A British security guard has found an image on Google Earth which resembles the legendary Lock Ness Monster, but has the illusive creature finally been caught on camera?

The image shows a large unidentified object, which resembles a sea creature, on the surface or beneath the water. The image can be found by searching Google Earth and entering coordinates Latitude 57°12’52.13″N, Longitude 4°34’14.16″W.

Adrian Shine, a Loch Ness researcher has called the image “Really Intriguing” and is said to be investigating the story further.
Google have been so intrigued by the findings that on Thursday, they sent the new Google Street Maps Bike to circle the lake and record further imagery for the Street Maps project, hoping to capture more evidence.

It has been suggested that the image is of the Lock Ness Express, a boat which regularly tours the lake. Another image of the boat can be seen on Google Earth by entering the coordinates Latitude 57°10’8.21″N, Longitude 4°37’53.37″W.

It’s unknown at this time exactly what the image is but internet users are eagerly awaiting the launch of the new Lock Ness Google Street Map imagery, just in case they spot something else.

Article by Creative SEO – Search Engine Optimisation

Google has been busy updating its services this week, Google Maps, Adsense, YouTube, Google Reader and Google Books have all been updated as part of Google’s continued development. So the big question is, “What’s New?” Here’s a brief overview.

Google Maps has added Picasa photos to Street view. As long as the image has been Geo-tagged Google will include it in Street View.

“Millions of people already rely on Picasa Web Albums to share their photographs with friends and the internet community. Now, their public geo-tagged photos will help Google Maps users to get a better impression of a geographic place, especially for areas where we may not have any Panoramio photos,” Daniel Cotting, software engineer, Google Zurich, wrote on Google’s Lat Long Blog.


“We’ve selected these photos by looking for geo-tagged public images in Picasa Web Albums. We apply face detection to screen out images with identifiable individuals and image matching so that we’re including the most relevant photographs.”

Google AdSense is conducting email interviews to find out exactly what it’s publishers want. Google are obviously keen to understand more about the needs and requirements of their publishers in light of the new Bing Yahoo search deal. Bing and Yahoo pose a potential threat to Google and customer feedback will help Google to improve the service further. Adsense has also launched a Beta Category Filter system for English Language feed ads.

YouTube recently ran a 1,024 recipe multivariate experiment using Google’s Website Optimizer. The results were fantastic, a 15.7% increase in new account signup based on minor changes to the site layout and text.

Google Reader has introduced a new sharing option allowing you to share content with Twitter and Facebook.

Google books have added a Creative Commons license option for its partners, to protect published content.

Article by Creative SEO

Google Maps changed the way we search for location information, directions and mapping data. Google are continuing to evolve and develop the product by adding more and more new layers of data and functionality. Images, Articles, Video content, user lists and itineraries are all currently available to view. The latest new additions to Google Maps include attraction information and points of interest.



Users can now discover businesses, attractions and other key points of interest on the maps but only at a high level of zoom. New icons show key points of interest and each of these icons can be clicked to reveal detailed information about the location.



These new functions yet again improve the user experience and offer greater levels of information to the end user. The only worry is that will there eventually be too much data to view at any one time. We are convinced that Google has plans to implement a new and improved filter menu system to combat this very issue. Possibly utilising existing filtering technology, maybe even using a similar interface to Google Earth, we will have to wait and see.

Article by Creative SEO News

Google has upgraded its Location Based search facility, which is part of the main Google search interface. When searching for a location, for example “London UK”, Google will provide a small map of London as part of the returned search engine results. The map is often at the top of the page. Google has enhanced this service by adding 6 thumbnail images of the searched location, to the right hand side of the map, in the search results page. This allows users to see images of the location and enhances the existing service.



This offers yet another incentive for Search engine marketing professionals, where appropriate, to start optimising their sites image content based on location. Google Location based search offers another indirect route to marketing a website. It’s still early days for this technology and there is a very big opportunity for sites to utilise the service and indirectly market there website content.

Article by Creative SEO – a Search Engine Optimisation Consultant based in Devon.