RSS Feeds: Google My House — Maps of Olongapo and the Philippines
In February of 2007, I installed Google Earth on my PC in order to get an idea of how to get around in Olongapo and other parts of the Philippines. I also wanted to be able to Google my house with it and see all the property that I and my wife own. Although my house was being built in mid-2006, satellite photos still have not been updated. I just checked Google Earth again and the city of Olongapo still looks exactly like it did when I viewed it in 2007. In fact, it looks like it did months before construction started on my home. I'm talking about satellite photos that are well over three years old. Perhaps it has a lot to do with the cloud cover during the rainy season. Maybe that's when the satellites are photographing the Philippines and other Asian countries.
Google My House
Actually, you can't. It isn't on the satellite photos. I can, however, give you the location so that you can check up on it when it actually gets updated (maybe in 2012?). All you can see right now are trees and dirt. Since the satellite photos were taken, the road in front of my house has been paved with cement and my house, along with a more expensive house across the street, has been built.
In Google Earth, fly to "Subic Bay International Airpt, Philippines". That will bring you to a view of airport at the former US naval station. Navigate your way northeast to the coordinates of 14.51.48.00 N and 120.17.43.25 E. Too much trouble? Sorry, but I couldn't find an easier way.
Maps of Olongapo and the Philippines
I've been to bookstores in Olongapo City and at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone. The only maps of this area are included in outdated travel guides. There are no maps like you can find in any US gasoline station. There are no atlases. I think cartography in the Philippines is a lost cause. I've even scoured the web for decent maps. The only ones I've found are more than 20 years old and they only show major roads and landmarks.
Because of overcast weather conditions, it's hard to tell what direction I'm going when I'm driving in unfamiliar locations. If I can see where the sun is, I don't have that problem. Since getting lost is a very real possibility, I always have one of my relatives with me who knows the route to wherever I need to go. People steal street signs here. I'm not sure, but I've seen them tacked up as part of roofing repairs.
I don't even think any of the Cobra GPS systems would save me from getting lost here. If satellite maps aren't up-to-date, how on Earth can global position systems be effective?
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Hi,
Google Earth is something fantastic, steps should be taken to make it more reliable and secure so that it cannot be misused.
steps should be taken? Secure? too funny.
I'm beginning to think nobody here has any military experience, watched FOX during the invasion, or understands commercial space programs (which is 95% of the planets space involvement). Sorry for the sarcasm, Its 3am and I have heartburn,lol
The works:
Military satellites do not make fine-scale imagery available to the public
Most imagery sats are privately owned, not military.
ergo- almost every image you've ever seen was either from a privately owned sat or is reduced resolution from a mil PR release.
Google does not own any sats.
Google does own many contracts to purchase imagery time from satellites. Most were existing high-dollar contracts that Google bought out and subcontracted the production to smaller groups to reduce the commission overhead…. meaning, the small guys.
Basically, if they rent priority time on sats (defining their own locations) then its really expensive. Mostly they buy updating pics that others paid for the priority time on… saving the other company a bit on a bill.
You might want to look at the few hi-res areas in the Philippines. Someone paid a crapload to get those; especially considering that most of the world barely knows where this country is… so it might be interesting.
PS… the pics of the IZ (green zone) in Baghdad are from Aug 2004. They were updating them for a while but some dumbasses started putting labels on locations so they eventually reverted a few years. It was like a cool sip of water when they reverted.
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I am using Google Earth for a year now. And I noticed that those that are updated maps are those in the metro area only especially here in the Philippines, like Metro Manila, Metro Cebu and Metro Davao.
I checked the places I know but only few of them got the updated version of the map.
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First time poster but I enjoy the humor in your website and posts. I also live in the Philippines (although I am far from retirement). Been here 4 years now.
I want to make a couple of recommendations to make it "like home" for me.
For the maps check out http://www.wikimapia.com. I am pretty sure it uses the same maps as Google but it never helps to have an alternative. If anything it gives you more of a sense of size and directions, well for me anyways.
I received a Garmin GPS for this past Christmas from my family. I immediately went to the Garmin website for the Philippines maps only to discover wala! I did some more searching and I found this great site that allows you to import open source maps to your Garmin device. And even better its for the Philippines! The maps are based on user contributions but its not hard to learn. The website is http://www.roadguide.ph.
Let's have a SML someday!
Hope your wife is doing well!
What the heck is "SML"?
To navigate to a coordinate you can click on the big yellow thumbtack that says "Add Placemark". There you can input the numbers and it will save it on the map for you to navigate to! Hope this helps.
-Brittany
Satellite map data is still sketchy for many parts of the world but not for long, things are advancing quickly globally.