Google Maps becoming scarier

It seems Google Maps has changed a bit just recently. You can now search addresses in very high detail (after all we are talking about the whole world here), it even worked on totally countryside Finnish roads. As well as addresses in Tokyo. Try it, it's scary how effective it is.

Just write an address (if a result doesn't come up, try to write the street name only) and see Google Maps zoom to your rooftops...

(btw, apparently this feature now also works on Google Earth).


There is also another amazing feature that let's you zoom all the way up to street level, and see a 3D view. As far as I know it's only available for San Francisco, California, USA at the moment. Try it out here!

Choose "Street View" and follow the instructions, check out the Golden Gate bridge for an example.

Wish they'll make this feature for Tokyo. Sounds impossible though, with all the small streets and huge amount of people around, during any time of day.

Ah and since I mentioned Tokyo, here is a link to a site that let's you view Shinjuku, Shibuya or Ginza in 3D!

Could Helsinki, Finland fit inside Yamanote-sen, Tokyo?

So I started wondering with my beloved Google Maps.
How would my beloved birthplace Helsinki fit inside Tokyo's Yamanote line.

Not the whole Helsinki though, downtown Helsinki is where the buildings are so I'm comparing that :)

(For the informed downtown Helsinki in this case is something that starts from Pasila and continues until you hit the sea)

So here's what we work with:
On the left, Tokyo Yamanote-line highlighted, and on the right the Helsinki downtown highlighted (Notice the difference in the amount of greenery). The scale should be the same and the sizes of the pictures are the same (Note how downtown tokyo is made of more concrete and less sea than Helsinki).

Well, we can already see that apparently downtown Helsinki will fit inside without a problem.




And here, the result (Helsinki=red part):



Not a suprising result, but interesting for me to see how the scales compare. Although area-wise Helsinki can fit inside roughly probably two times, it also tells that the area inside Yamanote-line that actually feels humongous is actually quite tightly packed. The fact that it's not such a huge area after all is not all that suprising as there have been rumours that only the Japanese Emperor can afford to live inside the Yamanote-line and Tokyo has alot of people to accomodate ;)

Playing with Google Maps

Google is really crazy lately.

They are buying internet companies left and right (most notably YouTube) and providing some of the best services (Gmail, This Blog, Google Analyst, Google Documents etc.) I've seen and mostly for free.

Companies like Microsoft and lately also Nokia (which in it's new organizational structure also plans to become an internet company) will have a fair challenge catching up with the superb quality and seamless integration Google has in it's products.

Most of you probably know of Google Earth, which is fun and great.
But in fact the browser based Google Maps is better in my opinion. It's more robust and allows for easier sharing of maps and a much better search function.

Here, a map I made: MyJAPAN

見てみな！（クリック！）