Some loyal Google Maps Mania readers have tipped me off on some big news in the world of Google Maps - Street maps for all of Europe! What a surprise people will have when they wake up on Tuesday morning! Not only are street level maps now available (in addition to the satellite maps available previously) but so are driving directions! Google Maps Mania is about to erupt with more new mashups to come from this area of the world! :)
Update: Check the comments section for more information about the updated street map data in various parts of Europe as observed by many readers.
[Thanks to Frank and Stefan for the tip!]
62 comments:
Moscow looks so lonely...
Not all of Europe, really. My personal overview, at first sight. The following countries well covered, at first sight: Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Denmark
Perhaps not so well covered, but reaching the whole territory: Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Norway, Sweden, Finland
Partially: Greece (Athens OK, but limited detail in other areas), Istanbul area in Turkey, Moscow in Russia.
Just some road lines over "white" land: Belarus (road to Moscow), Serbia, Macedonia.
Roadmaps and streetplans also show in mashups using the API v.2.
I've tried it for my hometown, Gent, Belgium, but the level of detail is not yet sufficient. Only the main roads are there.
Cheers,
Henk, microdot.be
"Find business" works too.
Theses maps are online since 3:00 am (hour of Paris)
French article just after the launch
luistxo is right - esp. the Scandinavian countries are not covered very well. There are no streets and even all big cities from Finland mentioned...
Finland is online now. No businesses or driving directions yet but the map is highly detailed and less than one year old. Cool.
The European maps mean great job opportunities for mashup makers. Thanks Google!
Even with Google thinking about moving a large part of their datacenters to Iceland... they still haven't put us on the map
Even with Google thinking about moving a large part of their datacenters to Iceland... they still haven't put us on the map
What about iceland! i mean common theres not many roads there and its half in Europe
If it's google vision of "Europe", it's pretty sad. None of Baltic countries are included, including Latvia (from where I am)
Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovenia, members of European Union since May 2004 are also missing.
I forgot Poland in my list of countries in the previous reply. Sorry. This country in the second block, Warsaw detailed, as well as other cities, but coverage irregular overall (personal appreciation).
I tried a variety of the places I've traveled for business and pleasure in a number of countries. It was a mixed bag, but no where as good as maporama.com or many of the others that offer maps of Europe. After playing around with Google Maps in Europe for a while I finally noticed the reason. Their maps for Europe are all from TeleAtlas who is known for having rather poor data and not all of the countries. For some reason they chose to use a better supplier for the States than for Europe.
Is there a reason why a can't see the street maps from my API-generated MAP.. anyone else having these problems?
Also the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) are not covered at all. But they are infact a part of Europe. So "all of Europe" is not that ALL at all :P
With this new update, I notice that ferry routes, particularly around the UK are now featured too. They were not there yesterday.
This is probably so you can plan trips abroad etc.
Some of the rural UK, has not really improved from what was already available.
And there is no Slovenia... So not even whole EU is covered.
Amadej
i feel insulted. Estonia IS in fact a part of europe.
I'm not seeing any impact on maps served via the API yet, at least not in the maps on my site.
The Isle of Man is still completely blank, and it's part of the British Isles. Wonder how they missed it.
Why do I have the impression that some people don't know the difference between "Europe" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe) which is a CONTINENT and the "European Union" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_union) which is ... well a union of (now) 25 States founded to enhance political, economic and social co-operation!
"ALL of Europe" is much bigger (area) then the parts covered.
Cheers,
a European!
P.S. Please don't be as ignorant as U.S.A citizens calling themselves and only themselves as "Americans".
Iceland is missing and it is a part of Europe... Guess i feel as insulted as people from Estonia :P
Some of the data is >2 yrs old, my brother in laws street is not shown in Puertollano, Spain.
Just wanted to say (after criticizing in the first place ;-))
It is more then nothing. The only problem with maps and route planners is that if they are not up to date it does not really matter if they are 1 or 10 years old ... you can not be sure of what they give you :-(
Anyhow, Google, keep up the good work!
Although the map data is viewable, which is pretty nice and about time, the data isn't searchable. When I try to search for a address and/or city in my home country nothing is found.
It was funny however to see that the Adsense ad next to the map did provide a relevant ad to the city ;-)
Bob
Some have said that the maps are not impacted by there api generated map. Check the API version you are using. v=2 should get you the latest.
Warsaw is well covered and with quite fresh data. But some of street names are broken, ie crossing streets have same name.
The UK isn't even covered. The Channel Islands aren't even mapped.
What about Malta... Malta has been part of the EU since May 2004 and has been part of Europe since, well, since it existed!
Also, I must say thanks for the new satellite data of Malta... however it is only half the country. I can't understand why they only have half of a country this small?
i think it is a great start - and that is what it is. they will hopefully work on getting it better (it can't find streets or businesses in Vienna yet) but it is just a start and a killer one at that..
I notice that driving directions within Vienna, Austria don't work. Only between cities.
Drat, Malta is not there.
I've written about this post in my blog (http://www.pingblog.info)(In Spanish). I've linked to your blog, post and "digg story" url.
The post's URL is http://www.pingblog.info/?p=6 .
Thank you for being so quick ;)
Guillermo Ruiz de Loizaga
The Acores (Azores) Islands which are part of Portugal (which is well covereD) are not even on the map except for one island which turns into a white blotch when you zoom in.
SiSoie wrote: "P.S. Please don't be as ignorant as U.S.A citizens calling themselves and only themselves as "Americans"."
We'll do that when Europeans, or at least the UK media and people from other countries that are interviewed on television, stop refering to our country as simply America.
well you can forget about Ireland as only Dublin is really featured and even it is not up to date
croatia is completely missing as well
Works great for directions between France and Switzerland.
Sweet
In Hungary there are some new highways, built in the last 2-3 years that are not on this map.
Romania details are also missing at this point.
Ukraine is missing
woooowh yeah! This is real good news! Been looking forward to this quite some time! I love google maps :)
"Google Maps street maps for ALL of Europe!" - I wonder who wrote this??!! ALL EUROPE???!!! Without Romania, Bulgaria, the Baltics, ex-Yugoslavia etc.??? That is "ALL Europe"???!!! I think something is not all right with someone here...
breathe people. it's one word wrong.
Neither the islands of the Azores are covered, or the island of Madeira which are all part of Portugal.
You should replace "ALL" with "a good bit so far".
Are the people on Google so stupid that they dont know the boundaries of Europe?
Slovenia is a part of Europe - this Google knowledge is poor...
by Slovenec
Are the people on Google so "NOT" educated that they dont know the boundaries of Europe?
Slovenia is a part of Europe - this Google knowledge is poor...
by Slovenec
The satellite images seem pretty outdated. They are at least 2 or 3 years old (tested for Stuttgart/Germany).
new imagery for the Philippines - finally!
to SiSoie:
actually Lithuania as well as Estonia and Latvia are in EU too, so you stating that the maps were updated only for European Union countries is wrong too.
Yes! Sorry about that! Probably it was exaggerated by my frustration. :-(
I live in the EU, in one of the first EU member countries, but am a citizen of a Country in Europe, but not in the EU (yet).
You can't imagine how many (percent) of the people around me (I work in an academic environment, so I presume my expectations cannot be to high) have the impression that Europe ends where the EU ends, and, that the other countries lie in Europe, but they are not really "European".
Cheers,
SiSoie
I notice something else interesting. Maybe everyone else already knew this, but on the Paris street map, the Metro station locations are indicated.
This is a very nice feature, one I'm wondering if will make an appearance in the United States maps. It seems that Google's idea would be to eventually merge Google Transit with Google Maps and the station locations would be a great first step.
Try a route from the UK to mainland Europe. You'll find that it expects you to leap from ferry to ferry in the middle of the North Sea!
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&saddr=leeds&daddr=stockholm&ll=55.9492,8.261719&spn=10.817525,29.619141&om=1
My town here in Finland the google maps shows some railway tracks that was removed like 15-20 years ago. No so big deal for traveller they led to harbour and some factories.
Satellite pic is now much sharper from the town but it is like 3-4 years old.
I found one new and best website: www.roamoo.com to share everyone here.
Not ALL of the Europe :(
My home Country, Slovenia, is not routable. And it's a shame, considering it's the ONLY European Union country with roads that cannot be routed. Other nonroutable country is it's neightbour, Croatia (though not in EU yet). Apart from countries like Cyprus and Malta, which according to google maps don't even have roads.
I live in a house in Hungary that was build 5 years ago. On Google Maps the place is just a piece of flat land.
unfortunately there's no "street maps" feature for Poland :-(. Hope this feature will be soon...
JON FROM NJ HERE. They need to update the sateilite images. They really stink. Mine of my town were taken at like morning and blurry!!!
Isle of Man got updated by Google today
No Street View for London!!!!11!!1!
Disgrace!
Maybe I am just missing something, but it looks like these are not full street view maps, but just an Panoramio addon to coordinates, where Street View is not available currently.
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