01/11/12: Google launch 3D maps + Kickstarter arrives in UK

After launching its new 3D imagery on mobile a few months ago, Google today finally brought these 3D buildings in select cities in the U.S. and Europe and its new tour guide feature to Google Earth 7 on the desktop. With this update, Google is also bringing its 3D imagery to five new cities: Avignon, France; Austin, Texas; Munich, Germany; Phoenix, Arizona and Mannheim, Germany.

This is one of Google’s larger 3D imagery updates since the launch. When Google first announced its 3D maps, the company said that its new maps would cover “communities of over 300 million people” by the end of the year, so chances are we’ll see quite a few more updates like this in the near future.

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Crowdfunding site Kickstarter has kicked off the launch of U.K.-based projects today. Asreported earlier this month, the move marks the first time Kickstarter projects will be able to be built around bank accounts located outside of the U.S. — making it easier for U.K.-based users to list and fund their projects as they can now enter payment info directly on Kickstarter, rather than via Amazon Payments.

Kickstarter is also eyeing other international launches, according to the BBC. Head of community, Yancey Strickler, told the news organisation he plans to expand the site to other countries soon. ”The request to expand internationally has long been one of our most requested features,” he said. ”We certainly are interested. We’re going to see how the UK launch goes and figure out the next moves from there. There’s a lot of places that will be interesting.”