Who pays for satellite maps to be updated?

[nuttycyclist]

Just looking at the satellite images on google maps, and other sites, and am intrigued by how up to date they are.

I can't imaging that those images are being provided free... and do they encourage sufficient internet usage for google/microsoft/etc to purchase new images on a regular basis?

I'm also interested by the fact that up until recently the satellite images of Southend were at a very good detail, whereas as soon as you passed the borough boundary the quality was lost and the extreme zoom images were not available...



So, who is funding the acquisition and use of these images?  And why?

[mrcharly-YHT]

The highest rez images are usually over places of interest to mining companies. So I'm guessing that they pay for the images, and google et al then sub-license the images.

[nuttycyclist]

... am intrigued by how up to date they are.

Not very. ...

The Southend ones I looked at last night seem to be from late Summer 2006 or 2007.  (Possibly even 2008?).  Prior to that the Southend images were quite recent.


Outside of the Southend boundaries the quality and age deteriorated considerably up until recently.

What's the possibility of Southend Council being behind the request of these images?

[Pete]

Well, had a quick look at my house.  The extension which we had added in Summer 2003, is not there, so it's 2003 or earlier.  Pan across town to my workplace, and the tanks for the sprinkler system, which went in also in Summer 2003, are visible.  So, 2003 or later.

Of course, it's possible that the two sides of the town were photographed on different dates and the photos blended together.  Must have a look at shadows of trees etc.

[edit]Yes, I've just checked.  Shadows on one side of town are pointing in a completely different direction to shadows on the other side...

[nuttycyclist]

I've seen fields in the past where one side is winter mud and the other side is summer harvestable grain.  The image stitching is pretty good

[Valiant]

The Hackney ones are very recent, a few weeks at most.

[rogerzilla]

The Hackney ones are very recent, a few weeks at most.

Can we see Rae's logpile?   

[Zipperhead]

The Hackney ones are very recent, a few weeks at most.

Can we see Rae's logpile?   

No, 'cause the it's a satellite, not a shitalite.

[Greenbank]

And the highest resolution images are more than likely aerial photography (i.e. taken from an aeroplane) not satellite.

[hellymedic]

I've seen fields in the past where one side is winter mud and the other side is summer harvestable grain.  The image stitching is pretty good

There's major stitching 50 metres north of my abode. I wouldn't term it as very good.

[orienteer]

Google concentrated on urban areas to start with, but more recently I have found some rural areas updated with better quality images.

[Woofage]

The Google pic of our house is very recent (summer last year) and West Suffolk isn't exactly a large metropolis. Multimap's version is a month or 2 older.

However, I did notice last year that they changed the image from Summer to Winter, the Summer one being significantly older than the Winter one

[hairyhippy]

I thought they came from military sources and that they kept all of the really high res ones of our pants on the washing line for themselves.

[TimO]

No, both Google and Microsoft do some of the photography themselves.  On occasions people have discovered when certain large cities are due to be overflown by their aircraft and arranged various messages on the ground.  I've yet to actually see any of these message on the images, so possibly those specific images (or the relevant parts) have been removed and replaced with older photography.

In the past I've dated various bits of the maps based on building work around campus, and even different views of the same location can be at wildly different times.  Looking at somewhere on live.com, the Bird's Eye view North & South showed a finished building which was still a car park on the East & West views!  There was at least 12 months between the two shots, probably more.

[woollypigs]

So, who is funding the acquisition and use of these images?

You by clicking on google adds

[woollypigs]

Well the Big G is an advertising company as it is where they get most (if not all ) their dosh from. And advertiser only pay G when someone click on the adds not by the impressions.

[hellymedic]

In my area, both Google an Multimap are rather out of date, with Multimap being older.

The former BACS site is intact on Multimap, a building site on Google and has now been totally redeveloped as Princes Square.

[Mike J]

Google maps is quite up to date for around here, it has the houses on it that have been built for at least 5 years, it quite a recent update to google maps, as I looked last year some time and they weren't there.