Google Maps live in Europe
Looks like Google Maps in much of Europe is officially (well, beta) open for business. I’m not sure who spotted this first: Philipp? The Radioactive Yak? ThomasB noticed many of the features early.
See, this is why everyone’s blog should have times down to the milli/micro/pico/femto-second, so you can tell who really noticed something first. I’ve been hanging around with SEOs too long, because my brain immediately goes to the “optimizing your clock skew so it looks like you posted something first” angle. Or maybe I’m just sleepy. 
Okay, show us something cool, European hackers! Can you beat the San Francisco Earthquake?? Check out those drop shadows, baby! (Thanks Nathan).
P.S. A lot of people worked really hard on this. Nice launch, Googlers.
Bitmand Said,
April 27, 2006 @ 12:33 am
You can have all the milli/micro/pico/femto-second’s you want - I’ll adjust my clock to 6 hours earlier and I’m always first
Jeremy Said,
April 27, 2006 @ 12:39 am
There’s a nice little directory using Google maps for the Champagne region of France http://www.libation-unlimited.com/champagne-directory.aspx , with some of the subregion pages popping the street addresses on the sub maps. Early days though, early days…
Michael Scott Said,
April 27, 2006 @ 12:44 am
Where’s google maps gonna be next??
What about little old New Zealand!!!
http://maps.google.com/?ll=-41.277806,169.013672&spn=16.140931,35.595703&om=1
Adam Said,
April 27, 2006 @ 1:30 am
Had a quick look, and well impressed… Loved the graphics on the SF earthquake site!
BTW - The Google Maps of Europe look good too!
Adam
Peter Cooper Said,
April 27, 2006 @ 2:01 am
A bit pedantic, but it’s been live ‘in Europe’ for a long time, unless the UK isn’t a part of Europe
It’s really now live in ‘more of Europe’. European developers have already done some cool things with Google Maps UK (one of my clients is using it as a waypoint diagram for deliveries). Of course, there are those in the UK who’d love the fact we’re not considered a part of Europe, but…
David[de] Said,
April 27, 2006 @ 2:16 am
>Okay, show us something cool, European hackers! Can you beat the San >Francisco Earthquake?? Check out those drop shadows, baby! (Thanks >Nathan).
Well, I could show you a map where all of europe is google.de, but that wouldn’t be very PC
@Peter Cooper sind some smart person declared us to be the ‘old europe’ you are not really considered a part of europe anymore.
Also you still have your old fashioned currency
David[de] Said,
April 27, 2006 @ 3:05 am
btw. is the favicon supposed to tell us anything?
TOMHTML Said,
April 27, 2006 @ 3:54 am
Who spotted this the first ?
It’s us, first on a thread on Philipp’s blog
and first posts about it (chronological, in French) :
http://www.zorgloob.com/2006/04/google-maps-bientt-pour-leurope-la.asp (4/21 : “google maps for europe will lanch soon”)
http://www.zorgloob.com/2006/04/google-maps-en-france-et-en-europe.asp (4/23 : scoop, directions works)
http://www.zorgloob.com/2006/04/google-maps-france-europe-operationnel.asp (7 minutes after the launch !)
http://www.zorgloob.com/2006/04/intgration-de-google-maps-france.asp (for maps.google.XXX)
That’s all!
Paul Avery Said,
April 27, 2006 @ 6:12 am
my first thought was - will my mashup work?
and so far it seems no,
http://www.pillowsandpancakes.com/smap/Italy/Lazio/Rome
Todd Said,
April 27, 2006 @ 7:05 am
>optimizing your clock skew so it looks like you posted something first
Lmao…Matt … you need a break from conferences buddy…
If it makes you feel better…Every question I get asked I find myself referring to thoughts of if the resulting effects may or may not be a high signal indicator of quality;)
Jeremy Wong 黃泓量 Said,
April 27, 2006 @ 8:40 am
the google map api is cool.. my mind comes up with some ideas.. thanks for your reference to the weblog..
Jeremy Said,
April 27, 2006 @ 8:51 am
The satellite pics seem to have a bit hit and miss, sometimes they’ll come down, sometimes it will say they aren’t available. Even at just one zoom level deeper than a European country. The new enhancements must have proved very popular
Sean Carlos Said,
April 27, 2006 @ 9:17 am
Existing Google Maps implementations (US, UK, Canada, China…) offer the possibility for companies to add/modify or delete their profiles via the “Google Local Business Center” (https://www.google.com/local/add/login); it would be nice to see this, and/or the possibility to load information via Google Base, be opened to the new countries as well.
Jeremy Said,
April 27, 2006 @ 10:43 am
Just to add, its fantastic work, well done Googlers! Thank you very much
Paul Avery Said,
April 27, 2006 @ 12:29 pm
I should really be discussing this somewhere else, but since Matt brought it up…
http://www.pillowsandpancakes.com/gmap2.html
I managed to fix our mashp-up (just hard coded Rome for now).
Google - you guys are awesome!!!!
Paul
TallTroll Said,
April 27, 2006 @ 2:06 pm
Totally OT, but Matt, you seem to have acquired a favicon. C’mon you can do better than that, surely?
Make it a nice, silly competition : design MC a nice, new favicon. I bet you’ll get some cracking entries (and incredible link love; that will do the rounds of the geek-o-sphere in about, ooooh, 45 minutes)
Scott Springer Said,
April 27, 2006 @ 10:08 pm
Hi Matt,
Sorry to side track here, but i just read Tedster’s article on Hi Matt,
Sorry to side track here, but i just read Tedster’s article on WMW, “Google Certified Domain Change”. I totally agree and think this is an excellent idea. My site recently changed from an established (and well ranked) domain to a new one for re-branding purposes. After a 301 redirect, we are still experiencing the “sandbox” effect. My life would be so much simpler if their was a tool in Sitmaps to do a registered domain change.
What are your thoughts?
Thanks,
Scott
Armin Said,
April 28, 2006 @ 12:48 am
Well, at least the German version seems to be VERY VERY Beta.
- The data used seem to be at least 1 Year old, partially even older.
(we moved about one year ago - appear with the old address - and nicely, the company news telling that we move to the new address is displayed as second item under the old )
- It does not take into consideration that larger cities in Germany have streets with the same name. i.e. Wieland street exists 2 times in Berlin (in two different districts of the city), other street names in Berlin are used up to approx. 7 times)
- it does not care about zip-code (i.e. to distinguish between different streets with the same name).
- the icons on the map always seem to appear on the bigger (in terms of longer, not more important ) street.
- it seems to to care about geo-location information (we have an ICBM entry for our page since about six months) - but it could be, that it does not know because of the old data used)
So for bigger German cities, this thing is pretty useless
Bobby Lapoint Said,
April 28, 2006 @ 6:15 am
I’n glad there’s finally a map for us, europeans !
Ryan Said,
April 28, 2006 @ 8:09 am
Keeping with off topic.. I made you some better favicons Matt:
12
Aaron Wormus Said,
April 28, 2006 @ 9:16 am
Hey, I can see my house from here!!! Good stuff
Yes, the pictures are at least from last summer… all the tree’s have leaves and our new car isn’t parked in front of the house
Philipp Lenssen Said,
April 28, 2006 @ 9:58 am
Who had it first?
In the Google Blogoscoped forum, there was chatter about Google Maps Europe 7 days ago, the exact time stamp of DPNeals post being 2006-04-21 00:34:19 GMT+1
http://blog.outer-court.com/forum/27644.html
corrida Said,
April 29, 2006 @ 12:07 am
Hey,
Glad to see maps lunching in Europe, does it have anything to do with Google SketchUp, i like the idea of SketchUp service, however i cannot see any potential commerial benefits of it.
Or maybe i should already be offering 3D modelling services.
All the best.
CC
Adam Said,
April 30, 2006 @ 3:30 pm
Wow, that SF earthquake is cool - I started it running a few min ago and it’s still entertaining me lol
Boris Said,
May 1, 2006 @ 10:15 am
not all the countries are included… ccc… not even the whole European Union!!!
Design Place Said,
May 2, 2006 @ 12:07 am
once again would also be good to see it in australia though - would also nice to be able to zoom in on people and insects?
Steven Hambleton Said,
May 5, 2006 @ 2:11 am
It would be infinitely useful to have an Australian Google Maps!
Ed Said,
May 31, 2006 @ 3:02 pm
Virtual Time Travel might come close. It has pre and post-earthquake videos of San Fransisco plotted on Google Maps.
Scented Candles Said,
December 8, 2006 @ 9:15 am
Cool graphics and a lot of useful stuff on the map.
Sterling Silver Jewelry Said,
December 8, 2006 @ 9:16 am
Nice ,fancy map! Thanks G!
Tom Jackson Said,
December 29, 2006 @ 3:19 pm
Having just checked out Microsoft’s (kind of) new live 3D mapping I can’t say I’m that impressed with Google maps any more. Maybe I’m biased because Google don’t have satellite imagery of my part of the UK whereas MS do.
Throw Pillows Said,
March 2, 2007 @ 11:37 am
When will G map be up in Google China ?
vivek kedia Said,
March 20, 2007 @ 10:29 pm
In google maps is north always on the top and south on the bottom
mar_a Said,
April 26, 2007 @ 7:48 am
I could almost spot my house in ıstanbul, its really exciting. But I guess some places aren’t completed.
levi Said,
May 13, 2007 @ 4:20 pm
Always thought Googlers (plus some other people) deserve to be congratulated for their imaginative power.
jennifer marateen Said,
May 20, 2007 @ 6:30 pm
always thought googlers [plus other people] would descover this yes its da best i could see my house
zonenokta Said,
May 27, 2007 @ 12:40 pm
Sorry but still can’t see mine, although the street is there, some houses are missing!
Dubai Property John Said,
July 4, 2007 @ 9:20 am
Even though the name says “Dubai Property” John, i’m lucky enough to actually be from (and currently living in..) Ireland.
Googles European HQ is here I believe, so I assume Google is aware of our existance!
GoogleMaps and GoogleEarth seem to be forgetting however that there is more to Ireland than our Capital, Dublin. There’s some coverage of the larger towns in the west and south but the poor midlands has disappeared.
seo Said,
November 7, 2007 @ 1:49 am
GoogleMaps and GoogleEarth seem to be forgetting however that there is more to Ireland than our Capital, Dublin. There’s some coverage of the larger towns in the west and south but the poor midlands has disappeared.