San Francisco — Those residing in faraway lands and craving to experience a piece of England without buying an expensive plane ticket can do so with new high-resolution images courtesy of Google Maps. The search engine behemoth relentlessly striving to expand its collections of high-resolution images of selected cities and sights around the world, has added fresh high-resolution aerial and satellite imagery to its mapping services for 25 cities and 72 countries.
According to the Google’s Lat-Long Blog, the company has added new collection of elaborated, high-resolution images of selected cities from around the world. It is also worth noting that the announcement comes just in time for the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony, and the new imagery of “parts of London” includes the Olympic Park and Village in Stratford, London. Bird’s-eye views of the Olympic stadium do not appear to be available, however.
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Amazingly, the search giant focused its lenses at the UK Olympic, and among the imagery to get an update is the Olympic Park, London, where athletes around the world are currently vying for medals in the London 2012 games. The company also noted on its LatLong blog that the pictures displays the “final construction touches” being added to the East London stadium, suggesting the images are no more than a month old. It also includes the Olympic Village towards the east of London, plus a spectacular view of Bryce Canyon in Utah.
Apparently, included among this fresh update of Google Maps are high-resolution images that were taken both at 45-degrees (often referred to as “bird’s-eye view”) and directly overhead. The new aerial photography covers numerous areas — 72 countries and regions plus a total of 28 major cities — 21 of which are in the U.S.
The company also added some pretty cool features to Maps, including the ability to use Street View on Downing Street. Users can now glance through the exterior of number ten, the famous residence of the country’s prime ministers, and Google has also started to roll out new high resolution map images for various countries across the world.
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In addition, other major European cities in the U.K., Spain, and Germany also saw upgraded satellite imagery, as did parts of Latin and South America, the Middle East, and Australia. Some of the new cities include Munich, Chicago, and Springfield Illinois, with users able to zoom in on various landmarks at a 45 degree angle. Google highlights the Frauenkirche in Munich, and the famous Trump Tower in Chicago (see image above). A full list of cities and regions that have received updates is available on Google’s website.
This latest move comes on the heels just a fortnight after Microsoft updated Bing Maps with high-resolution “Bird’s Eye” imagery, which allows the viewer to see landmarks and cities from a 45-degree angle, with photos taken from low-flying aircraft rather than satellites.
The freshly released imagery will be available in Google Maps, the online mapping service, as well as Google Earth, the downloadable desktop application. Besides, the company says that the new updates have rolled out to Google Maps and Google Earth, and more cities and countries will be added in the future for both high resolution images and 45 degree angles. Google can also notify users of any new updates via email thanks to its Follow Your World app.