Publishing more detailed maps of North Korea

Update (1/28 6:14p PST): The map of North Korea is now live. Thank you for your patience.  

Update (1/28): Sorry for the delay. The map of North Korea will be available soon. We'll update this post again when it is live.

The goal of Google Maps is to provide people with the most comprehensive, accurate, and easy-to-use modern map of the world. As part of this mission, we’re constantly working to add more detailed map data in areas that traditionally have been mostly blank. For a long time, one of the largest places with limited map data has been North Korea. But today we are changing that with the addition of more detailed maps of North Korea in Google Maps.

To build this map, a community of citizen cartographers came together in Google Map Maker to make their contributions such as adding road names and points of interest. This effort has been active in Map Maker for a few years and today the new map of North Korea is ready and now available on Google Maps. As a result, the world can access maps of North Korea that offer much more information and detail than before.

We know this map is not perfect — one of the exciting things about maps is that the world is a constantly changing place. We encourage people from around the world to continue helping us improve the quality of these maps for everyone with Google Map Maker. From this point forward, any further approved updates to the North Korean maps in Google Map Maker will also appear on Google Maps.

Here are some pictures that highlight the details Map Maker contributors have already added to Google Maps for this country:

Pyongyang (평양) Before

Pyongyang (평양) After

Since 2008, Google Map Maker has enabled anyone with an interest in cartography to update the maps of the areas they know, and improve their level of detail and accuracy. And because no map is perfect and in some parts of the world, map data is very limited, Map Maker is an increasingly important part of how we will build the modern map.

Creating maps is a crucial first step towards helping people access more information about parts of the world that are unfamiliar to them. While many people around the globe are fascinated with North Korea, these maps are especially important for the citizens of South Korea who have ancestral connections or still have family living there.

We thank all the Map Maker contributors who continue to create helpful maps for people around the world. If you want to see the global community’s hard work in real time, visit Map Maker Pulse. While we have published the North Korean maps today, we encourage mappers to continue improving the maps of this country — and of course, the more than 200 other regions of the world on Google Map Maker.

Posted by Jayanth Mysore, Senior Product Manager, Google Map Maker

Expanded coverage of building footprints in Google Maps

As we go about our daily travels, we often rely on buildings to orient ourselves, locate landmarks and navigate from place to place. So today, we’re expanding the coverage of building footprints that are already available in Google Maps.

Now, you can see 25 million new building footprints that have been added to Google Maps on desktop and mobile across major metropolitan regions in the United States, including Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, and the San Francisco Bay Area. This expansion is part of our ongoing effort to provide you with maps that are as comprehensive as possible.

Before (left) and after (right) screenshots of the map in Houston, Texas, now with building footprints

A neighborhood complete with building footprints in San Diego, California

These building footprints, complete with height detail, are algorithmically created by taking aerial imagery and using computer vision techniques to render the building shapes. This process enables us to provide more building footprints and a more comprehensive and detailed map than ever before.

For areas that you’re familiar with, you can also help ensure that the building footprints are accurate and up-to-date by using our community mapping tool, Google Map Maker. In addition to improving the shapes, you can also assign your favorite local business to an existing building or draw the building footprint for that business using Map Maker.

For example, I enjoy exploring and updating the map around Detroit, Michigan, where I lived for many years. Now, whenever I go back for a virtual visit, I won’t have to imagine where all the buildings were in my old neighborhood since their footprints have been added for the world to see on Google Maps!

Posted by Bobby Parikh, Engineering Manager

Making exploration easier for people around the world with Google Maps

Maps keep our spirit of adventure alive by making it easier for us to explore the world around us. That’s why today, we’re making Google Maps even better with new turn-by-turn navigation with traffic conditions, biking directions, Map Maker and new Street View imagery in more locations globally. These improvements are part of our ongoing effort to build the best map we can -- one that’s comprehensive, accurate and easy for you to use.

First, we’re expanding Google Maps Navigation (Beta) with voice guided, turn-by-turn directions in thousands of towns across India. Navigation is one of the most frequently requested features in this region and can be especially helpful when driving in densely populated cities like Delhi or Bangalore. We’re also adding live traffic conditions for major roads with estimated travel times to help you save time and to reduce stress on the road.

Turn-by-turn voice navigation in New Delhi, India
Biking directions and Map Maker are also now rolling out to New Zealanders. Local cyclists can access biking directions directly on Google Maps, and use Map Maker to add bike lanes and trails if their favorite route is missing or they discover a new one. Beyond biking trails, Map Maker can also be used to make the New Zealand map more accurate with details such as new road names, building footprints and more.

Biking directions from Remuera in Auckland to the local Google office
Later today, we’ll also release new Street View imagery for more than 150 university campuses globally. With classes just getting started, freshman students, transfers and even empty-nesting parents can now familiarize themselves with college campuses around the world, including UCLA in the U.S., Pembroke College in the U.K., McGill University in Canada and Sophia University in Japan. These new panoramic views join our growing list of universities whose campuses are already available in Google Maps.


View Larger MapRoyce Hall at the University of California, Los Angeles
Finally, to celebrate all the places you can reach with Google Maps—all seven continents, the sky, the moon and even the depths of the ocean—we made a video that we hope will inspire you to keep exploring.


Keep exploring at maps.google.com/helloworld. Here’s to many new adventures.

Posted by Brian McClendon, VP of Google Maps and Earth

Google Maps Roundup: From Canada to Latin America to Europe, August was a busy month!

We’re always working to make Google Maps even more comprehensive, accurate and useful. This month, we’ve crisscrossed the globe gathering more imagery, expanding features and growing our Map Maker community. In case you missed it, here are a few Google Maps highlights from August:

Explore amazing places with new Street View imagery
We recently released Street View imagery for more places around the world, making Google Maps even more comprehensive, including:

• 6,000 panoramic views in and around NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, enabling space enthusiasts around the world to walk in the footsteps of astronauts.
• More than 70 cities in Brazil and 30 Mesoamerican archaeological sites in Mexico.
• Stay tuned for imagery from Cambridge Bay, a tiny hamlet in Canada’s Arctic, where the Street View team is collecting imagery with the trike.

Get around more easily with the help of Google Maps
With enhanced directions, transit information and traffic data, Google Maps can help you get where you want to go more quickly. 

• We added turn-by-turn, voice-guided biking navigation to Google Maps Navigation (Beta) in 12 countries--more than 330,000 miles of biking directions are now available.
• For those of you taking public transportation, Google Maps now has public transportation schedules for more than one million transit stops worldwide in nearly 500 cities, including New York, London, Tokyo and Sydney.
• To make it easier for you to travel by car, we launched real-time traffic conditions for more than 130 cities in the U.S., plus the capital cities of Colombia, Costa Rica, and Panama.

Contribute your local knowledge to Google Maps
Volunteer mappers can improve the accuracy and detail of the maps of their countries.

• Our community mapping tool, Google Map Maker, became available in Ukraine and Poland, joining more than 200 other countries and regions where Map Maker is already available.

Posted by Brian McClendon, VP Google Maps and Earth