I thought that I would share this with our North American members, as I think it is quite useful, and kinda fun too.
It is a Satellite super zoom camera facility provided by Google, and is a pretty neat piece of equipment. I have been zooming in on cities all over the world, just by clicking and holding & dragging the map around until you reach the desired location (country/region etc) and then by using the super fantastic zoom function, which takes you in pretty close on many cities, but I found that it is better on some places than on other, I don’t why that is, but when zooming in on some American cities today, it was great, almost right down to street level, so give it a try and see if you like it, I hope you do, as I think it is a really neat piece of software, and I’ve been having fun looking all along the Costa del sol this week.
This is how the original text read from the news paper that I found the notification about this new service; ============================================================================ Quote :
Smile, you’re on Satellite.
A new website is using cameras 380 miles above the earth to give what it says is the most detailed aerial photographs on the Internet.
The free Google site – http://maps.google.co.uk - is said to be able to show features as large as mountain ranges or details as small as cars.
It also works as a route-planner. Visitors are asked to enter a postcode or street name and are then given the choice of a map, a satellite photograph, or a “hybrid” (a combination of the two).
I personally like to drag the map around, and then double click on the place I’m looking for, in order to centre it, and then start zooming in, and even while zoomed in you can still stop and move the map around to look for interesting things, or something more specific, like a railway station, highway, various parks et cetera. ===============================================================================
This is an absolutely AMAZING find! I was able to zoom into HUSA Princesa, my hotel during my stay in September this year! You can even see little boats in Parque del buen Retiro (4Euros for 45 minutes). Thank you!
Your welcome, I'm glad you like it, and have been able to make good use of the facility.
Funny thing is, that I too on sunday night was looking at the Retiro park, and all around the 'puerta del Sol' area, plaza Mayor etc.
I'm not sure why, but I seem to get a lot better detail on some cities than others, in the UK, US, or ES, it's the same problem, some have fantastic detail, right down to the swimming pool, but on others it's just the tops of tall buildings, but still, it's good fun to zoom around, and drag the map about, looking at the highways, town centres etc. I don't know if it has something to do with cloud level, or density, quantity, or if because it's day or night, in any case it's a useful tool when using the map as a route planner, I mean you can see the names of all the main streets, in any city or town, and you can check out where the nearest highways/freeways are located in relation to where you want to get to, and/or will be staying.
By the way, have you used it to zoom in on London yet? the one in the UK that is, (I know you got one in Ontario).
Anyway, cheers for now, and happy Zooming.
Posts: 696 | Location: Santander | Registered: 11 August 2003
Yes, it's a pretty cool tool, isn't it? I have used it in a couple of my classes to show my students different American cities. I have even been able to zoom in on my parents' neighborhood and can see their roof and yard.
Hi Louis and Chica, nice to hear from you both, and yeah it's really neat, I'm having a lot of fun today during my lunch break, just zooming all around Madrid, and was just having a really good look a Barajas Airport, which comes in really quite well indeed, I can see the planes on the tarmac very clearly, it's amazing, some of the detail that you can get in some places, at the right time of the day, I'm well pleased with this new toy, but also, I kind of like the other 'Cams' too, as they to allow us to get some insight into what's going on in many other cities around the world, especially many American cities, which I have never seen, and have neither the time or energy to really go and explore, and it's none too cheap either I must say, but that's besides the point I guess.
The storm (extreme weather) Cams were useful recently, (unfortunately), but useful just the same.
I'm glad they are of use to you in the classroom Chica, it's nice to know that it's being used for educational programmes too.
Talking of education, check this one out, it might be of use to you in your classes::
Hi all, here's another one to add to the collection of Cameras, take a look at this one, it's not a satellite Cam, but it's pretty good for checking out the street maps of the world.
You just select the name of the country that you want to look at, and type in the name of the city, and it takes you right to it, you can then start zooming in on it.
Hey, folks, long time no post, but I just discovered Google Earth, which is a downloadable program even better, in some ways, than the satellite and hybrid views of Google maps. You can choose the city and even the address of where you want to look and you can rotate the view so you can see elevation, etc. Users upload their photos of places and there are links to Wikipedia articles and lots more!
Still winter here in Michigan, so I have been virtually traveling.
Felices Pascuas to all!
Sue
Pack light, sleep cheap, eat well.
Posts: 479 | Location: ROCKFORD,MI, USA | Registered: 23 May 2001
Hey sue, it's nice to hear that you've discovered google earth too, I don't know about others on here, but I've been using google earth for most of the last 2 years now, I guess I just plain forgot about this thread and didn't get round to letting everybody on here know about it, as well as the other facilities posted on here.
But anyways, it's a great and extemely useful program to have on the PC, I get a lot of fun out looking around all over Spain mostly, but also many other parts of the world too, although I'm really into checking out all the fantastic cities all over Spain, some of the detail is amazing, especially on very clear blue summer days, and along the costa del sol etc.
oh well, you're enjoying it now, and now I guess other s will see this and do likewise I'm sure.
Happy googling to ya.
Angelo.
Posts: 696 | Location: Santander | Registered: 11 August 2003
- rent or buy a cell phone from me for your stay in spain, more info at 
- already have a cell phone, get a spanish SIM card for it at 
