how up to date is Google Earth?

Just having a scan around on google earth at my local area and on the screen there is written 'Image 2006 Digital Globe' so I figure it is fairly up to date but I see a vacant block and carpark where I know there was a shopping centre built in 2004. Anyone else find stuff like this??

FATMAN

What you are reading is the date of copyright for the images NOT the date that they weer taken. The only way to date the images that you see on google earth is to do what you have and look at landmarks that you know and have changed noticably and make an educated guess.

I was flying around on Google Earth earlier today and saw that new images have been added in quite a few locations in the UK. I found my sisters house in Cambridgeshire and on the driveway was the Renault Espace they bought about 1 year ago. So, it must be a recent image.
Although it's nice to see updated images, some areas are still rather lacking in any detail. I keep checking to see if my location has been added yet but no joy yet

When i just zoomed in on my home, i zoomed out to see the surrounding area and standing was a building that was demolished on May 2nd 2002.
I remember the date cause it was my birthday, and i'm sureof the year as it was my last year at University.

I think its about two years behind. I use the House I am moving to, it was done being built about 18 months ago... If you Google Earth it, it is a hole in the ground, but there are others around it.

Hard to say. It seems to vary.

It show's my house, but no swimming pool. The pool was put in in 2003.

Oh well, La dee da with yoru swimming pool....i'm just teasing
Its hot, and i get playful when its hot.....

Yeah the images of my house seem to be a couple of years old.

Shame that the images of my uni in Bath are still really low res.

In fact the north of england is covered much better than the south! Just another example of how the north is better

Absolutely, i can zoom quite well into the garden of my parents house in Leeds and make out the family car....of 4 years ago
It might be looking in the past, but its clear as fresh water

ALL the high-res images are up-to-date within a span of three years (backwards from 2005). Some are from various times during that three-year span. For example, if you look at Turner Field in Atlanta, you'll see that it still exhibits a scoreboard and markings from 2002.

A useful tool to determine the dates of the hi-res images in the Google Maps database is the "DG Coverage" (Digital Globe Coverage) option.

Click on the small arrow next to the "DG Coverage" option in the Layers menu. It will display a list of years and cloud cover percentages, along with corresponding sets of box overlays in the Google Maps main window.

By checking and unchecking each of the years - cloud cover percentages checkboxes (in the layers menu), the different sets of box overlays and corresponding dates can be turned on and off (in the main window), and one can determine the the date that each hi-res image was taken.

I searched my old town in Massachusetts and it showed an image of them building a Home Depot. I moved from the town in 2004 and it had been completed about a year or two before that so I think it all depends on where you live.

OK, Lets talk about how Google Earth works. The long distance shots are taken by satelites but the hi-res close up images are taken by fly overs from aircraft and then blended together. If you are zooming in from outer space at some point the pictures switch from satelite photo's to air craft photo's.

I know this because last year the university in my hometown (Fayetteville, Arkansas) completed a fly over survey and Google asked them for access to the images. The university complied and you can zoom in on really good and up to date pictures of my hometown.

Fifty miles to the South is a much larger town called Fort Smith and they still don't have any quality hi-res pics.

Look at the differance between Fayetteville, AR and Fort Smith, AR and you'll see what i'm talking about.

The quality of Google Images depends on the last time your town had a fly over survey.

Atleast thats how I understand it

wupy

i can say that some of the images in vermont are only a few weeks old i was looking for my sisters house and i saw that they had thier pool liner stretched out in a straight line ( this is from when they where installing it) and that was just 2-3 weeks ago.

The date you see is just the copyright date of the image. Google earth just updated some areas, especially area 51 and other high interest targets.
So update it.

I have to say Ive seen my home imagery in the Metro Detroit area go from my brothers house being built ( beginning 2004) to finished and cars in the drive(August 05)in the latest imagery.
However I give a big Thumbs Down to the Saudi's and a few other Google nations who had great military imagery earlier and lately are more censored. I think they caught on to the party. However there is a palace in Saudi Arabia that is a near perfect circle has about twenty olmypic pools and is about a mile or two in diameter. Wow. I always wondered what happened to most the oil money and what a chunk.

Area 51 has not been updated recently. It is the same image that has been shown for ages now. Also updating the program wont do anything to the images you recieve as GE streams the images and they have to be re-downloaded almost every time you view a site. This means if they get a new image or update it, your computer will just download the new image rather than the old one. No need to update.

It would be cool if there could be an internet pole/vote for the area we most want updated.

I know what I'd wanna see

Check out Keyhole (which google bought), you get up to date info on recent updates etc.



Google Earth Community / Keyhole BBS

here : clitheroe , lancashire , uk

google earth is 5 years out of synch . i can date it fairly precisely -- because i opposed planing permission for a building behind my mothers house , which was built in 2001 -- whereas on gogle earth -- only a bare brown feild site is shown .