Go On A Safari Using Your Computer With Google Maps

Every now and then, Google uploads high resolution photos to its Google Maps solution. These are typical taken by fly-by planes. Those of you in Australia would have heard of Google’s plane taking aerial shots of Bondi Beach, Sydney. Try it, click on this link to go to Bondi beach and zoom right in using the Satellite view. You will be able to see all the sunbathers and swimmers in detail. These shots were taken  on Australia Day, 26th of January. Â

This post is about safari on Google maps. So here it is, a link to a list of amazing shots of animals caught on the maps. My favourite is the  ”Large pod of hippos”. To get to the really amazing shots of these animals you must:

1. Make sure you are in Satellite view.Â
2. Click on the link of the animal you want to view
3. Move the slider to the highest zoom level, this will give you the highest zoom level you can go using the Google maps interface.

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But! Did you know, Google does have higher resolutions to a few photos. To get access to these higher resolutions you must:

1. After following the above steps, click on “Link to this page” which can be found on the right hand corner. This will basically update the browser’s URL so that you can get a link direct to the view you currently have.
2. Now edit the URL, increase the “z” parameter to a higher value. I recommend going in steps of 1 until you have finally reached the highest resolution photo. Note that some of the links to the animals support a higher “z” parameter than others, so if you get the “We don’t have imagery for this zoom level” message, decrease the “z” parameter till you get something.

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Happy Google map safaring!