Mo’ Beta Maps
- Posted April 11th, 2006 at 5:15 pm by Yahoo! Search
- Categories: Travel
Today we added global satellite imagery to Yahoo! Maps beta. The new satellite imagery will help people visualize maps, driving directions, and local search, and is available across Yahoo! and to developers through our APIs.
Here are the highlights:
Comprehensive Nationwide Satellite Imagery Coverage
Wall-to-wall coverage within the lower 48 states in the US. We are going for the best coverage nationwide, from the streets of New York to every inch of Redding, CA.
Global Satellite Imagery
The product features global images at 15 meters per pixel (zoom level 5, medium resolution), which basically lets you find and see every city, town, and major land feature in the world at medium resolution.
Global Maps
We’re releasing maps and overlays at medium resolution for the whole world as well. This should help you view not only the suburbs of Bangkok, Thailand, but also help see the context of the imagery in hybrid mode.
APIs
The new imagery and global maps are available for API developers on the Yahoo! Developer Network. So whether you’re new to the world of mashups or an experienced hacker, there is no better time to show off what you can do.
Better Views
In addition to getting all the data we can, we’re processing the satellite imagery to make the visuals more aesthetically pleasing for users. We’re blending away seam lines and normalizing the color pallet to create a continuous plane of imagery.
That’s it for now. Let us know what you think, and expect more updates soon.
Thanks!
Michael Lawless and Vince Maniago
Yahoo! Maps
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Awesome, thanks, guys. Before I was forced to use Microsoft Live Local for maps of Williamsburg (because Google Maps didn’t have them) and that was clunky as hell.
Cool and Sweet
easy to navigate – and print – and save as bookmark
Live traffic updates are helpful
the only question is why is it a flash image instead of a jpf or png>
BTW: gave it a Digg
http://digg.com/technology/Global_Satellite_imagery_to_Yahoo_Maps_beta
Very nice. Also nice to see Europe appear on the YahooMapRadar ! But when are we going to see the level of detail we require on places like London, for example.
This is the only reason I am holding off YahooMap development. Which is a shame, as I built and concieved a load of widgets for the Maps – MP3 players etc – local chat etc, but I won’t openly play with them until we have more global support in the Maps and the API.
I imagine the licencing issues with some of the Postcode/API data for Europe may be holding it up?
Nice to see satellite images showing up here, but it’s only a matter of time before Google use their 3D buildings and GoogleEarth application to greater effect. Soon, you’ll be able to ‘immerse’ yourself in the virtual representation of a place and get your virtual bearings, by (almost) being there.
So, how about Yahoo get the people who make things like Second Life to recreate Earth from real map data? Yahoo!Planet?
This looks great! Any plans to release a UK map?
Not bad. The map has really improved internationally ,you have road network for places people do not know about. Names of Islands that may not even have human population – and they are searchable too (search “Amini, India”). The resolution is not bad either, I guess you have bought higher res images for tourist places.
Btw, why exactly does the map centre in on Saskatchewan/Manitoba. If you are guessing my geolocation using my IP address, well I am a bit towards south-east (and I have set my default location correctly).
Maldives :
http://maps.yahoo.com/beta/#maxp=search&q1=Male,+Maldives&trf=0&mvt=h&lon=73.5170745849609&lat=4.18387024995581&mag=5
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=4.18387024995581+73.5170745849609&ll=4.160158,73.707275&spn=1.314857,2.724609&t=k
Another thing, the ability to search for airports with airport code is nice, but why don’t you add the ability to search a location by entering the pin code. I’d use that more than searching airport codes. It is always easier to type the pin code when you know it than it is to type the entire address. I’ve tested this for Canada only. And while you are at it make the airport search international, now that you have international places too.
I’m glad you guys like it. I think we have a pretty good first release, and I just want to reiterate that this is just the beginning. Now that we have our architecture in place and a solid baseline of imagery collected and online, we’re going to be piling in a whole bunch of much higher resolution imagery for the metros to start matching what else is in the marketplace, and a lot of really nice high resolution international imagery will be coming online shortly.
Please keep checking in on the new Yahoo! Maps as we get the beta starting to run on all cylinders.
Two thumps up!!!
My small town is live.
Just entered my address and looked at the satellite image. It is real old, pre-2000. In fact it looks like an old USGS Digital Orthographic Quad. What’s going on?
We are using a lot of USGS data in the backfill, as well as other government sources that are much newer than that. Unfortunately, if the data doesn’t exist or isn’t readily obtainable, we don’t have it, but we are committed to updating our imagery as newer datasets come out.
Also, we do have a lot of US updates coming in the short term, in addition to the international and very-high-res data that I’ve already mentioned.
Mike
Very nice. I’m writing this up on my blog right now. Where I go to school–Ithaca NY–shows up much better here than in Google.
Oh, you guys kicked Google’s butt with this one.
Very good work.
I have to agree with Kosso’s comment on 12th April, I’m waiting for street level maps in major european cities, to be able to integrate the maps into my site. Any idea how long this will be in coming ?
thks