05 Apr 05 Houston By Satellite

Although Hanne and I aren’t sure when we’ll be able to visit Houston in person, thanks to the recent combination of Google Maps and Keyhole (acquired by Google last year) we can now get high-res satellite images of the city, and anywhere else in the United States! I’m not sure when exactly the photos were taken, but it must be a few years ago as it looks like the Houston Texans stadium (the Reliant Stadium?) is still under construction (but close to being finished). You can even see a plane flying over the Southern section of the 610-loop, somewhere down near Astroworld. Bonus points to anyone if they can find themselves (or even a tiny little blob that resembles them). I really like the use of javascript so you can scroll around the map almost seamlessly, and the little details like how the tooltip popups cast shadows on the map.

But once again I’m gonna have to gripe about the U.S.-centric nature of these Google services…. sure, my grumblings probably aren’t gonna have any impact whatsoever, but at least there’s a chance.