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 The only maps of this area are included in outdated travel guides.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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Google is very US-centric in its approach.
Maybe it's better that way actually.
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I don't know about that. In this case, it would be nice to have some decent maps and if Google could provide them, I'd be happy.
I also think that security is an issue here – why would they want to supply up to date photographs easily accesible to all and sundry.
Up-to-date is different than recent. The data from the satellites isn't current and never will be for non-government agencies, so security isn't a consideration. That's why GPS alone isn't accurate to within an foot (like it is for the government agency version).
But it wasn't so long ago that you could download unencrypted mapping data from the satellite as it passed overhead by rigging up a laptop!
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I love Google Earth. It can be addicting – I check places I know all the time. I'll keep and eye out.
I also love Google Earth. I could see my beach house in Boac Marinduque from my computer screen here in California, although the resolution could be improved. Yes indeed it could be addictive!
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I think google earth updates the most in areas that are heavily populated, i know there are places in the US that are very rural and only have an extremely zoomed out view. while towns right next to them have much better zoom levels.
I really like Google earth, but it barely ever seems to update my house either. In fact it still has a picture of a car in my driveway that I haven't had for about two years.
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Interesting post, makes me think, i've never really looked at anything so closely. I live in a metropolitan area, so i can see the top of my building but thats it.
hey RT,
Man, I love Google maps! When I check my house, I can see that I must have been home because my car is in the driveway, and it must have been garbage day, because you can see the trash cans out on the curb. It is just too cool!
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PS. Nice internal linking.
PPS. Can't resist saying "coffee".
PPPS. Not to get carried away, but I'm also seeing if I'll get flagged this time or if I'm finally free.
PPPPS. OK, that enough PS's.
Don't feel too left out, RT. On Google Earth, my area has never been more than a roughed in low resolution blob since the pictures were first put online. I've been waiting, but apparently I'm not important enough for an update. The weird part is, everything is clear as a bell on the other side of the county road, 400 meters east. That side is no more populated than mine.
The pictures of Alberta are at least 4 years old, so we definitely don't get updated very often.
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I heard about Google Earth for quite long but I have never tried it myself. How detail is the photos we can get from it? Last week when I listened to a local radio broadcast in my town, the broadcaster told that someone call him and can guess exactly what were the color of the broadcaster's hat and shirt. He said those could be seen through Google Earth. I don't believe if Google Earth can provide such detail photos.
About 100 meters from the ground. I don't know about the other stuff that Google's been working on for ground view photos.
I love Google earth. It can be very useful when trying to find your way around. I feel like Jack Bauer or something.
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Google Earth is awesome. I was traveling to Hawaii this past weekend and was completely lost. Fortunately with Google Earth I was able to find the beach!
Thankfully, the images in Google Earth for some parts of the country, such as Manila, are of much better quality than they were some time ago. You're right though about how the images are pretty old. I guess they don't update their images of the Philippines all that often.
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I've been using that Google earth also to find ways to go to a place i wanted. Good thing you share it with others. Thanks for the post by the way., Very informative.
They still have 2006 photos for my neighborhood – and I live in a big city. Guess they do not care that much about users outside the usa.
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Yeah, I wonder how often these photos are updated. The one of my house is about 8~10 years old and I live in San Francisco.
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I am glad to know that Google is doing well in the world. This is best and more useful Plugin for Mac.
I love Google Earth, sometimes I can spend hours watching places I'd like to visit in future.
I havent used Google Earth yet but looks like a lot of you loves it, maybe I should give it a shot what do you think guys?
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I love using Google Earth. I'm hoping they develop a blog post friendly application. It's great for travel sites.
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I love google earth very much. I can see my neighbours home in it
i hav read in digitalpoint forum that ISRO is developing a software similar to google earth. it will allow users to zoom in to 10 meters wide comapared to 200 meters limit of google.
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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