What's New in Google Earth?
Each month we highlight the newest additions to the built-in Google Earth content. If you haven't been subscribing to Sightseer for long, check the forum for previous editions.
New Imagery
 In mid-December we published a large amount of new imagery all over the world. This update included new imagery for every continent on Earth. Even the southernmost continent of Antarctica got a fresh look showing the Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica (LIMA) (read more). Also included are new and updated imagery for places both populated and unpopulated. Check out the full list here. Have you seen the new solar panels on the Google headquarters  ?
New and Updated Layers
- More 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 Places 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. 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.
- Roads layer expanded - South Africa and Poland now have detailed roads when you turn on the Roads layer
- Transportation layer updated - 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. Some cities have detailed public transportation information including schedules and route information which come from the Google Transit project.
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 Earth From Above layer - Be sure to check out the new "The Earth From Above" layer featuring the stunning photography of Yann Arthus-Bertrand in Google Earth. You'll find it in the Global Awareness layer folder under: The Earth from Above with GoodPlanet. You can also go to www.google.com/earthfromabove to view an interview with Yann or to download an iGoogle gadget that features a new photograph every day. Read more about it on the Official Google Blog. This is the first layer published for Google Earth simultaneously in 14 languages.
Learn more
about using layers.
Outreach Showcase - Launched in June of this year, the Google Earth Outreach program helps nonprofit organizations display their information in an engaging, geospatial environment. Our new Outreach showcase highlights some of the fascinating and innovative KMLs being created by individuals and organizations working for the greater good. If you have some KML you would like featured, read the announcement for tips.
3D Warehouse Update - The Google 3D Warehouse interface has been enhanced to show related 3D models and collections in a new way. You now see a stack of thumbnails showing similar models which you can scroll through right or left. Models which have been saved for viewing in Google Earth also have a map marker and map tab to help show the location of the 3D model before loading. See an example of the new interface.
Google Sky Maps API - You can now create your own 2D Google Maps mashup showing Google Sky data. We have announced Application Programming Interfaces (API) for Sky, and also Google Moon and Mars. Don't forget, Google Sky is a built-in feature of Google Earth (read the announcement).
Improved Searching - And finally, in mid-December we updated our searching capabilities for Google Maps and Earth. You can search for places other than just city names - for example, in Google Earth's "Fly To:" search pane you can try searching for places like: "Big Ben in London", or "Pyramids in Egypt". And you get search results which fly you to the location and tell you more about it. Results will appear as blue markers on the map. As always, if you don't see results on the top, you can scroll down and click on the "see community maps" link to see more content from other mapping aficionados. Not only that, but some of the placemarks will show you photos people have taken of those places from Panoramio. To see even more photos, simply turn on the Geographic Web layer in Google Earth which includes the Panoramio photo layer. See other details in the Google Maps search announcement. |
. Open the folders and use the "Tools->Play Tour" menu option (or hit the "play" button) in GE to fly to each maze. The maze collection is maintained by 'Cyclonic' and can be found in 
