The viewer will show houses, the color of cars, and even the shadows of people and street signs.

3D Dodger Stadium with the Los Angeles Cityscape in Google Earth. Using the 3D Warehouse Feature.

The degree of resolution available is based somewhat on the points of interest, but most land (except for some islands) is covered in at least 15 meters of resolution. Las Vegas, Nevada and Cambridge, Massachusetts include examples of the highest resolution, at 15 cm (6 inches). Google Earth allows users to search for addresses (for some countries only), enter coordinates, or simply use the mouse to browse to a location.

Google Earth also has digital elevation model (DEM) data collected by NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. This means one can view the Grand Canyon or Mount Everest in three dimensions, instead of 2D like other map programs/sites. Since 23 November 2006, the 3D views of many mountains, including Mount Everest, have been improved by the use of supplementary DEM data to fill the gaps in SRTM coverage. In addition, Google has provided a layer allowing one to see 3D buildings for many major cities in the US and Japan.

Many people using the applications are adding their own data and making them available through various sources, such as the BBS or blogs mentioned in the link section below. Google Earth is able to show all kinds of images overlaid on the surface of the earth and is also Web Map Service client.

Google Earth supports managing three-dimensional geospatial data through Keyhole Markup Language (KML). It is available in a free version, and in licensed versions for commercial use.

Downtown Los Angeles, using the 3D Warehouse feature.

Google Earth has the capability to show 3D buildings and structures (such as bridges), which consist of users' submissions using SketchUp, a 3D modeling program. In prior versions of Google Earth (before Version 4), 3D buildings were limited to a few cities, and had poorer rendering with no textures.

Many buildings and structures from around the world now have detailed 3D structures; including (but not limited to): U.S., Canada, India, Japan, United Kingdom,^[5] Germany, Pakistan, Amsterdam and Alexandria^[6]. Three-dimensional renderings are available for certain buildings and structures around the world via Google's 3D Warehouse^[7] and other websites.

Screenshot of Google Campus in California using Google Earth.
Maintainer:	Google
Stable release:	4.1.7087.5048 (Win) / 4.1.7076.4558 (Mac) / 4.1.7076.4458 (Linux)(May 24, 2007 (Win) / May 9, 2007 (Mac) / May 6, 2007 (Linux))
Preview release:	N/A
OS:	Windows 2000, XP & Vista, Mac OS X, Linux
Available language(s):	Multilingual[1]
Use:	Virtual globe
License:	Proprietary
Website:	Google Earth

Specifications

Google Earth comes with atmosphere effects and seabed

• Coordinate System and Projection
  • The internal coordinate system of Google Earth is geographic coordinates (latitude/longitude) on the World Geodetic System of 1984 (WGS84) datum.
  • Google Earth shows the earth as it looks from an elevated platform such as an airplane or orbiting satellite. The projection used to achieve this effect is called the General Perspective. This is similar to the Orthographic projection, except that the point of perspective is a finite (near earth) distance rather than an infinite (deep space) distance.^[8]
• Baseline resolutions
  • U.S.: 15 m (some states are completely in 1 m or better)
  • Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Denmark, England, Andorra, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Vatican City: 1 m or better
  • Global: Generally 15 m (some areas, such as Antarctica, are in extremely low resolution), but this depends on the quality of the satellite/aerial photograph uploaded.
• Typical high resolutions
  • U.S.: 1 m, 0.6 m, 0.3 m, 0.15 m (extremely rare; e.g. Cambridge and Google Campus, or Glendale)
  • Europe : 0.3 m, 0.15 m (e.g. Berlin, Zürich, Hamburg)
• Altitude resolution:
  • Surface: varies by country
  • Seabed: Not applicable (a colorscale approximating sea floor depth is "printed" on the spherical surface).
• Age: Usually less than 3 years old. The date next to copyright information is often cited as the date the picture was taken, but it is not true

Google Earth is unlikely to operate on older hardware configurations. The most recent downloads available document these minimum configurations:

• Pentium 3, 500 MHz
• 128 MB RAM
• 400 MB free disk space
• Network speed: 128 kb/s
• 16MB 3D-capable graphics card
• 1024x768, "16-bit High Color" screen
• Windows XP or Windows 2000 (not Windows ME compatible), Linux, Mac OS X

The most likely mode of failure is insufficient video RAM: the software is designed to warn the user if their graphics card is not able to support Earth (this often occurs due to insufficient Video RAM or buggy graphics card drivers). The next most likely mode of failure is Internet access speed. Except for the very patient, broadband Internet (Cable, DSL, T1, etc.) is required.

Google Earth (Mac OS X)

A version for Mac OS X was released on January 10, 2006, and is available for download from the Google Earth website. With a few exceptions noted below, the Mac version appears to be stable and complete, with virtually all the same functionality as the original Windows version.

Screenshots and an actual binary of the Mac version had been leaked to the Internet a month previously, on December 8, 2005. The leaked version was significantly incomplete. Among other things, neither the Help menu nor its "Display License" feature worked, indicating that this version was intended for Google's internal use only. Google released no statement regarding the leak.

Currently, the Mac version runs only under Mac OS X versions 10.4 and 10.3.9. There is no embedded browser and no direct interface to Gmail. There are a few bugs concerning the menu bar when switching between applications and a few bugs concerning annotation balloons and printing.

The latest version, 4.1.7076.4558, released on May 9, 2007, features, among other things, a new user interface and the option for Mac OS X users to upgrade to the "Plus" version. Some users reported difficulties with Google Earth crashing in the latest version when zooming in.

Linux version

Google Earth 4(beta) Running on Ubuntu 6.06

Starting with the version 4 beta, Google Earth functions under Linux, as a native port using the Qt-toolkit.

Minimum System Requirements

• Kernel: 2.4 or later
• CPU: Pentium 3, 500 MHz
• System Memory (RAM): 128 MB
• Hard Disk: 400 MB free space
• Network Speed: 128 kbit/s
• Screen: 1024x768, 16 bit color
• Tested and works on the following distributions:

Resolution and accuracy

The Isles of Scilly, showing the very low resolution of some islands. The islands (green area) are about 10 km across.

The west side of Gibraltar, tilted view showing the sea rising up the Rock of Gibraltar - claimed height of the sea just off the beach at Elliots Memorial, 252 m.

Most land areas are covered in satellite imagery with a resolution of about 15 m per pixel. Some population centers are also covered by aircraft imagery (orthophotography) with several pixels per meter. Oceans are covered at a much lower resolution, as are a number of islands; most notably, Tórshavn, the capital of the Faroe Islands, and the Isles of Scilly off southwest England, are at a resolution of about 500 m or less. These pictures are provided by Terrametrics. The majority of East Anglia in the UK, with the exception of a few cities and other sites, also has a very low resolution.

Place name and road detail vary greatly from place to place. They are most accurate in the North America and Europe, but regular mapping updates are improving coverage elsewhere.

Google has resolved many inaccuracies in the vector mapping since the original public release of the software, without requiring an update to the program itself. An example of this was the absence from Google Earth's map boundaries of the Nunavut territory in Canada, a territory that had been created on April 1, 1999; this mistake was corrected by one of the data updates in early 2006. Recent updates have also increased the coverage of detailed aerial photography, particularly in western Europe.

Cloud cover and shadows can make it difficult or impossible to see details in some land areas, including the shadow side of mountains.

The stars in the background are not random. Google Earth uses a real star map to render the background. 

Inaccuracies

Google Earth is a complex application representing two and three dimensional data, vector data, integer and real numbers, and a variety of geometric projections. The imagery comes from a variety of sources and the processing of the imagery is done both by machine and humans. In addition, there are many terabytes of information from a variety of sources involving many people. As a result, there are bound to be inaccuracies in the data. Google is continuously taking input and improving the existing data.

Greenland with an odd black line and cut off fire.

The images are not all taken at the same time, but are generally current to within three years. Image sets are sometimes not correctly stitched together. Updates to the photographic database can occasionally be noticed when drastic changes take place in the appearance of the landscape, like for example Google Earth's incomplete updates of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, or when placemarks appear to shift unexpectedly across the Earth's surface. Though the placemarks have not in fact moved, the imagery is composed and stitched differently. Such an update to London's photography in early 2006 created shifts of 15-20 metres in many areas, noticeable because the resolution is so high.

Errors sometimes occur due to the technology used to measure the height of terrain; for example, tall buildings in Adelaide cause one part of the city to be rendered as a small mountain, when it is in fact flat. The height of the Eiffel Tower creates a similar effect in the rendering of Paris.

The "Measure" function shows that the length of equator is about 40,030.24 km, giving an error of −0.112% compared with the actual value of 40,075.02 km Earth; for the meridional circumference, it shows a length of about 39,963.13 km, also giving an error of −0.112% compared with the actual value of 40,007.86 km.

The Arctic polar ice caps are completely absent from the current version of Google Earth. Information explaining this notable absence is difficult to find if any has been supplied at all. Google Earth presently renders no ice packs in the arctic circle, and the geographic North Pole is found hovering over the Arctic Ocean. There is very low resolution coverage of the Antarctic continent (1m resolution images of some parts of Antarctica were added in June 2007 for the first time). The tiling system produces bizarre artifacts near the poles as the tiles become 'infinitely' small and rounding errors accumulate.

The atmosphere in Google Earth is greatly exaggerated. Comparisons with actual photographs show the Google Earth atmosphere to be 20 times thicker.

An error causing part of Paris to appear as a hill due to the height of the Eiffel Tower.

Where no 3 arc second digital elevation data was available, the three dimensional images covering some areas of high relief are not at all accurate, but most mountain areas are now well mapped. The underlying digital elevation model has been placed 3 arc seconds too far north and up to 3 arc seconds too far west. This means that some steep mountain ridges incorrectly appear to have shadows extending over onto their south facing sides. Some high resolution images have also been misplaced, an example is the image covering Annapurna, which is misplaced by about 12 arc seconds.

National security and privacy issues

The software has been criticized by a number of special groups, including national officials, as being an invasion of privacy and even posing a threat to national security. The typical argument is that the software provides information about military or other critical installations that could be used by terrorists. The following is a selection of such concerns:

• The Indian president APJ Abdul Kalam has expressed concern over the availability of high-resolution pictures of sensitive locations in India. Google subsequently agreed to censor such sites.
• The Indian Space Research Organisation has said Google Earth poses a security threat to India, and seeks dialogue with Google officials.
• The South Korean government has expressed concern that the software offers images of the presidential palace and various military installations that could possibly be used by their hostile neighbor North Korea.
• In 2006, one user spotted a large topographical replica in a remote region of China. The model is a small-scale (1/500) version of the Karakoram Mountain Range, currently under the control of China but claimed by India. When later confirmed as a replica of this region, spectators began entertaining sinister military implications.
• Morocco's main Internet provider Maroc Telecom has been blocking Google Earth since August 2006 without giving any justification for it.
• Operators of the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor in Sydney, New South Wales asked Google to censor high resolution pictures of the facility.^[19] However, they later withdrew the request.

• In July 2007, it was reported that a new Chinese navy Jin-class nuclear ballistic missile submarine was photographed at the Xiaopingdao Submarine Base south of Dalian.

Blurred out image of the Royal Stables in The Hague, Netherlands.

Some citizens may express concerns over aerial information depicting their properties and residences being disseminated freely. As relatively few jurisdictions actually guarantee the individual's right to privacy, as opposed to the state's right to secrecy, this is an evolving, but minor, point. Perhaps aware of these critiques, for a time, Google had Area 51 (which is highly visible and easy to find) in Nevada as a default placemark when Google Earth is first installed.

As a result of pressure from the United States government, the residence of the Vice President at Number One Observatory Circle is obscured through pixelization in Google Earth and Google Maps. The usefulness of this downgrade is questionable, as high-resolution photos and aerial surveys of the property are readily available on the Internet elsewhere. Capitol Hill used to also be pixelized in this way but this was lifted.

Critics have expressed concern over the willingness of Google to cripple their dataset to cater to special interests, believing that intentionally obscuring any land goes against its stated goal of letting the user "point and zoom to any place on the planet that you want to explore".

Google Earth Community

The Google Earth Community is an online forum which is dedicated to producing placemarks of interesting or educational perspectives. It may be found on the Google Earth webpage or under the Help section on the program itself. After downloading a placemark, it will automatically run Google Earth (if not opened), and fly to the area specified by the person who placed it. Once there, you can add it to your "My Places" by right clicking on the icon and selecting "Save to My Places". Additionally, anyone can post a placemark for others to download; as long as you have an account.

Google earth also can be used to locate "disasters". Currently a user can find these items within the google earth community. An example is a capsized ship off of the shore (69°15′32.22″N 33°14′17.11″E / 69.25895, 33.2380861) or a burning car, on A3 autobahn near Gieslenberg, N of Leverkusen, Germany (51°4′47.04″N 6°59′17.77″E / 51.0797333, 6.9882694).

Copyright

Currently, every image created from Google Earth using satellite data provided by Google Earth is a copyrighted map. Any derivative from Google Earth is made from copyrighted data which, under United States Copyright Law, may not be used except under the licenses Google provides. Google allows non-commercial personal use of the images (e.g. on a personal website or blog) as long as copyrights and attributions are preserved. By contrast, images created with NASA's globe software World Wind using Blue Marble, Landsat or USGS layer, each of which is a terrain layer in the public domain. Works created by an agency of the United States government are public domain at the moment of creation. This means that those images can be freely modified, re-distributed and used for commercial purposes.

Google Earth Plus

Google Earth can be upgraded to a "Plus" edition for a $20 annual subscription fee. Google Earth Plus is an individual-oriented paid subscription upgrade to Google Earth and adds the following features:

• GPS integration: read tracks and waypoints from a GPS device. Third party applications have been created which provide this functionality using the basic version of Google Earth by generating KML files based on user-specified waypoints. However, these tools only work with specific GPS devices whereas Google Earth Plus provides support for the Magellan and Garmin product lines, who together hold a large share of the GPS market. The Linux version of the Google Earth Plus application does not include any GPS functionality.
• Higher resolution printing.
• Customer support via email.
• Data importer: read address points from CSV files; limited to 100 points/addresses. A feature allowing path and polygon annotations, which can be exported to KML, was formerly only available to Plus users, but was made free in version 4.0.2416.
• Higher data download speeds

Many of Google Earth Plus's features can be added on for free with third-party software and utilities, including GPS, spreadsheet import, and geocoding.

Google Earth Pro

For a $400 annual subscription fee, Google Earth Pro is a business-oriented upgrade to Google Earth that has more features than the "Plus" version. The Pro version includes add-on software such as:

• Movie making.
• GIS data importer.
• Advanced printing modules.

These used to cost extra in addition to the $400 fee but have recently been included in the package.

Influences

The Google Earth interface bears a noted similarity to the ‘Earth’ program described in Neal Stephenson’s sci-fi classic Snow Crash. Indeed, a Google Earth co-founder claimed that Google Earth was modeled after Snow Crash, while another co-founder said it was inspired by Powers of Ten.

Google Analytics (GA) is a free service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about the visitors to a website. Its main highlight is that a webmaster can optimize his/her AdWords advertisement and marketing campaigns through the use of GA's analysis of where the visitors came from, how long they stayed on the website and their geographical position.

More importantly, a webmaster can define and track conversions, or goals. Goals might include sales, lead generation, viewing a specific page, or downloading a particular file. By using this tool, marketers can determine which ads are performing, and which are not, as well as find unexpected sources of quality visitors.

Screenshot of the new Google Analytics showing the Dashboard

Google's service was modeled upon Urchin Software Corporation's analytics system, Urchin on Demand (Google acquired Urchin Software Corp. in April 2005). Google still sells the standalone installable Urchin software through a network of value-added resellers.

The Google-branded version was rolled-out in November 2005 to anyone who wished to sign up. However due to extremely high demand for the service, new sign-ups were suspended only a few days later. As capacity was added to the system, Google began using a lottery-type invitation-code model. Prior to August 2006 Google was sending out batches of invitation codes as server availability permitted; since mid-August 2006 the service has been generally available. A new version of the user interface was released to all users on May 17, 2007, with the old version to be removed by July 18, 2007.[1]

Google has been working to improve system performance, and reports now generally update in less than one hour. All users can officially add up to 50 site profiles. Each profile generally corresponds to one URL.

GA's approach is to show basic dashboard-type data for the casual user, and more in-depth data further into the report set. There are currently over 80 distinct reports, each customizable to some degree. GA also offers three dashboard views of data: Executive, Marketer, and Webmaster.

GA provides integration with Google Adwords, as well. Users can see ad group and keyword performance as part of their reports.

GA also provides some more advanced features, including visitor segmentation and custom fields.

Technology

Google Analytics is started by including JavaScript on each page the user wishes to track. This JavaScript loads larger files from the Google webserver and then sets variables with the user's account number. The GA report interface checks for the presence of this script on a tracked site's homepage, and warns should it not be available.

Limitations

Many ad filtering programs and extensions (such as Adblock) block the Urchin JavaScript. This prevents some traffic and users from being tracked, and leads to holes in the statistical data. Also, privacy networks like Tor will mask the user's actual location and present inaccurate geographical data.

A related product is Google Earth, a standalone Mac, Windows and Linux program that offers enhanced globe-viewing features.

 

Screenshot of Google Maps showing a route from Toronto to Ottawa on the 400-Series highways.

Features

Google Maps features a map that can be navigated by dragging the mouse, or using the mouse wheel to zoom in (mouse wheel up) or out (mouse wheel down) to show detailed street information. Users may enter an address, intersection or general area to quickly find it on the map.

Search results can be restricted to a certain area, thanks to Google Local. For example, someone can enter a query such as "Waffles in Ottawa" to find restaurants serving waffles near the city. This can be used to find a wide variety of businesses, such as theatres, restaurants and hotels.

Like many other map services, Google Maps allows for the creation of driving directions. It gives the user a step-by-step list of how to get to their destination, along with an estimate of the time required to reach it and the distance between the two locations. Since July 2007, it has been possible to drag a point on the route to another location, adding a waypoint, and instantly showing the revised route and length while dragging.

Google Maps offers four viewing modes by default: Map (topographic and street map), Satellite (satellite and high-resolution aerial photographs), Hybrid (Street maps overlaid on satellite and high-resolution aerial photographs) and Street View, the feature introduced May 30, 2007 (ground level 360 degree view of certain streets).

The "link to this page" link on each Google Maps map targets a URL which can be used to find the location on the map at a later time. The latitude and longitude can be used as input to NASA World Wind or TerraServer-USA, which in some cases have higher-resolution imagery.

Satellite view

Screenshot of Google Maps (satellite) showing Monster Park in San Francisco, CA

Google Maps provides high-resolution satellite images for most urban areas in Canada and the United States (including Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands) as well as parts of New Zealand, Australia, Egypt, France, Germany, Iran, Iceland, Italy, Ireland, Iraq, Japan, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Kuwait, Mexico, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and many other countries. Google Maps also covers many cities including Moscow, Istanbul, and most of India.

All the images shown in Google Maps' satellite mode are at least a year old^{[citation needed]} and in some places date back to 2001. Various governments have complained about the potential for terrorists to use the satellite images in planning attacks. Google has blurred some areas for security (mostly in the United States), including the U.S. Naval Observatory area (where the official residence of the Vice President is located), and until recently, the United States Capitol and the White House (which formerly featured erased housetop). Other well-known government installations are visible including Area 51 in the Nevada desert.

With the introduction of an easily pannable and searchable mapping and satellite imagery tool, Google's mapping engine prompted a surge of interest in satellite imagery. Sites such as Google Sightseeing and Virtual Globetrotting were established which feature satellite images of interesting natural and man-made landmarks, including such novelties as "large type" writing visible in the imagery, as well as famous stadiums and unique earth formations.

Although Google uses the word "satellite", some of the high-resolution imagery is aerial photography rather than satellite imagery.

Implementation

Like other Google web applications, a large amount of JavaScript was used to create Google Maps. As the user drags the map, the grid squares are downloaded from the server and displayed to the user. When a user searches for a business, the location is pin-pointed with a red pin, which is actually a transparent PNG placed over the map. The technique of providing greater user-interactivity by performing asynchronous network requests with Javascript and XML has recently become known as Ajax. Specifically, Google Maps was built using the AjaXSLT framework.

The GIS (Geographic Information System) data used in Google Maps are provided by Tele Atlas and NAVTEQ, while the small patches of high-resolution satellite imagery are largely provided by DigitalGlobe and its QuickBird satellite, with some imagery also from government sources. The main global imagery base called NaturalVue was derived from Landsat 7 imagery by MDA Federal (formerly Earth Satellite Corporation). This global image base provides the essential foundation for the entire application.

Extensibility and customization

Chicagocrime.org, developed by Adrian Holovaty, was among the first and most popular Google Maps mashups.

As the Google Maps code is almost entirely JavaScript and XML, some end-users reverse-engineered the tool and produced client-side scripts and server-side hooks which allowed a user or website to introduce expanded or customized features into the Google Maps interface.

Using the core engine and the map/satellite images hosted by Google, such tools can introduce custom location icons, location coordinates and metadata, and even custom map image sources into the Google Maps interface. Some of the more well-known of these "Google Maps Hacks" include tools that display locations of Craigslist rental properties, student apartment rentals, and local map Chicago crime data (or check Misdaadkaart.nl showing crimes of one entire country). The script-insertion tool Greasemonkey provides a large number of client-side scripts to customize Google Maps data, and the mygmaps.com website provides an interface for easily adding your own set of locations and viewing them on Google Maps.

Combined with photo sharing websites such as Flickr, a phenomenon called "memory maps" emerged. Using copies of the Keyhole satellite photos of their home towns or other favorite places, the users take advantage of image annotation features to provide personal histories and information regarding particular points of the area.

Google Maps API

Google created the Google Maps API to facilitate developers integrating Google Maps into their web sites with their own data points. It is a free service, which currently does not contain ads, but Google states in their terms of use that they reserve the right to display ads in the future.

By using the Google Maps API you can embed the full Google Maps on an external web site. Start by creating an API Key, it will be bound to the web site and directory you enter when creating the key. Creating your own map interface involves adding the Google JavaScript code to your page, and then using Javascript functions to add points to the map.

When the API first launched, it lacked the ability to geocode addresses, requiring you to manually add points in (latitude, longitude) format. This has since been rectified.

At the same time as the release of the Google Maps API, Yahoo! released their own Maps API. Both were released to coincide with the O'Reilly Web 2.0 Conference. Yahoo! Maps lacks international support, but included a geocoder in the first release.

As of October 2006, Google Gadgets' Google maps implementation is much easier to use with just the need of one line of script. The drawback is that it is not as customizable as the full API.

In late 2006, Yahoo began a campaign to upgrade their maps, to compete better with Google Local and other online map companies. Several of the maps used in the survey were similar to Google maps.

Google Maps actively promotes the commercial use of their API. One of its earliest adopters at large scale are real estate mashup sites. Google's case study is about Nestoria, a property search engine in the UK and Spain.

Google Maps for Mobile

In late 2006, Google introduced a Java applet called Google Maps for Mobile, which runs on any Java based phone or mobile device. Most if not all web based features are available from within the app.

Google Maps parameters

In google Maps, the URL parameters may be tweaked to offer views and options not normally available through on-screen controls.

For instance, the maximum zoom level offered is normally 18, but if higher-resolution images are available, changing the z parameter, which sets the zoom level, will allow the user to access them, as in this view or this view using the parameter z=23.

Development history until recent issues

Google Maps was first announced on the Google Blog on February 8, 2005  and was located at http://maps.google.com/. It originally only supported users of Internet Explorer and Mozilla web browsers, but support for Opera and Safari was added on February 25, 2005. Currently (July 1, 2006) Internet Explorer 6.0+, Firefox 0.8+, Safari 1.2.4+, Netscape 7.1+, Mozilla 1.4+, and Opera 8.02+ are supported (see Google Maps Help). It was in beta for 6 months before becoming part of Google Local on October 6, 2005.

Coverage details

Satellite imagery of varying resolution is available worldwide.

International

Country	Link
America	http://google.com/maps
Australia	http://google.com.au/maps
Britain	http://google.co.uk/maps
Canada	http://google.ca/maps
China	http://bendi.google.com
Denmark	http://google.dk/maps
Finland	http://google.fi/maps
France	http://google.fr/maps
Germany	http://google.de/maps
Italy	http://google.it/maps
Japan	http://google.co.jp/maps
Netherlands	http://google.nl/maps
Norway	http://google.no/maps
Russia	http://google.ru/maps
Spain	http://google.es/maps
Sweden	http://google.se/maps
amount 16

Google's use of Google Maps

The main Google Maps site includes a local search feature, finding businesses of a certain category in a geographic area.

Google Ditu

Google Ditu (谷歌地图 lit. "Google Map") was released to the public on February 9, 2007, and replaced the old Google Bendi (谷歌本地 lit. "Google Local"). This is the Chinese localized Google Maps and Google Local services only cover China.

There are some differences in frontier alignments between Google Ditu and Google Maps. On Google Maps, sections of the Chinese border with India, Pakistan and Tajikistan are shown with dotted lines, indicating areas or frontiers in dispute. However, Google Ditu shows the Chinese frontier strictly according to Chinese claims with no "dotted lines" anywhere. For example the area now administered by India called Arunchal Pradesh (referred to as "South Tibet" by Chinese official sources) is shown inside the Chinese frontier by Google Ditu. Google Ditu also shows Taiwan and the surrounding islands as part of China.

Google Moon

Google Moon

In honor of the 36th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing (July 20, 2005), Google took public domain imagery from NASA of the Moon, and integrated it into the Google Maps interface, and created the tool called Google Moon. By default this tool, with a reduced set of features, also displays the points of landing of all Apollo spacecraft to land on the Moon. This tool also includes an easter egg, displaying a Swiss cheese design at the highest zoom level. Google Moon, as it is called, was linked from a special commemorative version of the Google logo displayed at the top of the main Google search page for July 20 (UTC).

Google Mars

Google Mars

Google Mars provides a visible imagery view, like Google Moon, as well as infrared imagery and shaded relief (elevation). Users can toggle between the elevation, visible, and infrared data, in the same manner as switching between map, satellite, and hybrid modes of Google Maps. In collaboration with NASA scientists at Arizona State University, Google has provided the public with data collected from two NASA Mars missions, Mars Global Surveyor and 2001 Mars Odyssey. At present, the Google Earth desktop client cannot access the data, but the feature is in development.

It is currently not known whether or not Google Mars will become a stand-alone program.

NASA has made available a number of Google Earth desktop client maps for Mars here

Google Ride Finder

Google Ride Finder

Google launched an experimental Google Maps-based tool called Ride Finder, tapping into in-car GPS units for a selection of participating taxi and limousine services. The tool displays the current location of all supported vehicles of the participating services in major US cities, including Chicago and San Francisco on a Google Maps street map.

Google Transit

In December 2005, Google launched Google Transit. This is a web application (listed in Google Labs), that plans a trip using public transportation options. Google Transit launched with support for Portland, Oregon. Information for Eugene, Oregon; Honolulu, Hawaii; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Seattle, Washington; and Tampa, Florida was added on September 27, 2006. with more added since. The service calculates route, transit time and cost, and can compare the trip to one using a car.

Google My Maps

In April 2007, My Maps was a new feature added to Google's local search maps . My Maps lets users create their own map by positioning markers, polylines and polygons onto a map. The interface is a straightforward overlay on the map. A set of 84 pre-designed markers is available, ranging from bars and restaurants to webcam and earthquake symbols. Polyline and Polygon colour, width and opacity are selectable. Maps modified using My Maps can be saved for later viewing and made public (or marked as private), but cannot be printed.

Each element added to a My Map has an editable tag. This tag can contain text, rich text or HTML. Embeddable video and other content can be included within the HTML tag.

Upon the launch of My Maps there was no facility to embed the created maps into a webpage or blog. A few independent websites have now produced tools to let users embed maps and add further functionality to their maps.

Google Street View

Google Street View.

On May 25, 2007, Google released Street View, a new feature of Google Maps which provides 360° panoramic street-level views of New York City, San Francisco, Miami, Denver, Las Vegas, and their surrounding metropolitan areas. This feature has raised some privacydomestic violence shelters, and allows users to flag inappropriate or sensitive imagery for Google to review and remove. However, the definition of inappropriate content is not yet as comprehensive as some claim it should be. Further, the process for requesting that an image be removed is not trivial. Images of potential break-ins, sunbathers and individuals entering adult bookstores have, for example, remained active and these images have been widely republished. concerns, with views found to show men leaving strip clubs, protesters at an abortion clinic, sunbathers in bikinis, and other activities. Google maintains that the photos were taken from public property. Before launching the service, Google removed photos of

Google has plans in the near future to add other U.S. cities to Street View, including Phoenix, Arizona, Los Angeles, California, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Georgia, Chicago, Illinois, Baltimore, Maryland, Boston, Massachusetts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Seattle, Washington. It is not known when other parts of the U.S. and world will be included.

Copyright

Google Maps Terms and Conditions state that usage of material from Google Maps is regulated by Google Terms of Service and some additional restrictions. Terms and Conditions, among others, state:

For individual users, Google Maps [...] is made available for your personal, non-commercial use only. For business users, Google Maps is made available for your internal use only and may not be commercially redistributed [...]

Criticism

Street map overlays, in some areas, may not match up precisely with the corresponding satellite images. The street data may be entirely erroneous, or simply out of date:

The biggest challenge is the currency of data, the authenticity of data," said [Google Earth representative] Brian [McLendon]. In other words: The main complaints the Google guys get are "that's not my house" and "that's not my car." Google Maps satellite images are not in real time; they are several years old.

Restrictions have been placed on Google Maps through the apparent censoring of locations deemed potential security threats. These locations are fully listed on Satellite images censored by Google Maps.

Google Street View has also gained a significant amount of controversy in the days following its release; privacy concerns have erupted due to the uncensored nature of its panoramic photographs.

Canadian driving directions where the starting address is close to the US border have recently and mysteriously switched to imperial measure, giving all directions in feet and miles, though the rest of Canada receives directions in standard metric.

Unregistered users can watch most videos on the site; registered users have the ability to upload an unlimited number of videos. Related videos, determined by the title and tags, appear to the right of the video. In the site's second year, functions were added which provide the ability to post video 'responses' and subscribe to content feeds for a particular user or users.

Type	Subsidiary of Google
Founded	February 15, 2005
Headquarters	San Bruno, California, U.S.
Key people	Steve Chen, Founder & CTO Chad Hurley, Founder & CEO Jawed Karim, Founder & Advisor
Employees	67 (2006)
Owner	Google
Website	YouTube.com

History

YouTube's early headquarters in San Mateo

YouTube was founded by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, who were all early employees of PayPal. Prior to PayPal, Hurley studied design at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Chen and Karim studied computer science together at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The domain name "YouTube.com" was activated on February 15, 2005, and the website was developed over the following months. The creators offered the public a preview of the site in May 2005, and six months later YouTube made its official debut.

YouTube's current headquarters in San Bruno

Like many technology start-ups, YouTube was started as an angel-funded enterprise in a small and inexpensive office or garage. In November of 2005, venture capital firm Sequoia Capital invested an initial $3.5 million; additionally, Roelof Botha, partner of the firm and former CFO of PayPal, joined the YouTube board of directors. In April 2006, Sequoia put an additional $8 million into the company, which had experienced a boom of popularity and growth in just its first few months.

During the summer of 2006, YouTube was one of the fastest-growing websites on the World Wide Web, and was ranked as the 5th most popular website on Alexa, far outpacing even MySpace's growth. According to a July 16, 2006 survey, 100 million clips are viewed daily on YouTube, with an additional 65,000 new videos uploaded per 24 hours. The site has almost 20 million visitors each month, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, where around 44% are female, 56% male, and the 12- to 17-year-old age group is dominant. YouTube's preeminence in the online video market is staggering. According to the website Hitwise.com, YouTube commands up to 64% of the UK online video market.

On October 9, 2006, it was announced that the company would be purchased by Google for US$1.65 billion in stock. The purchase agreement between Google and YouTube came after YouTube presented three agreements with media companies in an attempt to escape the threat of copyright-infringement lawsuits. YouTube will continue to operate independently, and the company's 67 employees and its co-founders will continue working within the company. The deal to acquire YouTube closed on November 13. It is Google's second largest purchase of all time.

Political campaigning

Political candidates for the 2008 U.S. Presidential election have been using YouTube as an outlet for advertising their candidacy. Voters can easily view candidates' statements and make videos supporting or demoting presidential candidates of their own, specifically those for Barack Obama, Joe Biden,Hillary Clinton and Ron Paul. The U.S. media has often commented that YouTube played a significant role in the 2006 defeat of Republican Senator George Allen due to a video clip of him making allegedly racist remarks that was replayed continuously by YouTube viewers during his campaign. Political commentators such as James Kotecki have also begun to join in the YouTube world of politics. Many of them make videos on YouTube critiquing the presidential candidate's YouTube videos or simply using YouTube as a medium to get their opinions heard. Recently, French and Italian politicians, such as Antonio Di Pietro, have also been using the site as part of their campaigns.

Media recognition

In its short time on the web, YouTube has grown quickly and received much attention. Online word-of-mouth has been primarily responsible for YouTube's growth since its inception, and gave the site its first surge of publicity when it hosted the popular Saturday Night Live short Lazy Sunday. However, YouTube's official policy prohibits submission of copyrighted material, and NBC Universal, owners of SNL, soon decided to take action.

In February 2006, NBC asked for the removal of some of its copyrighted content from YouTube, including Lazy Sunday and 2006 Olympics clips. The following month, in an attempt to strengthen its policy against copyright infringement, YouTube set a 10-minute maximum limit on video length (except for content submitted via its Director Program, which specifically hosts original material by amateur filmmakers). However, the real cutoff is 10:58. This restriction is often circumvented by uploaders, who instead split their original video into smaller segments, each shorter than the 10-minute limit.

Though YouTube had done its part to comply with NBC's demands, the incident made the news, giving YouTube its most prominent publicity yet. As the site continued to grow, NBC began to realize the possibilities, and in June 2006 made an unusual move. The network had reconsidered its actions and was announcing a strategic partnership with YouTube. Under the terms of the partnership, an official NBC channel was set up on YouTube, showcasing promotional clips for the series The Office. YouTube will also promote NBC's videos throughout its site.

CBS, which had previously also asked YouTube to remove several of its clips, followed suit in July 2006. In a statement indicative of how the traditional media industry's perception of YouTube (and similar sites) has changed, Sean McManus, president of CBS News and Sports noted:

In August of 2006, YouTube announced that, within 18 months, it hopes to offer every music video ever created, while still remaining free of charge. Warner Music Group and EMI have confirmed that they are among the companies in talks to implement this plan. In September Warner Music and YouTube signed a deal, in which YouTube will be allowed to host every music video Warner produced while sharing a portion of the advertisement income. Additionally, user-created videos on YouTube will be allowed to use Warner songs in their soundtracks.

On October 9, 2006, CBS, Universal Music Group, and Sony BMG Music Entertainment announce an agreement to provide content to YouTube.

On January 29, 2007, the co-founder of YouTube, Chad Hurley, announced that the on-line video service will pay its active users, who should also be true copyright owners, a part of the website's revenue gained from advertising. However, at the World Economic Forum, Mr. Hurley did not mention a concrete amount of money that YouTube will pay its contributors.

Press coverage

Time featured a YouTube screen with a foil mirror as its annual Person of the Year citing user created media such as YouTube, and featuring its creators and several content creators. The Wall Street Journal and New York Times have also reviewed content posted on YouTube, and its effects on recruiting and corporate communications in 2006. PC World Magazine has also named YouTube as the 9th of the Top 10 Best Products of 2006. In 2007, both Sports Illustrated and Dime Magazine featured stellar reviews of a basketball highlight video entitled, The Ultimate Pistol Pete Maravich MIX. Because of its acquisition by Google, it is sometimes referred to as "GooTube."

Revenue model

Before being bought by Google, YouTube stated that its business model is advertising-based and was making 15 million dollars per month as such. Some industry commentators have speculated that YouTube's running costs — specifically the bandwidth required — may be as high as 5 to 6 million USD per month, thereby fueling criticisms that the company, like many Internet start-ups, did not have a viably implemented business model. Advertisements were launched on the site beginning in March 2006. In April, YouTube started using Google AdSense. YouTube subsequently stopped using AdSense but has resumed in local regions.

Europe arrival

On June 19, 2007, Eric E. Schmidt was in Paris to launch the new localisation system. The whole interface of the web site is now available with localised versions in several countries (Brazil, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Poland, Spain, United Kingdom). Google aims to competite local video sharing web sites like DailyMotion in France. It also made an agreement with local television stations like M6 and France Télévisions to broadcast legally the video content. Google also planned to localise in Germany in the future.

Recent events

Copyright infringement

YouTube policy does not allow content to be uploaded by anyone not permitted by United States copyright law to do so, and the company frequently removes uploaded infringing content. Nonetheless, a large amount of it continues to be uploaded (eg. Television shows, commercials, music videos, music concerts, clips from a television show or film, M.U.G.E.N, emulator hacks, or games re-published onto another system eg. PSP). Generally, unless the copyright holder reports them, YouTube only discovers these videos via indications within the YouTube community through self-policing. The primary way in which YouTube identifies the content of a video is through the search terms that uploaders associate with clips. Some users have taken to creating alternative words as search terms to be entered when uploading specific type of files (similar to the deliberate misspelling of band names on MP3 filesharing networks). For a short time, members could also report one another. The service offers a flagging feature, intended as a means for reporting questionable content, including that which might constitute copyright infringement. However, the feature can be susceptible to abuse; for a time, some users were flagging other users' original content for copyright violations, purely out of spite. YouTube proceeded to remove copyright infringement from the list of offenses flaggable by members.

Hollywood remains divided on YouTube, as "'the marketing guys love YouTube and the legal guys hate it.'" Further,

While lawyers are demanding filtering technology, many Hollywood execs actually enjoy the fact that YouTube only takes down clips when they request it. "If I found part of a successful show up on YouTube today, I'd probably pull it down immediately .... If I had a show that wasn't doing so well in the ratings and could use the promotion, I wouldn't be in a rush to do that."

Content owners are not just targeting YouTube for copyright infringements on the site, but they are also targeting third party websites that link to infringing content on YouTube and other video sharing sites. For example QuickSilverScreen vs. Fox Daily Episodes vs. Fox The liability of linking remains a grey area with cases for and against. The law in the U.S. currently leans towards website owners being liable for infringing links^[38] although they are often protected by the DMCA providing they take down infringing content when issued with a takedown notice. However, a recent court ruling in the U.S. found Google not to be liable for linking to infringing content (Perfect 10 v. Google, Inc.). and Columbia vs. Slashfilm.

Examples of infringement complaints

On October 5, 2006 the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC) had their copyright complaints regarding Japanese media on YouTube finalized. Thousands of media from popular Japanese artists (such as Tokyo Jihen and various other music including Jpop) were removed.

When CBS and Universal Music Group signed agreements to provide content to YouTube they announced that they would use new technology that will help them find copyrighted material and remove it.

TV journalist Robert Tur filed the first lawsuit against the company in Summer 2006, alleging copyright infringement for hosting a number of famous news clips without permission. The case has yet to be resolved.

On November 9, 2006 Artie Lange said his lawyer were in talks with YouTube, after finding his entire DVD, It's the Whiskey Talking, available for free on their site. Lange said he will either demand money from them, or else he will sue.

Viacom and the British Broadcasting Corporation both demanded YouTube to take down more than 200,000 videos.

Viacom announced it was suing YouTube, and its owner Google, for more than $1 billion in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Viacom claims that YouTube has over 160,000 of their videos on their website without their permission.

Use of acoustic fingerprints

On October 12, 2006, YouTube announced that because of recent agreements with high-profile content creators, they were now required to use anti-piracy software. The software uses an audio-signature technology that can spot a low-quality copy of a licensed music video or other content. YouTube would have to substitute an approved version of the clip or take the material down automatically. Analysts noted removal of content based on such a system might negatively impact user satisfaction. This is frustrating for viewers who upload anime music videos, because most AMVs use licensed music content; however, often said music is acquired illegally as well.

On April 16, 2007, Google's CEO Eric E. Schmidt presented a keynote speech at the NAB Convention in Las Vegas. During the Q&A, Schmidt announced that YouTube was close to enacting a content filtering system to remove infringing content from the service. The new system, called "Claim Your Content," will automatically identify copyrighted material so that it can be removed.

Ricardo Reyes, a spokesperson for Google, stated on 13 June 2007 that they are "trying to see if there is a way to make video identification technology a reality" when they begin to test the system in a few days.

Violence

On June 1, 2006, the evening ITV News bulletin reported that YouTube and sites like it were encouraging violence and bullying amongst teenagers, who were filming fights on their mobile phones. In July 2007, a similar incident happened at a school in Hayling Island,U.K.

White House National Drug Control involvement

In September 2006, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) began running anti-drug messages through the YouTube System. In response, many YouTube users began uploading rebuttals and rating the public service announcements down. Since mid-September, the ONDCP has removed the ability to rate or comment on any of their messages as a result.

New York Times reports anti-U.S. attack videos

On October 5, 2006, The New York Times reported on the proliferation of what they considered to be anti-U.S. Iraqi insurgent attack videos on YouTube.

Banning

Iran

On December 3, 2006, Iran blocked YouTube and several other sites in an attempt to impede "corrupting" foreign films and music.

Turkey

YouTube was blocked in Turkey. "Access to this site is blocked by court order".

Turkey blocked YouTube on March 6, 2007 for letting videos insulting Turks and Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, to be shown, in an escalation of what some call a "virtual war" between Greeks, Armenians, Kurds and Turks on YouTube, with people from each side posting videos to belittle and berate the other. The video that caused banning alleged Turks and Atatürk to be homosexuals. The video was first mentioned on CNN Türk and the Istanbul public prosecutor sued YouTube for insulting Turkishness. The court suspended access to YouTube pending removal of the video. The ban was strongly criticized as censorship in the press and by the general public. YouTube lawyers sent documentary of removal to public prosecutor and access was restored on March 9, 2007.

Thailand

During the week of March 8, YouTube was blocked in Thailand. Many bloggers believed the reason YouTube was blocked was because of a video of the former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's speech on CNN. However, the government did not confirm or give reasons for the ban. YouTube was accessible from March 10.

On the night of April 3, YouTube was again blocked in Thailand. The government cited a video on the site that it called "insulting" to King Bhumibol Adulyadej. However, the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology claimed that it would unblock YouTube in a few days, after websites containing references to this video are blocked instead of the entire website. Communications Minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudom said, "When they decide to withdraw the clip, we will withdraw the ban." Shortly after this incident the internet technology blog Mashable was banned from Thailand over the reporting of the YouTube clips in question.  YouTube remains blocked from within Thailand as of July, 2007.

Brazilian model lawsuit and subsequent banning

YouTube is being sued by Brazilian model and MTV VJ Daniela Cicarelli (better known as Ronaldo's ex-fiancée) on the grounds that the site is making available a video footage made by a paparazzo, in which she and her boyfriend are having sex on a Spanish beach. The lawsuit requires that YouTube be blocked in Brazil until all copies of the video are removed. On Saturday, January 6, 2007, a legal injunction ordered that filters be put in place to prevent users in Brazil from accessing the website.

The effectiveness of the measure has been questioned, since the video is not available only on YouTube, but rather has become an Internet phenomenon. On Tuesday, January 9, 2007, the same court overturned their previous decision, ordering the filters removed, although the footage itself remained forbidden, but without technical support for its blockage. After the banning of YouTube in Brazil there has been a website called brtube.com as an unofficial replacement for YouTube in Brazil.

Morocco

On May 25, 2007 the state-owned Maroc Telecom blocked all access to YouTube. There were no reasons given why YouTube was blocked. But the speculations are that it might have something to do with some pro-separatist group Polisario clips (Polisario being the Western Sahara independence movement) or because of some videos that criticized King Mohammed VI. This blockade did not concern the other two private internet-providers, Wana and Meditel. YouTube became accessible again on May 30th, 2007 after Maroc Telecom unofficially announced that the denied access to the website was only a "technical glitch".

Terms of service

According the site's terms of service, users may upload videos only if they have the permission of the copyright holder and of the depicted persons. Pornography, defamation, harassment, commercial advertisements and material that encourages criminal conduct may not be uploaded. The uploader grants YouTube a license to distribute and modify the uploaded material for any purpose; this license terminates when the uploader deletes the material from the site. Users may view videos on the site as long as users agree to the terms of service.

Domain name problem

YouTube's immense success has unintentionally affected the business for an American company, Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment