National Geographic Bee
Since last fall, more than four million students in the U.S. competed in local geography bees. Earlier this week the 54 finalists met in Washington, D.C., where Aadith Moorthy, a 13-year-old 8th grader from Palm Harbor, FL won top honors at the National Geographic Bee. Google is proud to sponsor the GeoBee and support geographic literacy around the world. Watch our video to learn more about why geography matters. Congratulations, Aadith!

Model Your Town Competition
In December we announced the Google Model Your Town Competition and invited towns to submit 3D models of their communities using Google SketchUp and Google Building Maker. The public reviewed the 3D models that were submitted, explored the buildings in Google Earth, and watched videos from the five finalist towns around the world. We've tallied the votes and we'd like to congratulate this year's winning town: Barranco - Lima, Peru! Learn more about the winning town and watch a fly-through video of their 3D buildings.

The Tahina Expedition
Last November Frank Taylor and his wife began a five-year journey to sail around the world, called the Tahina Expedition. They're using Google Earth to share where they're going and what they're learning. You can read more about their trip to San Blas and the kite aerial photos of BBQ Island that are now in Google Earth. Frank and his wife have since crossed through the Panama Canal to the Galapagos and French Polynesia, and are now on their way to the Tuamotus. We'll continue to check-in with them and share highlights from their trip.

New Cities in 3D
Over the past month we've added new 3D cities to Google Earth. Now with Earth view in Google Maps, you can easily see these 3D buildings in your browser. Fly to Stockholm, Sweden to see rich architectural buildings, bridges, palaces, and parks. Explore Lisbon, Portugal in 3D with lots of fantastic user-generated models. We also added more cities to Building Maker (in South Africa and California). Try adding a 3D model for your favorite city!

New and Updated Imagery
New and updated imagery was added to Google Earth this past month, including ultra fresh imagery for New Orleans, Atlanta, Tampa, and Norfolk. We also added new, high-quality 3D imagery for Nashville, Indianapolis, Dallas, and Charlotte in Google Earth. Take a look at these changes and many more (marked in red) from our update posts here and here, or view this file directly in Google Earth. Don't forget you can use the View -> Historical Imagery option to see imagery choices through the time slider.