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Google Maps, Local Expand To UK
Koushiro writes "From Google's official blog comes word that Google Maps UK and Google Local UK have been launched, confirming speculations that the search engine giant would continue to expand its regional services to an international audience. The seemingly logical next step, of course, would be to expand coverage to Western Europe, but given the input Google's UK office had into this project, can we expect Google Maps India next?"
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ll=51.478210,-0.1683 97&spn=0.043884,0.056873&hl=en/
"In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act." - George Orwell
Mr Kilroy-Silk will be pleased. Just go look at Britain, and zoom right out ([-] button). Look - no Europe! Just us Brits and our American fiends.
Phil
But no Satellite mapping as yet... Still playing catchup.
It even found my local chippy. Go Google!
Though I wonder if they are planning on adding a sattelite feature any time soon?
- Teja
And it goes to New Delhi...
Wow, those google people are so smart.
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
it appears they don't have staelite images for the UK. Oh well :(
To the best of my knowledge there are no publically available sources of free mapping or imaging data of Germany. It will be interesting to see what data Google will use if and when they offer the maps service here. There are certainly other free routing/mapping services, but there is no such thing as the free USGS data sets.
Glad they extended it to the UK - I was looking forward to this :-)
That said, http://www.uk.map24.com/ is still great too.
But Ireland as well.
"expand its regional services to an international audience" Canada isn't the U.S. you know.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
We've also got Google SMS now, which is actually useful.
No "houses of ill repute", or "ladies of negotiable affection" near me - useless damn site!
If you scroll all the way to the left, you see the US maps, if you scroll to the right you see just water...kind of reverse Christopher Columbus. Doesn't seem to want to make a map from London to Washington, DC though.
very nice though several newish roads (2-3 years old by now) near me arn't on the maps.
Oh crap - BEWARE FAKE LINK IN PARENT. "Downing street london" works.
Phil
Actually, i'm sure it was more to do with Google Ireland, since their European headquarters is here, and Irish maps appeared just before the UK ones.
There are 10 to choose from so I assume it cant find 10 "number 10s" at once.
PS:
Im still trying to find "W@nkers corner, Portland" in the USA, have they wiped it from Google?, I found it in the Encarta world atlas.
Not sure where they get their data from...
my postcode is wrong as is my nearest tube...
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=angel,+n1&hl=en
although it does have the link in the right place...just not the picture...v odd
But somehow Cuba makes it on to the map. Except they think it's empty.
If I took some of the routes its suggesting for me to get about the outskirts of london I'd be arrested for going the wrong way down one way streets.
Still impressive considering local companies such as the RAC can't even give such clear directions.
If you zoom out and scroll far to your right, you see the UK.
1 &spn=6.487427,8.975830&t=k&hl=en 1 &spn=4.613281,8.271914&hl=en
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=51.468750,-0.09950
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=51.468750,-0.09950
Now if they could only get Canadian Highways to stop showing up as US interstates...
--- If stupidity got us into this mess, why can it get us out?
It's not like you can go visit anyway. They errected huge steel gates at the end of Downing street years ago. All you can do if peer through the railings.
Philip
Signatures are broken
Compared to any offerings we have for this country, (Yes, I'm talking to you Whereis) Google Maps is sorely needed. Can anyone recommend an Aussie site that's better than whereis ?
On the one hand, it knows about the mighty Hings, the Food of the Gods. On the other, I'm more than a little disturbed by the Google ad that 'helpfully' suggests I could find cheaper Fish & Chips on eBay. Doesn't really bear thinking about, that one.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
The Mobile Google Local UK seems to be coming along too. At present the searches result a broken page, but the actual search results seem to be there.
The US version seems to work fine.
In the UK, most maps use the British Grid projection. Google, in their international wisdom, appear to have used a different projection which causes the map to "appear wrong" to a UK person. Actually, the map is perfectly correct, it's just that Google are presenting it in a way which is not customary for the UK.
For example, try a search for postcode "EH1" on http://maps.google.co.uk, and the same on www.multimap.co.uk. Notice that the shape of the quarter-circle road system (Princes St, Melville Drive, the Bridges) is different on each.
Not due to the lack of attempt, just that mostly directions meant (when I was growing up) was : "Go Straight for two kilometres, turn right at the Junction with the Statue and then one mile ahead take a left by the Cricket Stadium". Not something you want to pull up on Google!
:)
In the Rural areas of the country and even in the suburbs of some major metropolitan areas, the above method will apply.
Rarely are there Street names. But it doesnt really matter as men arent embarassed to ask for directions
Rapid Nirvana
Speaking as a geographer/cartographer, I've found Google Maps exceedingly useful. But a few things to note, applying both to the UK and the US sites.
--Data resolution is far from uniform. We see every little street in central London, but go to northern Scotland and only (relatively) major roads show up.
--The engine is less than wonderful when it comes to choosing the most important towns to identify on the maps at various scales. The base view identifies the Edinburgh neighborhood of Dunfermline, rather than the greater (and more recognizable) conurbation. Similarly, I've found it awkward when looking around the US midwest--sometimes it seemed to display every place name *but* Peoria.
--In the US version at least, highway numbers seem to be displayed fully only at very high zooms. There could also be more distinction in road grades--currently the system distinguishes only freeways, state roads, and everything else. This makes it a bit difficult to use the system for figuring out driving routes.
--Could do better at showing non-road things: rivers, neighborhoods, etc.
All in all, the search feature and seemless panning are excellent, but the maps generated are a bit too stripped-down for my tastes.
The label for Dunfermline obscures the label for Edinburgh on the zoomed out view. It is actualy there if you zoom in a bit..
If you go to the maps.google.com, zoom right out and switch to satellite view, you can scroll over to the right where the UK is and hey presto satellite views!
It's not complete yet and only zooms halfway in before you're notified it's incomplete, but it should definitely be something to look forward to.
Although I am a google fan, I have been using for quite some time the Map24 page after someone in /. pointed at it. I find it quite useful and the interface is pretty cool (Real time map find using Java or No Java option.
I find it quite useful to look for places in Europe when going to a conference or vacations, that and the HostelWorld are pretty cool pages, now, there is something I have seen no Map page do, that is, to add Bus line information to the maps, I know in some countrys it would be rather difficult but, in UK, there is Arriva, MerseyTravel and other companies whose lines and journeys are very well defined, now, if someone adds that functionality it will be THE map web page I will use =o).
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
They must be using old data, Dunfermline was the Scottish capital (until 1603)
If you find a route between two locations that includes motorway travel, there's no indication of the junction number when leaving a motorway.
Look at something like this route (Leicester to location in London). It takes you ¼-way round the M25, much much longer than continuing to the end of the M1, and slower too! Insane!
I try to find something about northern ireland in both local/map services, but it says
Unable to understand address northern ireland. Please try another address. Suggestions: - Make sure all words are spelled correctly. - Try using a less ambiguous location like a post code
After getting lost in Haryana once, I figured out that most roads here do not have names, and even if they do, no one is quite sure where they go...
You could probably map the "official" areas of big cities like Delhi or Mumbai, but forget about the slums or village India.
Given that the Indian government till date is very selective about who they release map data to, I would guess that any Google Maps for India is a long time away. I know people would say that Google can just buy satellite images from an independent source, however, they would need to do a lot of work on these basic images, since basic GIS data for India is not freely available from a central place. Large patches of road, street addresses, establishments, etc. have not yet been mapped and digitized. I would guess that Google Maps India for main metros to be 1-2 years away, while the same for the whole country to be at least 4-5 years away. I am sure that visiting tourists to India have felt the lack of good local maps a trile annoying....
Yes! Yours Truly steals a march on /. /. posts. /. or the BBC's tech section.
I reported on this in my Internet column for the local newspaper on Monday.
Bugger that it comes out on Thursday, thus making it look (once again) that I simply lift my article from
OK, so it's karma as it's true most of the time.
Have to hope that most of my readers don't regularly check
I'd give my eye'd teeth for that service with Ordnance Survery Maps available as well. Just imagine a free, scrollable zoomable Ordnance Survey map mmmm.
Of course they are useless as street maps, but ideal for just about everything else (yes I know you can pay for online Ordnance Survey maps)
Philip
Signatures are broken
you'd think they'd put the capital of scotland in there when its zoomed out.
even when you zoom in a little more dalkeith apears but still no edinburgh!
Frankly I will be sticking with streetmap.co.uk, multimap.com and the OS's own website that have the highly detailed, instantly recognizable to anyone from the U.K. Ordnance Survey 1:50000 and 1:25000 topographic maps of Great Britain on them. They also have the easily recognisable Bartholomew and OS road atlas maps. In comparison the TeleAtlas road maps suck.
I recon it's intentional.... they had a crack team of weegies (glasgow types) working one it.
It seems to me that its no coincidence that Map24 is also a good service - if you check their home page www.uk.map24.com then they are announcing a collaboration with Google. Methinks this is where Google got their map data from, and perhaps some of the software.
It's nice, but it's missing quite a lot of places - try searching for the Millennium Stadium (in Cardiff), the National Exhibition Centre (Birmingham), Bristol Temple Meads station, Birmingham New Street station, Edinburgh Waverly station or Cardiff Central station (I tried stations because it gave Paddington as an example and they have unique names, so it should be easy for it to find them if it knows about them.)
... is actually number 11 - he swapped with Gordon Brown as No. 11 is bigger and Brown didn't have a family at the time.
It's because the UK is really close to the US: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ll=50.625000,-51.533 192&spn=57.250000,119.552956&hl=en
Maps don't lie!
Standards Schmandards
http://maps.google.com.au or something like that?? i wonder how many satelite images of dirt they will have when they do australia??
When he releases a #1 hit hes English, when hes annoying people he's Irish. ;)
Incidently Irish laws on maps is pretty strict. For example if I was to draw a map on a napkin of somewhere in Ireland the Irish government automatically own it.
You generally have to get permission before displaying Irish maps, even if you created it yourself. Surprised there is no (c) showing when you look at the Irish parts.
about bloody time...
hurrah google!
now i can finally find me way to a dentist...
TWW
"Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
Google Maps UK directions tell you to turn left onto the first turning for 0.0 miles and then to turn left onto the exit you want, at every roundabout. Just going from my home to my work it messed up on five roundabouts. It even happens when just crossing a roundabout. Do they have roundabouts in the States?
I still can't find "Ottery St. Catchpole" :-(
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
I found it kind of odd that Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, is only visible after zooming in quite a lot. Instead it is shadowed by Dunfermline, an unimportant small town shown in huge script. Someone must have badly screwed up the name placement algorithm and/or the map data. What makes this blunder worse is that no one noticed even though it appears on the front page, and zooming in just a little does not even fix it yet.
1. use $100m and buy UBD aussie maps or
do a co-licence agreement at $5m/year
2. write the webservice wrapper to their database
3. add the nasa / keyhole sat data.
3b. Pay digitalglobal $250,000 for an uptodate sat maps of aust.
But adding photo views of city/place locations linked to the maps would be good too from http://www.worldcityphotos.org/
Germany is alredy online http://www.hot-maps.de/index.html
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
http://www.hot-maps.de/index.html
and if you want good sat photos, download nasa's WorldWind earth viewer.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
Bloody great city and it's not even on the friggin' map.
GET FREE APPLE STUFF!
I love the smooth transitioning. But as far as detail goes, there isn't even any junction numbers on the roads. Not very useful when planning a journey. I think I will stick with http://www.multimap.com/ in the meantime!
Will the maps show PoK as part of India or Pakistan? What about the Rann of Kutch? And Ladakh. And Arunachal Pradesh.
I may mod-ed down for troll, but India has too many disputed territories, and if Google takes a side, it becomes a political issue.
And to think, all my hard work in Wiltshire wasted. At least we got cool tin foil hats.
the WORLD!!! mwahaha
First America... then Canada... now the UK!!!
I for one will be praising the Google Overlords tonight!
I'm waiting for full satellite images. They didn't even link to them in the UK version.
You have been warned.
I submitted this new article yesterday (when it appeared on neowin) and it was rejected. And now it mysteriously appears. Not that I could give a crapucino, but Timothy is obviously an attention whore.
-1 Troll here i come
Nothing costs nothing
it's nice that in london, it shows the tube stations right on the map.
It doesn't do this for the metro, in DC for instance. That would definitely be a useful feature to have when planning trips and the like
Have they really given any timelines for realizing google maps for India? Any ideas?
I know the world exists because I exist.
Has Ireland come back to UK? I didn't notice that.
There is a spark in every single flame bait point.
UK Google Maps marks the London Underground tube stops on the map!
Why doesn't NY (or any other US city) get the same treatment???
"The world only exists in your eyes. You can make it as big or as small as you want." - F Scott Fitzgerald
The OS here (whom I worked for till last September or so) use a double-orthogonal approach. That is, they flatten left and right sides of the country relative to their respective centre lines, then marry the two images. This makes measurement errors smaller.
International maps tend to use a simple Mercator projection.
Someone from the OS will hopefully be along shortly to correct my terminology... Nigel T? Dave R? Are you reading?
Justin.
You're only jealous cos the little penguins are talking to me.
I just tried sending them some feedback but pressing submit gave me "Illegal Request: your client sent an illegal request". Aaargghh. But so the typing is not completely wasted, here are my suggestions:
Dear Google,
Thanks for adding UK maps to google maps.
Your user interface is excellent, but I have a few suggestions for how other aspects of the system can be improved to match this quality:
1. Please display the scale of the maps.
2. Please show railway lines. (I know that where you come from, everyone has a car. Here in Europe trains are the main method of long-distance travel for very many people.) Oh, I've noticed that you do show railways but only when you're zoomed in a lot. That's no good, here's way: say I am staying with my sister in Nettlecombe, Dorset (look it up!) and I want to know where the nearest railway stations are. So I view Nettlecombe and zoom out step by step. But by the time I am looking at an area large enough to show the stations in Axminster (to the West) and Dorchester (to the East), you have stopped showing railways! You also need to add the stations themselves.
3. Please can we have metric units in the directions?
4. In your driving directions, roundabouts ("traffic circles", I think, is the American expression) are described in an odd way. Your software does at least know which side of the road we drive on here! But at a roundabout with four roads where I have to turn right, i.e. I need to go 270 degrees round, it says "turn left, go 0.1 miles, turn left". It would be far better to say just "turn right" or "take the third exit".
5. You should show junction numbers on motorways, and use them in directions, e.g. "continue along M3 for 38km to junction 4". This is the main way in which people describe motorway journeys (e.g. radio traffic news - "accident between junctions 6 and 7") and the junction numbers are displayed very prominantly on signs.
6. There is more to life than roads. Have a look at the maps used on multimap.co.uk when the scale is 1:25,000 (but not at any other scale). I use these maps to plan my hiking trips. In fact, this is probably my main use for online maps.
Its a pity the map they used is old, the A120 does not go through Takeley anymore. The map they use is atleast two years old or more.
.. real nice, however minor point try searching for 'Cinema', it seems you need to enter 'Cinemas'
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
Funny that this comes up now, because I have be researching my family who came from northern ireland and trying to find info on the area they are from online has been difficult at best.
So I jump on this only to find that detailed street maps are only available for major cities. Not particularly useful for much else.
Mad Software: Rantings on Developing So
If they end up introducing satellite images for large areas of the world, surely a universal projection scale would make it a lot easier to skip from country to country?
I know people would say that Google can just buy satellite images from an independent source
Not that it changes your post much, but Google's aquisition of KeyHole netted them a satellite or two.
You can find out more on the Keyhole.com website under What are Google's Plans with KeyHole
Interestingly enough, if you try to select "India" from the drop down, you'll find it isn't there. Google has no plans for posting satellite images of India beyond the 1km resolution they plan to do the entire world using.
such major conurbations as Diss and Mold make it onto the main map.
There are no streets at all in Cuba and Mexico.^-^
Is this a sigs-optional kind of place? 'Cause I am totally down with that if you know what I mean.
Allow me to wear my Devil's Advocate hat for a moment...
Did you ever notice how "evil" countries/leaders often publicly claim to be not evil, just like the Google guys. Yet secretely, they vie for world domination. What if Google only claims to be not evil, but really they are trying to control the world's access to information in some sort of evil plot for world domination? How do we know that these satellite images are accurate and unretouched? What if they edit them to make certain cities or areas more or less attractive, like where they are buying/selling real estate for profit? I mean, soon you'll be able to see the conditions under which anyone else in the world lives... or at least you can see it as Google wants to present it, where it wants to present it.
I'm taking off the hat now. It doean't fit me well.
I do think it's cool how I can see a satellite image of my home, complete with my car in the driveway and patio furniture in the back yard. Cool and kind of scary.
Swindon to Slough
Kinda like the World According to Google, isn't it...
--grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
They've a fair bit to go on this yet, there is no real map data outside of Belfast and it can't even give me directions from Belfast to Dublin at the minute.
Certainly doesnt compare to the AA's Route Planner but has a lot of potential. Would be nice to get some good hi-res sat images of Ireland too.
Without precision, my life would be imprecise....
The world according to Google.
Hey, so there really IS something on the other side of that big lake!
Who knew?
why not pakistan next ... might catch some terrorists that way !!!!
"can we expect Google Maps India next?"
They'll never do Google Maps in India. I recently went there and it turns out they're very paranoid about maps of their cities, especially those close to borders. Sometimes, detailed maps of any place are very hard to come by, and you can just forget about maps and satellite images of Delhi. Until the government of India takes a more modern approach towards maps, I don't see there being a Google Maps for India.
I just typed in my home postcode. In the UK a postcode typically localises you to one side of a particular street. The google map was off by 2 whole streets and offered no other info about the precise location, despite the fact that 99% of all web shops can fill in my entire address (except for a list of 10 or so possible house numbers) just from my postcode.
Those anti-patriotic bastards at google have labeled London's tube stations, but not Washington DC's Metro stops?!?!?! John Ashcroft would never have put up with this kind of crap.
What about:
The Grange, Thorpe Mandeville nr Banbury, Northants?
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
yesterday! (I think)
But the world in satellite view shows it all!
Looking at the map of London compared to my home neighborhood in Phoenix, AZ, it looks like London was laid out by a four year old with a giant piece of paper and a big crayon. Nothing but scribbles for as far as the eye can see.
Why is it that a simple street grid is almost unheard of except in cities that primarily developed until after the automobile's invention?
"[T]he single essential element on which all discoveries will be dependent is human freedom." -- Barry Goldwater
My problem with all the online maps (and most other maps) in the US is that there are no train stations listed on any of them. And I'm not just talking about small commuter rail, but large stations too. Penn Station Shoe Repair anyone? Or 30th street hair station? Yes, I suppose you could approximate where the real station is by names of nearby businesses, but why?
And what if you don't know the name? Searching for "Train Station" in NYC returns "Perth Amboy Station" as the first train-related match because it has a Wi-Fi hotspot. Railroad Station gives better results for NYC thanks to Amtrak, but not all Amtrak stations have a "Station Services" location. In Iselin, NJ (Metropark Station) the first result is for Newark.
4 Privet Drive, Little Whingling, Surrey doesn't work! But hey, you get strange results when you try to map Hogwarts, try it.
I tried my last four addresses, and it didn't have any of them. Does it not have residential addresses?
In fact, the address search seems to be quite broken. A search for "Brays Close, Hyde Heath" fails, yet if you search for just "Hyde Heath" and zoom in, you can see Brays Close on the map.
Also, it generally fails if you supply a house number, but works if you supply just the street.
Oh well, it's still in beta...
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
Also, I've noticed that some of the overground train stations are in the wrong place, not even near the rail lines in some places! I zoomed into my place (Surrey Quays, London) and see that South Bermondsey Station is on a main road... At least they show the rail lines.
I've noticed that some of the smaller roads are unnammed, but you can still search for them and it will pinpoint where they are for you (e.g. Canon Beck road, London).
the satellite imagery? How are we going to see what things look like down there?
Browse the Information Directory
and provide local maps for local people?
Contribute to the online videogame encyclopedia: GamerWiki
-ve from my 10 minute UK trial
Postcode matching doesn work that well. You'll be 1-2 roads out when you zoom to the most detailed level.
Townname curry searches or townname pizza doesn't work that well for me in the KT13 area.
+ve
Quick and intuitive. Bizness listings are great. '3d effect maps are good' and I love the directions.
Not to mention the fact that it can't place Post Codes correctly. If I enter mine, it points to a place about 100 yards away, in someone's back garden! Not even on the road, never mind my street or my house.
The lack of street numbers limits it a bit too.
Actually, by my reckoning, as an Irish passport holder native to the north-east of Ireland, all of Ireland is one nation and one country. By means of selective partitioning (to falsely maintain a British majority in a region pumped with English capital), the British severed a portion of Irish territory off to remain under British rule and occupation following the IRA's decision to make peace in 1921 without winning the War of Independence.
The region of the nation where I live may still be governed by the English, but it is still one nation and those of us who believe that certainly don't share a common passport with the Scots, Welsh and English.
now, if you zoom all the way out, you get to see all America's states, including the 51st.
I could map out a path to the UK from Texas
--
random signiture #3
hey i just mde these, not much atm but hopefully soon
http://www.maps.jimeagle.com/
WWW.JIMEAGLE.COM
The United Kingdom's full title is actually the United Kingdom of Great Britan and Northern Ireland. Great Britan is made up of England, Wales and Scotland.
:-)
Confusingly, there is a Parliament for the UK (with elections at present), and NI has a devolved government, as does Scotland. Wales has its own assembly (which may be upgraded to a full parliament in the not too distant future). There's nothing to govern England on its own, though, other than the UK parliament; so Scottish and NI people can tell England (and Wales) what to do
Incidentally; a note to Americans and other aliens: don't call a Scottish person 'English'. They hate it. British is the correct term; but better still, Scottish. The same is also true of the Welsh.
There are certain contexts in which it is appropriate to refer to all of Ireland as a "country." The word is not synonymous with "nation state," which all of Ireland certainly is not. Referring to all Ireland as a "country" in this way is not making any political claim in the present day but rather simply recognising a common history and culture.
The Wikipedia article on "Country" has a good discussion of this. The United Kingdom, for example, is a nation state but it is made up of three countries (England, Scotland and Wales) and one province (Northern Ireland). Other examples where country and nation state are not synonymous include, for example, the Basque Country, which uses the word "country" in the primary languages of the two nation states it is spread over (País Vasco in Spanish, Pays-Basque in French).
The most obvious example of where this nomenclature is uncontroversially used with regard to Ireland is probably in rugby, where the Six nations tournament is made up of the "countries" of England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, and Italy.
We're all part of the european superstate these days, anyhow. ;-(
Public attitude towards the EU is probably one of the key differentiators between the Irish and the British these days
...there is a Guinness ad (called "Swim to the States") in which someone does just that...