Google Earth Blog

Vendee Globe in Google Earth

Frank Taylor of Google Earth Blog — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:14:16 -0500

It used to be very difficult to follow the drama of an around-the-world-sailing race. But, the Internet changed all that. One of my all time favorite Internet experiences was following the 2000-2001 Vendee Globe solo non-stop round-the-world race. The shining star of that race was a young 20-something Ellen MacArthur from the UK who managed to take second place in a very dramatic race. Ellen was later awarded an MBE for services to sport - so she's now Dame Ellen MacArthur. Being able to follow the racers' positions on a map and read daily updates and even see pictures and video from solo competitors at sea was a revolution in the sport of round-the-world sailing races. But, the story of Ellen's race was especially captivating.

The Vendee Globe is only held every four years. On November 9th, 2008 the current race began from Les Sables d'Olonne, France. The competitors are currently in the southern Atlantic Ocean and is a very close race so far. Since the last race was held in 2004-2005, this is the first time the Vendee Globe has been held since Google Earth was released. When the race started I was disappointed to find there was no published KML file for viewing the race in Google Earth. They do have a web based map and race tracker.

Fortunately, some enterprising French programmer has created some KML for following the race in Google Earth. You can visit his web site here (french). Here is a link to download the current positions of the racers . Alternatively, I've created a Vendee Globe network link which will automatically load his file and refresh every 6 hours so you can keep the file handy for putting in your My Places in Google Earth.

The data for the Vendee Globe racer positions is available in spreadsheet files at the Vendee Globe rankings page.

Street View for New Zealand Released

Frank Taylor of Google Earth Blog — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:32:53 -0500

Google has released Street View imagery for New Zealand today. It's available in the Street View layer in Google Earth and I'm sure it will be available in Google Maps within minutes or hours from now. Rumors were out this morning based on a premature press release that came out in ComputerWorld. As promised in the press release, it looks like Google did a thorough job creating imagery all over New Zealand. Below are a couple of shots from Street View New Zealand.

Old Ferry Building, Auckland, New Zealand:

View Larger Map

Queenstown, New Zealand:

View Larger Map

Don't forget, you can see full 3D panoramas of each Street View image inside Google Earth. Here are some tips on using Street View in Google Earth.

Tilt Shift Photography Using Google Earth

Frank Taylor of Google Earth Blog — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 08:05:17 -0500

DigitalUrban blog regularly provides a look at many different visualization techniques for cityscapes with a special emphasis on 3D building views. Recently DigitalUrban has been writing about tilt-shift miniature faking photography (see Wikipedia) - which can be used to make a life-sized location or object look like a miniature scale model. The technique distorts the focus of the photo to simulate a shallow depth-of-field. Using image processing software you can even use normal images and simulate the tilt-shifting technique. This morning, DigitalUrban pointed out Google Earth is an excellent source of material for faked tilt-shift videos and shared a video someone made using the technique with San Francisco as a subject. It's a really cool way to use Google Earth and the "miniature" effect is quite noticeable. Check out the video yourself - produced by Inoue_k3D at Vimeo:

Flight over Miniature San Francisco (Tilt-Shift) from Inoue_k3D on Vimeo

Another 500K Photos for Google Earth

Frank Taylor of Google Earth Blog — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 09:02:53 -0500

The Panoramio layer (found under the Geographic Web layer folder in Google Earth) was updated this weekend with another 500,000 photos. The last major update was back in September when 1 million photos were added. These photos come from the popular free Google Panoramio web site which lets you upload your favorite photos and map them to the location where the photo was taken. Google then takes photos (which meet the criteria) and adds them a few weeks or months later to the Panoramio layer. According to the announcement on their blog, the Panoramio layer now contains photos up to ID 15,881,277.

The Panoramio layer is a great way to explore places around the world and get a ground-level perspective of those places. Google updated the layer look in August. Popular locations may have dozens of photos from many angles. The Panoramio site even has a cool "Look Around" mode that combines photos from many people to let you look at a site from many perspectives. If you see a site with lots of photos, just click on the photo in its placemark and look for the "Look Around" link (if available).

Norad Tracks Santa 2008 - With Google's Help

Frank Taylor of Google Earth Blog — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 08:20:43 -0500

Like last year, the Norad Tracks Santa site will open its web site on December 1st allowing kids everywhere to watch the countdown to Christmas Eve. The web site will feature fun holiday games and activities daily until December 24th. And, like last year, the official application to watch Santa fly around the world on Christmas Eve will be Google Earth.

The NORAD Tracks Santa (NTS) program began on Dec. 24, 1955, after an errant phone call was made to the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Operations Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. The call was from a local youngster who dialed a misprinted telephone number in a local newspaper advertisement. The commander who answered the phone that night gave the youngster the information requested – the whereabouts of Santa Claus. This began the tradition of tracking Santa Claus, a tradition that was carried on by NORAD when it was formed in 1958. This Christmas marks the 50th anniversary of NORAD tracking Santa Claus as he goes around the world delivering presents.

In 2006 Google created a 3D game in Google Earth where you had to find Christmas presents somewhere on the Earth for the two weeks leading up to Christmas. They had Santa's North Pole home and his sleigh rendered in 3D, and then the Santa tracker was linked to the Norad data. Google also used Google Earth to track Santa in 2005. Last year (2007) was the first year Google's mapping applications were the official ones used by Norad for following Santa on the Internet.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Frank Taylor of Google Earth Blog — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 06:41:49 -0500

Today is Thanksgiving Day in the US. So, I'll be taking it easy and enjoying time spent with family, as well as lots of food (including Turkey)! For the third year in a row, I'm sharing the world's largest Thanksgiving greeting card. Happy Thanksgiving! in Google Earth. Feel free to share the link with your friends or family. (By the way, if you look closely, you'll see a placemark with a turkey icon. Check out the placemark for a little Thanksgiving trivia.)

Ocean Biogeographic Maps in Google Earth

Frank Taylor of Google Earth Blog — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 08:32:57 -0500

Marine scientists have formed a data repository for information about marine life around the world called OBIS (Ocean Biogeographic Information System). In order to help people better visualize the data, scientists from Duke University have created the OBIS SeaMap which lets you visualize the geospatial marine life data on maps - including Google Earth. It lets you explore the interactive online archives for marine mammals, sea turtles and seabirds data.

Visit the SeaMap site and you can either start by viewing species on the main map page, or you can select a dataset or species. Don't worry, they recognize both common names as well as scientific names for each specie. For Google Earth they provide a link for mapping all the species in one file - you can open folders and turn on the different categories within GE. Or you can go to a specific specie and map their common habitat areas. For example, go to the species map, and enter "Blue Whale", then select the Google Earth link. Once the link loads in GE, you can zoom to different parts of the Earth and it will then load the data from their server showing the density of population of habitat for that view.

This is the kind of data I hope will be available when/if Google Ocean becomes available. Maybe this data was developed with that plan in mind.

Collection spotted via AnyGeo

Where on Google Earth for Waitangi Day

Frank Taylor of Google Earth Blog — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 09:10:46 -0500

Maori Television, New Zealand's national indigenous broadcaster, is using Google Earth to help celebrate Waitangi Day 2009 (the National Day of New Zealand held each year on February 6th). This year, they are encouraging kiwis to report where they will be on Waitangi Day by putting a placemark in Google Earth. They can put simple text, pictures, or even YouTube videos into their placemark to tell others about where they are, and what they are doing. Maori Television will compile and share a layer showing where everyone will be on the holiday in Google Earth. Read more about the announcement here, and the official Maori TV web site for the Waitangi Google Earth project is here. Read about this via AllPointsBlog.

Since many citizens are often abroad when their national holiday is being held, this is a great way to help people both remember their home, and still participate a bit in their holiday celebration by sharing their experience with others back home. Although, I think they intend people at home to participate as well. You can use their simple Google Maps-based form to mark your spot, but a Google Earth network link will presumably be used to show the full map. It will be interesting to see how many people actually participate and to see how widespread New Zealanders will be around the world on their holiday. I'll keep an eye on it and report on its progress next February.

Google Earth Captures Tsunami Striking Fiji Island

Frank Taylor of Google Earth Blog — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 08:00:58 -0500

It's a Friday, so I thought I would share with you this interesting find from GEB reader Peter K. It appears Google Earth captured a giant tsunami about to strike this remote island in the Pacific. You can see it yourself right here . No tricks, this is really inside Google Earth! However, this isn't a real wave. Instead this is an anomalie in Google Earth's terrain data. The world is a big place, and 3D terrain data is based on billions of data points and then later processed to remove errors. However, not all errors are properly processed, so you occasionally get anomalies like this. These errors can be reported to the GE Data Error Compendium, and eventually Google fixes them.

Here are some other interesting data errors found (terrain, imagery, and other errors). Some of these errors may have been fixed, but others are still there:

360Cities - 3D Panoramas Now Available in Google Earth Layer

Frank Taylor of Google Earth Blog — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:08:24 -0500

The very cool panoramic photo site 360Cities.net now has their own layer found under the Gallery layer folder. The new 360Cities layer contains placemarks to nearly 10,000 full 360 degree panoramas which are viewable inside Google Earth. Here's what 360Cities' Jeffrey Martin has to say about being included as a Google Earth layer:

"This ranks at the top of 360cities' achievements to date. It brings our beautiful content to a whole new audience and it serves as a great showcase for VR photography, which is starting to get the attention it deserves. It's a real honor."

In a recent post, GEB not only shared with you details on what is available from 360Cities, but also produced this video which shows you what the new layer looks like:

Congratulations to 360Cities! I highly recommend you check out the layer for some really unique photography.

There are also two other layers available in Google Earth with very high resolution immersive panoramas: Gigapxl and Gigapan both also found under the Gallery layer. Read more about Gigapxl here.

Somalia Piracy Map in Google Earth

Frank Taylor of Google Earth Blog — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:34:53 -0500

The reports of escalating incidents of piracy off the coasts of Somalia have been getting a lot of attention in recent months. The piracy has been in all the news with the recent capture of a supertanker called "Sirius Star" and hostages of its 25 crew along with a full load of oil (worth over $150 million), and the capture of a cargo vessel and hostages carrying tanks a few weeks ago. Last month, Google Earth Community (GEC) member 'expedition' created a very interesting map for Google Earth showing the region of piracy and detailed placemarks showing the locations of the pirate strongholds all along the coast of Somalia. The file is the product of extensive independent research using maps, charts, and reports beginning in year 1860 through late 2008. Where possible he used the high resolution satellite imagery of the coast to identify actual buildings where pirates are based. Download the piracy map here .

From his post:

"See the building compounds where pirates and warlords cache arms, plan their attacks, obtain ransom, and communicate with the ships they seize offshore. View the actual pirate bases, vehicles, checkpoints, and pirate boats. Locate the precise areas of the sea where vessels are hijacked, and where the pirates drop anchor to hold their crews for ransom. Find secret airstrips where pirate crews get their daily fix of addictive khat leaf stimulant flown in. View the places where commandos have captured pirates fleeing or targeted their land-based resources.... Over 120 updated placemarks. Information and coordinates have been gathered from many news sources, maritime organisations, governments, insurance companies, and mariner reports."

An official international piracy map is available from the International Maritime Bureau which shows the locations of piracy reports in Google Maps for the year 2008 - so far. via GoogleMapsMania.

Links: Where 2.0, Weather Buoys, Argentina, Earthscape, MapMyPage, and more

Frank Taylor of Google Earth Blog — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 07:45:42 -0500

With preparations of our upcoming five year sailing circumnavigation in full swing, I will sometimes get so occupied I can't keep up with all the news. This past week I've missed on a few important bits of news, so here is a catchup post. Most of these were mentioned on OgleEarth during the past week - which also reports on Google Earth-related news.

Where 2.0 Call for Papers - Preparation for next year's Where 2.0 event (May 19-21, 2009 in San Jose, California) have now reached the point where they have announced the call for papers.
Weather Buoys - Virgil Zetterlind has updated the weather buoy data available for one of the many weather layers available for boaters using Google Earth at the EarthNC site. The Google Earth Buoy observation file is updated hourly and provides access to over 500 active buoy and shoreline weather observations provided by the NOAA National Buoy Data Center.. The new layer is easily combined with existing EarthNC weather and charting features for Google Earth including NOAA Marine Forecasts, U.S. Airport Weather Observations, NOAA Voluntary Ship Weather Reports, NOAA ENC vector charts, and more. Click here to view in Google Earth.
Argentina Finally has Street Maps - Argentina finally has some detailed roads in Google Maps as of Monday this week. Gerardo (who lives there and performs the spanish translation for GEB) is thrilled. Several major cities are completed, with Buenos Aires being the most important (with half the population of Argentina living there). But, there are still some areas in the southern region with sparse road detail. It will probably be a few weeks or months before the roads make their way into Google Earth though.
Earthscape Fire Photos - Got a message from Tom Churchill over the weekend that some iPhone Earthscape users had taken photos of the California fires (including a firefighter) and posted them in Earthscape. Stefan wrote an excellent write-up about the photos and also how Earthscape's market position has changed since iPhone Google Earth was released. Earthscape also releases KML files for users who post photos. Here is the firefighter's photos you can view in GE. On-the-scene geotagged iPhone photos viewable in GE...a new form of news reporting?
MapMyPage - This new site is very fascinating to me. For a long time I've dreamed of geo-blogs which automatically tie into locations allowing you to view them in Google Earth/Maps. This site allows you to simply insert a small bit of javascript code into a page and it will automatically add location links to maps. Developer Brandon Bruce wrote me to tell me about how he even incorporates the GE plugin so you can get the full 3D experience of the mapping locations. But, I first read about this last week at Google Maps Mania.
NeoGeo Developer Jobs - FortiusOne is looking for a few good men/women geo-developers who can help them continue their noble goal of developing awesome mapping tools and continuing to add to the GeoWeb. Follow the link for more details.
CyberCity and Concept 3D Join Forces - Two of the leading Google Earth 3D model developers have joined forces to collaborate on even bigger 3D projects. Hopefully Google Earth will be populated with even more of their work. Both of these companies have been involved in a number of the biggest 3D model collections seen in Google Earth.

Imagine Google Earth with Voice Search

Frank Taylor of Google Earth Blog — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:30:31 -0500

Last night I installed the new "Google Mobile App" on my iPhone to try out the new Voice Search. I was anxious to try it out after first seeing the demo in Google's announcement video, because this seems like one of those defining moments in technology advancement: combining the ease of voice queries with Google searching with results shown quickly on your phone is just amazing. And, it's location aware as well, which has all kinds of implications for the GeoWeb. Just imagine if you could do searching with the iPhone Google Earth application? Watch the Google announcement video to see what I mean:

Google's experiments with 800-GOOG-411 seem to have really paid off with good voice recognition. I had very good success rate with its accuracy - although it still messes up occasionally. What I was really interested in was the possibilities with mapping. You can say "Map <place>" to get an instant map of a place. For example:

"Map of London"

I hope they voice search enable the iPhone Google Earth application. That would be really cool. And, directions in Google Maps on the iPhone would be really handy. It's such a pain having to type addresses for directions or search for places when in a car - you either have to stop, or get someone else to do it for you. But, with voice search it could be so much easier. Now, imagine adding voice search to the Google Earth on your laptop/desktop...

Welcome to Geography Awareness Week

Frank Taylor of Google Earth Blog — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 08:25:14 -0500

Each year during the third week in November, the National Geographic and other organizations help celebrate Geography Awareness Week. The focus is to help raise awareness of the importance of geography education. They have a web site called My Wonderful World which provides a weeklong guide of activities and ideas for learning and experiencing education. Of course, included in the activities are some Google Earth files. For example, here is a tour of cultures which is based on a National Geographic publication called Glimpse. And, here is a tour of Global Hot Spots having to do with change in environments, cultures, politics, climate, or population. And there is a tour of geographers on the job around the world.

Google has highlighted Geography Awareness Week as well and links to these same files.

Google SketchUp 7 Released

Frank Taylor of Google Earth Blog — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 07:47:11 -0500

Google has released a big upgrade to Google SketchUp 7 - their 3D modeling tool. SketchUp 7 is available in a free version, and a Pro version which includes a number of features helpful to professional modelers (such as a presentation tool, more model making features, printing, and e-mail support - see comparison). The Pro version costs $495, but is available for free to educators and only $49 for students.

The free version of SketchUp allows you to create models, upload/download them to/from the Google 3D Warehouse, and place them in Google Earth. The new SketchUp 7 has even tighter integration with the 3D Warehouse allowing you to view and download models directly from within SketchUp 7.

SketchUp 7 also supports a major new feature for Dynamic Components - doors that open, wheels that turn, etc. Unfortunately, models with the dynamic component do not show the animations in Google Earth - yet. We'll probably have to wait for a future version of GE to get that support.

Here's the rather silly announcement video (which covers a few of the new features):

Although there are not substantial new features for Google Earth in this release of SketchUp, any improvements in model making capability will enhance the quality of 3D models seen in GE.

Stefan Geens at OgleEarth was first to report on the SketchUp 7 in my blog roll.