Google Maps announced that several parts of the world will now have high-resolution satellite photos as well as a couple of places in the United States that got some high-resolution aerial updates. In fact, there’s so many updates to countries around the world that this is one of those big updates of Google Maps where the only letters not represented in the list of countries are Q and Z (but that’s not for lack of trying). However, this update appears to be mostly scattered across Africa and Asia, although all continents got at least a few touch-ups.
These past few days, I’ve been trying to catch some of the 2012 Euro that’s currently taking place over in Poland and Ukraine. Ahead of this month’s tournament, Google Maps has already launched its Street View feature for the two host countries as well as a unique Street View experience of all 8 stadiums being used in the Euros.
One of the cities seeing some of the 2012 Euro action is Donetsk, where Donbass Arena is located. According to the image data in Google Earth, this location was updated as recently as 5/6/2012 – just in time for some world-class futbol! If you were watching the Euros yesterday, you probably caught that snoozer of a match between England and France. If you did, you were watching those two sides play in the stadium you see below.
This update contains some updates to natural landmarks, as well, but you might have to go looking for them. In the Mexican state of Tlaxcala, you can take a look at the inactive volcano, La Malinche. You can’t quite take the Street View tour of the volcano, but if you’re using Google Earth you can get pretty close to the surface.
It’s worth pointing out that, as far as I could tell from the places I checked out in Google Maps, none of the locations listed in this update have Google’s new 3D imagery that they announced last week. While Google has said it will begin to roll out those new images soon, the company didn’t say whether it’d be a soft debut that would slip in nonchalantly or if there will actually be an announcement highlighting the updated locations.
At any rate, here’s the full list of cities included with today’s update:
High resolution aerial updates:
DuBois, PA; Pleasanton, TX; Weatherford, TX
Countries/regions receiving high resolution satellite updates:
Algeria, Angola, Antarctica, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Fiji, French Southern and Antarctic Lands, Gabon, Germany, Ghana, Guam, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Laos, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, North Korea, Northern Mariana Islands, Oman, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Paracel Islands, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Romania, Russia, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, St. Helena, Sudan, Svalbard, Swaziland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, The Gambia, Togo, Tonga, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United States, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Western Sahara, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe