Google Consolidates “Places” On Earth, Will Fill In The Blanks On Maps

Google is seeking to simplify and consolidate some of the multi-media content on Google Earth associated with particular places. Accordingly, it has created a “Places” layer that tries to bring together a variety of content on a single page about a place. A gray box, which Google likens to a “stack of photographs,” indicates one of these pages.

Clicking the box brings up a multi-media display that offers still images, videos and text about the particular location. Here’s an example for Ellis Island (New York):

Separately, Google said that it will start filling out countries in Google Maps where there are only limited data about a place. In the past it has not added details for countries where the data have been sparse or very incomplete. In response to user requests, Google has said that will now change.