James and Alex are brothers and the authors of Googlesightseeing.com. They
are both professional web developers by day and planetary explorers by
night. Although often assumed to be American, they actually come from the
beautiful city of Edinburgh, Scotland. Alex has a degree in Graphic Design (his
talents have previously won him a trip to New York), and is currently a digital
media developer. James has a degree in Computer Science and is employed
as a senior web developer. James' talents have won him awards for web
development and innovation at the BBC Radio 1 National Student Radio
Awards.
When Google launched their revolutionary online map service, Google Maps
in April 2005, they immediately began excitedly scanning the photos for
recognizable landmarks. The site featured stunning photos of large parts of the
Americas taken using a combination of satellite and aerial photography. After
spending an evening tracking down more sights and sharing them with their
friends, the brothers decided that they would share their discoveries with
wider audience and so the Google Sightseeing blog was born.
Google Sightseeing has continued to expand and grow, offering readers new
and exciting places to visit each day from the comfort of their chair with
Google Earth or Google Maps. They have since been covered in numerous
online and print publications including The Guardian, Newsweek, TIME
magazine's "50 coolest websites of the year", San Francisco Chronicle, LA
Times, New York Post, Wired, as well as TV coverage on BBC News 24, and
FOX 26.
In 2006 they released a photo book based on the website which was
published as "Not In the Guide Book" in Europe and "Off the Map" in the
United States. Each image was accompanied with a humorous and insightful
description of the, often very bizarre, sight to be seen. Reviews of the book
were extremely positive and a second volume is under consideration. « Back to full list of bloggers
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