Google have announced that the border updates are now live in Maps and will be coming to Google Earth shortly. The improvements to the borders are for over 60 countries and regions.
Charlie Hale of the Google Lat Long Blog has written that they receive spatial data from a variety of sources, which are reviewed at great lengths before being added to Google Earth and Maps. Their main aim is to provide accurate and legible maps.
Boundary data varies in resolution, higher resolution results in boundaries that better follow the geographic features such as rivers. Many boundaries following these improvements now follow more closely the natural boundaries like rivers and mountains.
In certain areas boundary lines have been changed to reflect political changes or disputes. The border between Ethiopia and Somalia changed from solid yellow, which means “international”, to a dashed red that means “disputed”. This is due to the two countries ongoing dispute in the Ogaden area.
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