holy shit.....!!

That's insane!

Maybe I'm wrong about this, but these images could be from the Australia Day flyover.

I updated the post to clarify this just now Ionut. Geotrotter's image selections are from Australia Day flyover. But the camel image is from somewhere in Africa.

weird.... wow.

the africa photos may be from the National Geographic overlay in Google Earth that were taken by an aero-photographer across the continent (would explain why the man is looking up)

YEah the camel image is chad.. the unzoomed url is here

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=15.298683+19.429651&layer=&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=10&ll=15.211313,19.264526&spn=0.645356,1.439209&t=k&iwloc=addr

Australia Day images are in Google Earth since March, the 1st (http://www.zorgloob.com/2007/03/google-earth-haute-dfinition.asp)
And animals (camels, ...) are on Google Earth since last year. I was talking about that here:
http://www.zorgloob.com/2006/08/google-en-bref-31-aot-2006.asp
and Google Earth Blog there :
http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2006/08/see_african_ani.html
http://www.gearthblog.com/images/images806/camels.jpg

Here is a comparison of the slider zoom levels vs URL replacement zoom levels:

http://blogoscoped.com/files/google-zoom-level-comparison.jpg

I was able to reproduce this for [New York, NY] as well, where I could go from 19 (highest manual Maps zoom level) to 20 (URL zoom level).

Tom, did you also know about the URL replacement trick to get this imagery to work for Google Maps?

not much to look at but its another one from the same region.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=15.298683+19.429651&layer=&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=23&ll=15.308716,20.189146&spn=0.000109,0.000279&t=k&iwloc=addr
why would they publish such a detailed image of nothing?

these must be fly over images not satellites?!?!... in your camel image all the natives are looking up and the camels look spooked, right?

it seems to peak at level 24.. and then it goes back to some default level of 18..

I am trying w/other locations but cant seem to break thru..!!

It appears all of the locations from the National Geographic layer in Google Earth have this extended level of zoom.

If you go to the following KML mapped onto google maps and choose one of the locations, then change the zoom in the URL according to Philipp you can see the high quality images.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/download.php?Number=138835&t=k&om=1

Also, once you have zoomed into level 23 on any of the above locations, you can click the other ones on the left hand side and view them all at that zoom level.

Neat!

(Thanks Brian. I added a second update to the post.)

Philipp > Yes, but I thought the level of the slider was updated in accordance with the area you're watching :-/
That is to say, if you put the maximum level, and you drag the map to an area with HD images, the slider is no longer at the maximum level, automatically.

BTW, it seems the Hybrid mode doesn't work when put the maximum Z parameter

That's cool. I've seen these images on Google Earth before, but had no idea you could get that close with Map. I put some Hippos taking a bath on my site, using the maps API.

http://www.anotherchancetosee.com/2007/03/hippos-zoom-in-really-close-with-google.html

Cool, but alarming.

So instead of looking for black helicopters, we'll be looking for Paris Hilton?

Ceiling Google is watching you masterbate

Somebody should make a bookmarklet!

Nice...why are they offering such detailed images of camels? The only other place I can get it to work for is New York.

This ought to confirm speculation about flyover images vs. satellite: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/download.php%3FNumber%3D138835&om=1&ie=UTF8&z=23&ll=-19.457557,22.930057&spn=0.000121,0.000177&t=k

Nice spot Larry – wonder how low that airplane is.

how do I do this?, someone please explain.
What do I replace with 23, parameter what?

Nice one Larry! I hope Google starts doing that across the country, it is so much more detailed than Microsoft's version.

you're a [personal attack removed].
don't ever post this obvious garbage again.

yawn----------

Didn't work for me but I went to Google Earth and could see it zoomed in.

This is brilliant :D Alas... there is still a limitation if they haven't taken a detailed enough photo of the area. Thanks for letting us all know though... the camel was hilarious!

For those of you interested in the project that is the source of these high resolution images of Africa, check out the story at National Geographic Magazine:

http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0509/feature1/

or read Google's blog about this collaboration with the magazine:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/09/illuminated-continent.html

alek: The article says that Mike Fay's plane flew "usually at about 500 feet (150 meters)"

sean: your comment about why there are pictures of nothing got me thinking. I found this beautiful prose in Fay's piece:

"Mostly what we observed and recorded, though, were variations on the theme of absence: absence of people, absence of roads, absence of wildlife, of water, of vegetation—absence of topography itself. Sometimes we looked down and saw nothing but beige flatness, just nothing, even when the visibility was good. Some days we flew a 400-mile (650-kilometer) loop without glimpsing a single animal, and dozens of miles without spotting so much as a plant. Never mind. Even absence is a form of data."

I'm working on the website DCguide.com which deals with Washington, DC...I wonder how close you can zoom in her with the terrorism issues???

You can do the extra zoom with Las Vegas as well:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=las+vegas,+nv&layer=&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=21&ll=36.122507,-115.169747&spn=0.000395,0.000771&t=k&iwloc=addr

I saw a Google plane in poland a year ago. It was about 500 m altitiude

While I'm as excited as the next guy (and a wee-bit concerned too), in my part of the world (Crete, Greece) we can only dream of resolutions above z=12 for large areas of the island. http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&z=13&ll=35.273793,25.130367&spn=0.123748,0.135269&t=k&om=1. This is about 3 miles south of Iraklio city. Looks like DigitalGlobe's satellite went on a lunch break when flying over.

Sigh.

BTW, the sample image of the post (i.e. man looking into the camera) is from Western Chad.

Fun at FOO Camp:

http://www.hackszine.com/blog/archive/2007/03/get_google_earth_resolution_in.html

Thanks for the high-res La$ Vega$ pointer Andrew – spent a minute there as we stayed at the Luxar years ago – thought it was kinda neat that they appear to have some sort of screen on the pyrimid shaped hotel ... and some advertiser got "lucky" and had their Hairspray ad up when the flyover occurred.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=las+vegas,+nv&layer=&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=19&ll=36.095578,-115.175321&spn=0.001632,0.00339&t=k

works for berlin too

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=berlin&layer=&ie=UTF8&z=21&ll=52.523774,13.411826&spn=0.001013,0.00339&t=h&om=1

Great find. I find that for Canada you can even use the regular zoom all the way... but in the US your trick works quite well.

Steve

[Signature URL removed – Tony]

Buckingham palace: Surely they need to patch this http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=15.298683+19.429651&layer=&ie=UTF8&t=k&om=1&safe=vss&z=20&ll=51.500969,-0.13941&spn=0.003166,0.013497

You can see dolphins in Las Vegas:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=las+vegas&layer=&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=21&ll=36.120492,-115.177734&spn=0.000351,0.000848&t=h&iwloc=addr

We've been inundated with this story over at Google Sightseeing: http://googlesightseeing.com, although there's really nothing new – as the updated post says the images are the same as what is in Google Earth.

I posted a response here:
http://googlesightseeing.com/2007/03/08/national-geographic-african-megaflyover-project/

Haha! A limousine in Las Vegas!

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=las+vegas,+nv&layer=&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=21&ll=36.124257,-115.177807&spn=0.000217,0.000676&t=k&iwloc=addr

-Joel

[Signature URL removed – Tony]

yeah australia day photos... car show on elizabeth street...
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=187+thomas+st,+haymarket&sll=-25.403585,135.703125&sspn=49.775163,81.914063&layer=&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=22&ll=-33.863627,151.212798&spn=0.000179,0.000422&t=k&iwloc=addr

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=38%C2%B013%2736.38%22N,+112%C2%B017%2756.59%22W&layer=&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=18&ll=38.22631,-112.298598&spn=0.00287,0.006781&t=k&iwloc=addr
A missile mid flight!

which value is the z score???

It works in Berlin. But in Warsaw dont.
The largest zoom I got with value = 19
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Warsaw&layer=&ie=UTF8&z=19&ll=52.260078,21.02&spn=0.001418,0.005332&t=k&om=1&iwloc=addr

and nothing...

What a pity.

If you pan around the waterhole area, most of the people are looking up – so it has to be a flyover of some kind.

Hmm, typical 'We are sorry...' text appeared when testing...

Why can't I seem to do this? can't find 'link to this page' where is it?

Dan, which language do you see on Google Maps? English...?

I thought this was interesting when I first read it. But then I realized that most places that I would be interested in looking at are not even available at zoom level 19. I can only go to zoom level 18 in my home town. I'm not even sure if my parent's house is on google maps. We've lived there since 1993, so it's at least that old, but google maps are so seriously out of date that it only shows a vacant lot. It's kind of hard to tell at such a high distance, but I think that is what is shown. I'm not sure when their house was a vacant lot, but it demonstrates how out of date google's maps are. Older than google itself.

My house, on the other hand, shows up kind of ok at zoom level 19. It's surrounded by trees, so nothing much to see. I increased to zoom level 20, and all I got was what appeared to be a zoom level 19 blown up. It was pretty grainy. Zoom level 21 was the familiar "google maps is not available at this zoom level for that location."

So, that's my experience with trying out your info. I didn't get much from your article. If you find any close-ups of naked girls, please re-post.

english

I can only get to z=13 where I live. I guess that saves being spied on.

Great hack! Airphotos and satellite images with this level of detail have been around for a long time. I think what makes us uncomfortable in terms of privacy, is that Google has made these images so readibly accessible

i read it right here! alle these pictures are from national geographic!!

http://board.protecus.de/t28550.htm

^ there are more example...

To clarify my comment posted to PapaOscarWhiskey's comment:

testing link of Warsaw generated typical We are sorry screen when tested.
No need to test with the slider.
All others links mentioned on this thread work.

It seems the area where I live can only be z19. After that it just says not available. this is a cool trick though – and goes to show you whats to come.

Any new images at China? I found my studios at the maps, but so small.

Strange, it doesn't work with Baghdad. I thought that Americans have this area very thoroughly observed:)

i can't find the "z" parameter to change. help?

Google! what is this
http://s114.photobucket.com/albums/n250/userCKY863/?action=view&current=515616.jpg

[Image NSFW. -Philipp]

Wow Trent, that rocket was awesome! How the hell could you find it???

[IMG]http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w199/smartestpink/Picture1.png[/IMG]

i found this on google earth.

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w199/smartestpink/Picture1.png
i found this on google earth.

Gerg (and Trent), that is not a missle, it is an airplane. Saw this a few weeks ago and it was confirmed to be I believe a 737 in midflight. Look closely, you can see its wings and tail. Just darker paint on them.