(Thursday – 01/27/11) If you’ve never been to the California Bay area, now is your chance… at least virtually. Google announced today that it has rolled out tens of thousands of new, user created buildings for Google Earth and Google Maps, covering central California, from San Jose up to San Francisco. Included are such famous landmarks as the Golden Gate bridge, the Ferry Building and yes, the Mountain View based Googleplex (In order to view these links, you need to have the Google Earth plugin for Google Maps installed).

This project is really just the beginning, as it continues an ambitious 5 year old announcement that Google would facilitate the creation of 3D models for every building in the world. To learn more about how you can help put your favorite buildings on the map, check out Google SketchUp and Building Maker. [Read more...]