Europe now available in Google Maps

web-search Maps has finally updated their Europe offering. They had some
satellite photography done but no road networks, except for the UK. Now
I noticed that they finally have the road networks complete for most of
Atlantic Ocean to Europe, you can now zoom into your desired location
(or you can just enter your location into the search field). Of course,
not all areas have the maximum zoom imagery available. It's quite cool
to be able to view a satellite shot of the actual towns where your
ancestors in Germany are from. Hope this isn't all just old news to
those who already know.

Bernd J. Kaup...

Though the satellite views are quite outaged (I tested three locations
and found the pictures being made in summer 2003) they seem still to be
censored.
Example: when locating the Airport Frankfurt you will be impressed by
the number of planes to be seen on the southern military part i.e. Rhein
Main Airbase. When following the Autobahn north of the Airport to the
west you will find the Erbenheim Airbase, with just a couple of
helicopters and two or three motorplanes parked there. Both airfields
where operating 24 hours 7 days a week planes landing and starting per
60 the hour in summer 2003. The solution is to be found when going back
by meter. You will find an ICE-Train between the Frankfurt Airport and
Wiesbaden but the track is still under construction west of the
Wiesbaden intersection. The satellite pictures are combined from
sources of different age.

A more serious problem is that the streets aren't complete. Thus you may
not find the street in the village or town from where your ancestors left.

Dave Hinz...

I think you need to modify your expectations, friend. This is a free
service, and it's impossible to get satellite images of the entire globe
realtime, regardless of budget. It will vary by area; some of the US
images are nearly 10 years old and not high resolution at all.

Example: I checked streets in about twenty locations in which I either
lived or had business connections, so that I positively know of the
existence. In Berlin 2 of five streets where not named, one was not on
the map at all, in Frankfurt 3 of 5 where not on the map, in Hamburg 1

Dave Hinz...

(snip)

The scope of such an undertaking (labeling every road on the planet) is
immense.

Bernd J. Kaup...

but it is already achieved, at least for central Europe. web-search uses the
Tele-Atlas-Software, developped for car navigation systems for Germany
and adjacent countries. The last up-date I purchased on CD-ROM was
costing about 10 $. The CD-ROM shows down to 200 m in sqare on a
monitor, not only streets but also numbers of the houses. The
streetnames appear already with much lower resolution for important
streets, but with increasing resolution all becomes more detailed.

You may also appreciate, that satellite views are available for central
Europe with very high detailing. I think one looking at a tennis court
can identify the trademark of the ball. You may purchase such views on
CD-ROM, cost for Germany including a map overlay is about 1000 $.

I suspect the license for web-search is limited, in order not to harm the
own business.

mfg
bjk

of 3 were not named correctly, the name of the street of my present
domicile is given wrongly, the street of a prior domicile is not in the
map, my office location is not in the map, in all three small towns only
about 50 p.c. of the streets are shown with names or at all.

Thus I suspect web-search giving you a fifty-fifty chance at best finding
the domicile of your ancestors (irrespective of inevitable changes in
the last 150 years).

mfg
bjk