Google Maps Gets 25 Million New Building Footprints

Google has made Maps even more detailed with the addition of millions of building footprints in several major metropolitan areas across the U.S.

The Web giant last week added 25 million new building footprints to the desktop and mobile versions of Google Maps. The expansion covers Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

"As we go about our daily travels, we often rely on buildings to orient ourselves, locate landmarks and navigate from place to place," Google engineering manager Bobby Parikh, wrote in a blog post. "So ... we're expanding the coverage of building footprints that are already available in Google Maps."

Google encouraged users to check out the new building footprints and make sure they are accurate. Using the community mapping tool Google Map Maker, budding cartographers can assign local businesses to an existing building, or draw a new footprint for a structure that hasn't already been added.

Google created the new building footprints by taking aerial imagery and using computer vision techniques to render the building shapes, complete with height detail.

"This process enables us to provide more building footprints and a more comprehensive and detailed map than ever before," Parikh wrote.

Google has been busy beefing up its mapping product as Apple and improve its own flawed mapping solution in iOS 6. Google recently added as well as panoramic underwater imagery.

The company also recently ventured to the remote Canadian Arctic in an effort to build the most comprehensive map of the region to date.