyman Lake, SC; Hot Springs, AR; Houston – Katy, TX; Jefferson City, MO; Kentwood, MI; Logan, UT; Longview, TX; Manhattan, KS; Miami Beach, FL; Mount Vernon, WA; North Myrtle Beach – Little River, SC; Peoria, IL; Plainfield Township, MI; Providence, RI; Thousand Oaks, CA; Yakima, WA.
Switzerland: Biel, Luzem, St. Gallen
France: Lyon
Italy: Reggio Calabria