Create your own Google Maps

Create your own Google Maps
A new Google Maps feature lets you easily create maps with placemarks that incorporate your text comments, photos, and videos from YouTube and Google Video. It's a great way of sharing your stories on a map, whether it's stops you enjoyed on a recent vacation or the best places to grab a quick bite to eat in your city. To get started, just click the "My Maps" tab on the left-hand side of the Google Maps homepage. You can take a look at the maps other people have created (there's even one of the Googleplex), and then get started making your own by clicking "Create new map." If you make your map public, we will make it searchable for other folks who use Google Maps. http://maps.google.com

Call 800-GOOG-411
Use the new Google Voice Local Search experiment to connect to local businesses anywhere in the U.S. from your phone, for free. Just dial the toll-free number 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) and speak the name of a business ("Giovanni's Pizzeria") or its category ("pizza"). You can choose to connect to the business directly over phone or, if you are calling from your mobile phone, you can also say "text message" and we'll send you the business's details by SMS. Google won't charge you for a thing, but note that regular phone charges may apply based on your phone service provider. http://labs.google.com/goog411

Updates to Google Docs & Spreadsheets
This month, you'll notice some changes in the spreadsheets portion of Google Docs & Spreadsheets. In addition to improving its general performance, we've added several new features: you can create simple charts, including column, bar, line, pie and scatter charts; attach comments to individual cells; quickly duplicate a spreadsheet; and search the web for the text in a cell by using the right-click menu. And heads-up: this summer, watch for a new addition to the Google Docs & Spreadsheets family: presentations. http://docs.google.com

Find your next home with Google
Searching for a place to live is rarely fun, so we've made the search experience on Google a lot easier. Now when you type in queries like [New York real estate] or [homes for rent in San Francisco], you'll see the location you're interested in and type of listing at the top of your search results. Clicking the "Go" button will display details of individual homes that Google has indexed. If a certain listing interests you, click on the provided link or image, to go straight to the listing source. http://www.google.com

Google Desktop beta for the Mac
If you're a Mac user, you can now search your computers using Google Desktop. In addition to searching everything on your Mac, you can also search your emails (including Gmail), web history and deleted files. Just click the ⌘ key twice to start using the Quick Search Box. http://desktop.google.com


We knew Google Earth was remarkable when we first saw it, but at that time we didn't imagine all the uses to which it might be put. Since we unveiled it in 2005, millions of people have enjoyed zooming in to their homes, zooming out to far-flung places around the globe. More recently, many information providers outside of Google have developed "layers" you can add to your personal Earth. You can explore Africa through the eyes of National Geographic photographers and writers; you can see "America's Favorite Buildings" from a contest held by the American Institute of Architects; you can study historical maps from the renowned Rumsey Collection. But a recent project with the United State Holocaust Memorial Museum demonstrated even a newer use: Google Earth as a powerful current events resource. By showing recent imagery from the Darfur region of the Sudan, suddenly millions of people can see the destruction and desolation for themselves. We hope this powerful combination of information and technology spurs enlightenment and action on the part of many. You can search YouTube or Google Video for 'google darfur" and find the videos talking about the project. Or visit the Museum and read more about this important geography education initiative. http://earth.google.com http://www.ushmm.org/