Google Rolls Out Chicago Transit, Defends Water Naming Policy In Earth

Google announced that it had expanded Google Transit to cover Chicago, the second largest public transit system in the US. That brings to 37 the number of cities in the US and abroad offered on Google Transit.

Below is an example of public transportation directions from Evanston, IL to Chicago’s O’Hare airport:

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Here’s a video with a full explanation:

Separately, Google explained (and defended) its apparently controversial naming policy associated with the appearance of bodies of water in Google Earth:

Under this policy, the English Google Earth client displays the primary, common, local name(s) given to a body of water by the sovereign nations that border it. If all bordering countries agree on the name, then the common single name is displayed (e.g., “Caribbean Sea” in English, “Mar Caribe” in Spanish, etc.). But if different countries dispute the proper name for a body of water, our policy is to display both names, with each label placed closer to the country or countries that use it.

And finally, the NY Times is now an enabled layer in Google Earth (and on Maps). You can thus see NY Times’ stories tied to a particular place in either Earth or Maps. Others doing a version of this same thing include MetaCarta, Everyblock, Outside.in, and YourStreet.