The Japanese subsidiary of U.S. Internet giant Google Tuesday introduced a vast bank of interactive images of the zone of northeastern Japan devastated by the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, to browse the area and compared with the previous situation.

These views were mostly taken from the month of July in the prefectures of Miyagi, Iwate, Fukushima, Ibaraki, Yamagata and Aomori, most affected by the disaster that left nearly 20,000 dead or missing.

Google vehicles traveled 44,000 kilometers of roads in these provinces Tohoku (northeast), capturing the 360-degree views of 82 cities and villages and the coupling to a base map, using the technique “Street View”.

These images, where we see the piles of debris, gutted buildings, transformed into the vast wasteland, boats overturned, show the magnitude of the earthquake and tsunami.

At the request of users, Google Japan has compiled alongside images of the same region before the earthquake, providing a comparison tool that shows the extent of damage, many homes and other buildings have been razed to the ground.

Google hoped that these documents will provide useful elements for the scientific community to better understand what happened March 11, 2011 and maintain a set of archives for future generations.

Catch the Google Questions on twitterQA.

The new child Google+ has faced an onslaught of Internet last week, with an explosion of traffic recorded just after it opened to the public, according to figures from the firm Experian Hitwise.

The traffic of this social network become jumped 1269% Wednesday, said a research director of Hitwise, Heather Dougherty.

For the entire week, the number of unique visitors increased from 1.1 to nearly 15 million, according to Hitwise – which does not take into account the connections made on portable devices (like iphone on Verizon).

“In one week, Google has moved from 54th place ranking in our social networks and forums in the eighth,” said Ms. Dougherty’s blog of his company.

Google announced Sept. 20 that Google +, launched by invitation in June, now entered a new phase of testing where it is accessible to all who want to try it.

Moreover, the Zynga game publisher announced Monday that its most popular game, CityVille was now available on Google +.

“Last month we had partnered with Google to put Google + Zynga Poker, and we are delighted today to add CityVille + this new gaming platform.”

Other games have found success on other networks are also available on Google +, as Angry Birds.

Google renames Huddles to Messenger.

Google gives a invite to Google+

Internet group said Tuesday that Google’s tool for customizing web + Google launched the invitation in June, now entered a new phase of testing where it is accessible to all those who want to try it.

“For 12 weeks, we were being tested on the ground, and during that time we really listened and learned,” said the vice president of engineering for Google, Vic Gundotra, the blog of the group.

“We are far from finished but with the improvements we have made ​​so far, we’re ready for the field test the beta version,” said Gundotra, “everyone can go to (the page) google.com / + , join the project and connect with people of interest “.

In all, Google has provided you have made 91 improvements to its project for three months, to include video conferencing, instant-called “video tips” hard phone or tablet.

Google has also integrated its search function, with a framework to see all messages posted on Google + related topic.

“Google + is still in its infancy, of course, but we are more excited than ever to bring all the nuances and richness of real communication in the software,” said Gundotra. “In the coming days we will launch all these new features in the world.”