When

[DAN MCREYNOLDS]

When Was The Last Time Google Earth Was Updated

[Forkboy2]

When Was The Last Time Google Earth Was Updated

Program was updated about a week ago.

They did data update yesterday.

[Munden]

People asking this generally have one of two different actual pieces of information they're after.

1) When was the last time new imagery was added or when previous imagery was changed.

--- The answer to this is the end of October of this year. (2007)

2) When was a particular image taken?

--- The images span from as far back as 2002 up to early in 2007. The only way to know this is for sure is if it's satellite imagery from Digital Globe, you can use the layers and previews to find the date. Beyond that, for other satellite imagery or aerial imagery you have to rely on construction sites or other pieces of information to clue you in to what year the image was taken.

Hope that helps.

EDIT: (heh, and Forkboy points out a third meaning of the question as pertaining to the program itself and not necessarily the images)

[Forkboy2]

The only way to know this is for sure is if it's satellite imagery from Digital Globe, you can use the layers and previews to find the date. Beyond that, for other satellite imagery or aerial imagery you have to rely on construction sites or other pieces of information to clue you in to what year the image was taken.



By the way, from what I've read at Google Earth forums, the date provided on Digital Globe imagery isn't actually the date the photo was taken. Also, just because there is a Digital Globe outline of an area doesn't mean that Google Earth is actually showing the Digital Globe imagery.

In other words, those digital globe layers are pretty much meaningless for the average person.

Matt

[sreeja]

Google earth is constantly updated, bit by bit. It uses satellite imagery of a very small area, which is then pieced together with surrounding photos, like a giant jigsaw, so by taking each photo when the sky is clear and sunny, we get to see the entire world in daylight at the same time.As you may well have noticed, a lot of areas have much lower resolution photographs and you can't see the detail of other more popular, well documented areas:yep:

[sladys]

When Was The Last Time Google Earth Was Updated

It was updated on dec. 6th. according GE Blog:

December Data Update for Google Earth:

Google pushed out some new data for Google Earth today. No new imagery, but this update broadens the number of countries with detailed information. Here's a summary of the update:

Roads Layer Expanded - South Africa and Poland now have detailed roads when you turn on the roads layer.

Business Listings - Six additional countries now have business listings: Finland, Norway, Denmark, Austria, Sweden and Switzerland. Business listings are a powerful feature in Google Earth which are now found under the layer folder called "Place of Interest". Here you find things like Dining, Lodging, Bars/Clubs, Coffee Shops, Shopping Malls, and more. After turning the layers on, zoom in to a city and you'll see lots of icons appear (if the country you're looking at has the listings). When you click on the placemarks, you usually get an address, phone number, description, and sometimes pictures and reviews. You can also click on a link to "Write a review" yourself.

Transportation Layer Update - The transportation layer is also found under the "Places of Interest" layer folder. This layer has information on a variety of different transportation systems: Airports, Rail, Subway, Tram, Bus, Waterway, and Mountain Rail. The layer now has enhanced graphics with better colors and lines to differentiate the different forms of travel. Google last enhanced this layer in July 2006. Some cities even have detailed public transportation information including schedules and route information which come from the Google Transit project. Google added the transit layer information in June of this year.

http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2007/12/december_data_update_for_google_earth.html

[martin]

BTW Roads Layer
What about a River Layer, at least with the main ones?
Would be much more interesting...

[Munden]

By the way, from what I've read at Google Earth forums, the date provided on Digital Globe imagery isn't actually the date the photo was taken. Also, just because there is a Digital Globe outline of an area doesn't mean that Google Earth is actually showing the Digital Globe imagery.

In other words, those digital globe layers are pretty much meaningless for the average person.

Matt

The Globe layer requires you to look carefully, yes, because GE has overlapping tiles from different days and sources. I've generally not had a problem dating the image as long as its from Digital Globe, and I don't consider myself anything but an average person. :)

You'll also note I said you'd probably need to use the preview feature, which is a big help in knowing which bits of which tile are showing. It really can be a huge help.

As for the date, I have heard people make that comment about the date. I've never seen conclusive proof as to what the date would be if it isn't the image date stamp. For my own research, it's proven to be pretty good in the past.