News of: Sunday, April 30 2006,
The well-known map programme Google Earth has updated its Amsterdam photos.
Up to recently, only a small part of the centre of Amsterdam was visible in Google Earth. The rest of Amsterdam was an unclear blurry picture.
Most of Amsterdam is now clearly visible with the software that is distributed by Google Earth. With the software you can look at pictures taken by satellites, and zoom in to quite great detail. Also, the street names have been added.
You can not (yet) search on street names. Where searching on '5th avenue new york' takes you right away to the correct place on Manhattan, 'Prinsengracht Amsterdam' (where the Anne Frank House is located), yields 'Your search returned no results'. The queue for the entrance of the Anne Frank House is, however, clearly visible.
There have been worries, also in the Netherlands, that detailed maps can be used by terrorists to find and target 'sensitive objects'. Objects like the Navy basis, next to the Maritime Museum (Scheepvaartmuseum), the Royal Palace, and the American Consulate near the Van Gogh Museum, or Schiphol airport, are clearly visible.
Outside Amsterdam, clear pictures of Dutch towns are limited.
