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June 29, 2007

June Layers Additions/Updates for Google Earth

Earlier this week Google added new layers and updated layers to Google Earth. I mentioned various parts of the updates in several posts during the last few days. But, I thought it would be more convenient to summarize the updates in one post. Not only that, but there was at least one update I missed entirely:

• New Global Awareness Layers - Google added three new layers which have been highlighted in the Global Awareness layer. The layers were timed for release with the new Google Earth Outreach program - a fantastic program to help non-profits leverage Google Earth to support their causes (see my notes on the announcement). The new layers are: Global Heritage Fund, Earthwatch Expeditions, and Fair Trade Certified. Read more about these new layers.

• New Road Layers - The following countries now have new detailed roads in the "Roads" layer: Sweden, Slovakia, Croatia, and Slovenia. At least Sweden also has driving directions and local business search. Sweden was just added to Google Maps earlier this month.

• Geographic Web - The Geographic Web layer was substantially changed. First, they took away the ability to turn on/off each of the three sub-layers individually (Panoramio, Wikipedia, and Best of GEC - see original announcement). In addition, from higher altitudes you now just see very small round icons for each layer (Panoramio is blue, Wikipedia are kind of purple, and the GEC layer is tan). When you zoom in closer, the icons are replaced by easier to distinguish icons. Some people like, and some don't the new changes. The Panoramio layer of photos now has 200,000 more photos than the last update making it a total of 1.2 million photos visible in Google Earth.

I've asked Google for a more accurate list of changes made in the layer update. I'll update this post if there were other significant additions/changes.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 11:22 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

New Blog for 3D WareHouse Buildings

Got an E-mail from Greg Rose, who does GIS at the City of San Jose, California. I met him at the Where 2.0 conference last month. Greg started up a blog earlier this month which highlights new 3D SketchUp building models as they are added to Google's 3D Warehouse. The blog is called SketchUp Buildings. Each day he shows the models that were added. Click on the pictures to view the 3D Warehouse entry for a building and get the option to load it in SketchUp or Google Earth. Adding his blog to your RSS reader is a quick way to review what's being added to the 3D Warehouse collection. There are a LOT of buildings being added in the world. The question is: are there more buildings being added in 3D Warehouse than new buildings in the real world?

I hate to suggest an idea to take away from Greg's blog. But, Google should consider implementing GeoRSS for 3D buildings which have been connected to Google Earth. Then you could just take an RSS feed straight off 3D Warehouse. I guess Greg's blog would still be useful since it keeps it to one feed per day and lets you rapidly review all the buildings added. But, the GeoRSS would enable you to see a map of all the new buildings added over a length of time. By the way, here is the 3D Building in the screenshot above which is part of the Univercidad de Chile - see it in Google Earth .

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:50 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 28, 2007

Google Maps Click and Drag Directions - Google Earth Tip

Google has just announced on the Google Lat-Long blog that Google Maps has a really cool new ability to create and modify driving directions. You can now simply click the map with your right mouse button to pick your starting and ending points for driving directions. Then, you can simply click on a point on the route to re-route to a different path (say you want to take the coastal route, or want to avoid going over a traffic jam). It's all very simple, point and click. And, read below for a tip on how to use the results in Google Earth. Check out this video by the Google Maps team about the new feature:

Check out this example of a route with current live traffic in New York:

Simply click on the blue route between the two end points and drag it to a new route. This is really slick!

I can hardly wait to see this done in Google Earth. Given all the new features and integration of KML with Google Maps, I'm sure it will only be a matter of time before we see a Google Earth plug-in for our browsers so we can see these features working in both 3D as well as the 2D implementation in Google Maps. Or, maybe the new click and drag functionality will be in the next beta of GE 4.1 (or maybe they will call it 4.2). Until then Google Maps' new driving directions will be more convenient. But, you can output the resulting driving directions straight into Google Earth. Want to know how?

Taking your directions from Google Maps to Google Earth:

[UPDATE: there appears to be a bug - sometimes this trick will not show the entire route in Google Earth, Google is looking into it.]

1. Get your driving directions the way you want in Google Maps
2. Click on the "Link to this page" in the upper right of Google Maps. You should get a little window with a long URL.
3. Click the URL with the mouse and move the cursor to the right end (you should see something like "&z=11" at the end - which is the zoom level).
4. Simply append "&output=kml" to the end of the URL
5. Select the entire URL and copy it to your paste buffer (CTRL-C for example)
6. Then paste it into your browser's location URL pane at the top (or you can click and drag the selected link to the location pane). Then hit ENTER. This should load up the directions in Google Earth! You won't be able to click and drag to change the directions, but you can view them in 3D.
7. Once its loaded in Google Earth, hit the "Play" button below the Places pane - or select the "Tools->Play Tour" menu option. This will give you a cool flying 3D tour of the driving directions.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 05:07 PM | Comments (13) | TrackBack

OgleEarth Roundup: Illegal Fishing Caught, Picasa Web Albums Review, Geo-Ads Patent, HeyWhatsThat

Stefan Geens of OgleEarth during a good portion of the spring had not been writing much on his blog. This was because he was busy developing the first official embassy in a virtual world - the Second House of Sweden is a virtual embassy inside Second Life. I'm glad to see that in the last few days, while Stefan has been traveling around the US, he has been busily writing up all kinds of interesting stuff about Google Earth/Maps. Here are some highlights, along with my own thoughts, if you haven't already been reading his blog:

• Illegal Fishing Caught - Stefan read in the Spanish media that someone was complaining to the European Union about illegal bottom trawling in the Canary Islands. How did they find out? Well, the found a picture in Google Earth. So, Stefan did a bit of searching, and found the boat caught in the act .

• Picasa Web Albums Review - Stefan reviews the new features of Picasa Web Albums' (why doesn't Google just shorten the name to PicasaWeb like the URL?) new feature to allow you to map photos using Google Maps. He compares the new features to Flickr and Google's newly acquired Panoramio service. His conclusion is that PWA (at least the acronym is shorter) and Panoramio work better than Flickr both in terms of geotagging, and seamless integration with KML/Google Earth.

• Geo-Ads Patent - In a roundup this morning, Stefan finds a post at SEO by the Sea which analyzes a new patent filed by Google which has to do with monetizing geo-spatial content through advertising. The patent is clearly talking about ways Google could offer advertising to those who want to get better visibility in Google Maps and Google Earth through possibly their layers and/or KML search results. This is an obvious mechanism for them to consider as these tools become more ubiquitous. I've been expecting Google to consider treating the Geoweb in a similar manner to the real web in terms of Google's primary revenue source - advertising. Thankfully, the Geo team at Google seem prepared to do this in a way that does not thrust unwanted ads over our maps and 3D views. Stefan also mentions a new upcoming competitor to Google Maps StreetView (which I had also read about) called EarthMine.

• HeyWhat'sThat - I meant to include Stefan's mention on HeyWhatsThat. This cool Google Maps Mashup, which came our earlier this year, already allowed you to see 2.5D views of mountains at various places around the US (and let you determine what a nearby mountain's name is). It also lets you see contour overlays in Google Maps. The author, Michael Kosowsky, gave a tech talk at Google about his mashup a couple of months ago. And he now describes some refinements to the mashup. Not only that, but he has also created some Google Maps Maplets which you can easily keep handy in the Maplets tab. Read all the details and see the video in Stefan's post (link above).

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

News Roundup: Panoramio 2 Million, Geographic Web, Loop the Loop, Starbucks, Bug in GE

• Panoramio 2 Million - Panoramio mentions in their blog that people now have uploaded 2 million photos to their web site, and the recent update to the Geographic Web layer now includes 1.2 million of the photos for viewing in Google Earth.

• Geographic Web - Some people don't like some of the changes to the Geographic Web layer (see comments). They think the new smaller icons are too hard to distinguish (I noticed this problem on my laptop), and don't like the single combined layer (the inability to just look at one of the three sub-layers). The icons do change to larger, easier to differentiate, icons when you zoom in close. But, it is too far down to be practical in my opinion. Google needs to think again on this one.

• 

  Loop the Loop - Near the Oregon/Washington border, someone named jerrymeyer last fall discovered a really unique plane in flight in GE. It's a small plane performing a loop the loop near a bridge. You can clearly see the plane just past vertical on a loop to the northwest. Notice the shadow of the nose fuselage on the left wing, and the right wheel and leg shadow on the belly. This find was highlighted at GoogleSightseeing.com yesterday. What a cool find!

• Starbucks - For those world travelers who MUST have Starbucks wherever they go. Here is a nearly complete list of world-wide Starbucks locations in Google Earth. From the Google Earth Library, posted by jimcser.

• Bug in GE - No, we're not talking software bug here. Another squashed bug has been found in an aerial photo shown in Google Earth. Of course, it looks much bigger than it really is when shown in Google Earth. This one is in Yorkshire, England and was written up at GoogleSightSeeing.com. We last saw a 50 meter thrips in Germany (which has since been removed, but you can see the screenshot here.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:50 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

June 28, 2007

Google Earth Outreach Announcement Video

You can now watch the video Google recorded of the announcement of the new Google Earth Outreach program which was done at the New York City Google Earth office on Tuesday:

I especially enjoyed the part where Jane Goodall was speaking to us via satellite and especially when she shared the chimpanzee greeting to us all. You can read my notes from the announcement here. Also, I recommend you read the official Google blog post about the new Outreach program by its new manager Rebecca Moore.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 12:28 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

June 27, 2007

Google Earth/Maps Is Changing the Way We See the World

An article by Wired Magazine had a slightly different title, but the title really should have included Google Earth: "Google Maps Is Changing the Way We See the World". This article is a good summary of how Google Maps and Google Earth have had a significant impact in many ways on individuals, organizations, governments, politics, the environment and many other perspectives. It covers topics such as censorship, KML standardization, StreetView privacy issues, mapping politics, and user-generated maps. The article is definitely worth a read, but I especially like the photo of John Hanke playing the part of Atlas with the world on his shoulders. I bet he really feels like that sometimes. :-)

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:03 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

New Picasa Web Albums Integration with Google Earth/Maps

Google has announced new capabilities with Picasa Web Albums allowing even more capabilities to map your photos. A year ago, Google implemented a means for geotagging your photos from Picasa in Google Earth and then uploading them to Picasa Web Albums. You can also view the photos within Google Earth. Now, Google has added an ability to take photos already in your Photo Album and map them using Google Maps. You can then view the photos in Google Maps and even watch a slideshow of the photos within Google Maps or Google Earth. This adds some powerful ways to show photos you've taken somewhere on Earth.

Here is an example test gallery of photos from Las Vegas shown in Google Maps at Picasa Web Albums. You can view the same test gallery in Google Earth by simply clicking on the "View in Google Earth" link in the upper right. Google has also announced a Picasa Web Albums for mobile so you can view your photos on your phone. And, if you don't already know, you can also easily embed your photos from Picasa Web Albums by viewing an album and choosing "Embed Slideshow" from the choices on the left. Here's the test gallery as an embedded slideshow:

Here is another example of photos I took during the Wirefly X PRIZE Cup event last fall. It's better if you zoom in a bit and turn on "Satellite" view in the map to see these photos. The underlying aerial photos in Google Maps of the area are photos I took from my plane during the event and Google later put into their base imagery.

[UPDATE 1240 ET: GEB reader Rens from the Netherlands wrote me to say that the map view doesn't work on some different language versions of PicasaWeb. He says you need to go to "Settings" and under "language preference" select "English (US)" to make make the map feature work. Rens even shares a photo album which he has now mapped of a trip by motor bike.]

Posted by FrankTaylor at 10:04 AM | Comments (9) | TrackBack

Notes from the Google Earth Outreach Announcement in NYC

Yesterday I was invited to Google's New York City office to attend the Google Earth Outreach announcement. The details on the event I blogged about yesterday were based on the press release (and written before the event). Today I wanted to share my personal observations and thoughts because I think Google Earth Outreach is an important new initiative. The bulk of the attendees at this event were not the press, but in fact, Google mostly non-profit organizations who have been working, or will be working, with Google's new program.

Here is a slideshow of a few pictures from the event. You can also view the photos in Google Earth or Maps (note, this is a new capability I will write about later):

John Hanke, Director of Google Earth and Maps at Google, was one of the founders of Keyhole - the company which Google bought which produced the application which became Google Earth. John made the announcement about the new Outreach program. He said it wasn't long after Google Earth was released that non-profit organizations started developing powerful visualizations with the application. Google people helped a number of these organizations with their noble causes, mostly with their 20 percent time and this work has been inspirational for many members of the Google Earth team. Many of the non-profit organizations needed technical help in order to make the best presentation with Google Earth possible. The resulting layers like Crisis in Darfur, Mountaintop removal, and the UNEP environmental layer, have been significantly successful - not only interesting and important content, but actually resulting in drawing significant world-wide attention to these issues. This is why Google has decided to not just informally help non-profit organizations, but have now set up an official organization of dedicated people, technical resources, and more available to non-profit organizatins to leverage Google Earth for their causes. That is what Google Earth Outreach is about. He then described the many useful resources they have made available at the new web site including showcases of other efforts, case studies on the process of development, and video tutorials on how to create powerful KML presentations.

Rebecca Moore of Google, who has been running the team who manages the layers in Google Earth, has passionately devoted her 20 percent time to these non-profit efforts. Her efforts and the results are a substantial part of the reason Google decided to create the Google Earth Outreach program, and Rebecca is now the enthusiastic new team leader of Google Earth Outreach. Congratulations to Rebecca in her new role! Oh, and here is an official Google Blog post by Rebecca on Outreach.

After John made the announcement, several representatives of non-profit organizations who are part of the new program shared their views. First up was Jane Goodall who is world renowned for her study of the chimpanzee social and family life at the Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania. Unfortunately, she was only able to attend the Outreach announcement by video conferencing. She is a very engaging personality which was almost immediately demonstrated at the start. John Hanke was rapidly reading Jane's lengthy bio of her many accomplishments, and on the screen behind him she started making funny faces demonstrating her boredom with the introduction. :-) More importantly, she enthusiastically described the positive experience she and her team has had working with Google to create the Gombe Chimpanzee Google Earth layer. She told the audience how she showed the content to the President of Tanzania and believes it substantially influenced him to implement new laws to help protect the water resources of the Gombe Stream National Park. Jane Goodall said: "The entire relationship with Google Earth has been exciting, stimulating, and we have been thrilled to be involved. I think the Google Earth Outreach program is really wonderful and will be helpful to many organizations."

Next, Kathy Buskin Calvin - Executive Vice President of the UN Foundation spoke. She said they were very happy with their partnership with Google, Google Earth, and Google.org. She went on to describe the UNEP environmental layer, and how it has helped raise awareness not only to the issues of the environment, but that Google Earth can be a powerful tool for the UN organization to utilize. Without making specific announcements she told the audience more layers from the UN are under development.

Next, Edward Wilson - President and CEO, Earthwatch Institute spoke. He not only showed the new Earthwatch layer (released under the Global Awareness layer yesterday), but described why using Google Earth can help non-profit organizations. He said it can help people see the problems, help share the information needed to do something about the problems, and provide access to the projects set up to take steps to solve them. He made the point that without something like these Google Earth layers, many people would not get the unique perspective of how fragile and small our planet is and how these problems can effect so many people and places.

In the discussions afterwards, Jane Goodall made an impassioned plea that if we all focused first on our local problems and helped spread the enthusiasm and results with others, it wouldn't take long for the entire world's problems to start getting attention. She sees the Outreach program as an effective way to help spread the enthusiasm and information.

After the presentation, we of course were treated to wonderful catering of food by Google. The table and chairs in the room were carefully selected by the Googlers to represent environmental awareness with bamboo chairs, and earth globe candy in the middle. We then all had a while to mingle and meet representatives from the many non-profit organizations in attendance and the many Googlers who have been working on Outreach.

It was a pleasure meeting up again with people I had met two weeks ago at the International Symposium on Digital Earth including: Dr. Tim Foresman (the man substantially behind ISDE), Mary Anne Hitt (of Appalacian Voices - Mountaintop removal), Michael Graham (of the Crisis in Darfur layer), and Keene Haywood (of National Geographic, who worked on the Ivory Wars layer).

I enjoyed meeting Michael Fay who was the journalist that took the National Geographic Megaflyover images (one of my favorite all-time layers in Google Earth), and who also wrote the Ivory Wars story earlier this year. Sitting next to me at lunch was Phil Verney and Jim Cristol (aka Jumble) who are both moderators of the Google Earth Community.

On the Google side, I met Mark Aubin - one of the other founders of Keyhole, and an active supporter of the Outreach project. There were many other members of the Google Earth team, who I had the pleasure of meeting, many of which flew from Mountain View just for this event. Although there were also team members from Google Maps at the NYC office. They had all worked long and hard to prepare for the announcement, and yet were bright eyed and enthusiastic for the event. It was also good to see again John Hanke, Rebecca Moore, and Megan Quinn (who handles Google Earth public affairs).

I just want to say I think the Google Earth Outreach program is significant, and I hope non-profit organizations who have important issues and a need for geospatial visualization, will take advantage of the program. Google also recently made an announcement about the completion of their Solar Energy project and their plug-in hybrid electric car project. These kinds of programs are pretty hard to say anything bad about. Great work Google!

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 26, 2007

Google Earth Layer Changes - Geographic Web, Roads Layers

Just discovered that the Geographic Web layer has now been made into a single layer (instead of three sub-layers). The layer still contains the Wikipedia placemarks, the Panoramio photo layer, and the Best of Google Earth Community placemarks. But, they are now represented by smaller colored icons. Panoramio is blue, Wikipedia are kind of purple, and the GEC layer is tan. Also, when you zoom in closer, the Panoramio icons turn into little camera icons to let you know they are photos.

Also, new detailed roads are now available for Slovakia, Croatia, and Slovenia. And I believe Hungary was updated.

Related: Original announcement for Geographic Web layer - more details about the content.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 02:09 PM | Comments (14) | TrackBack

Introducing Google Earth Outreach - New Global Awareness Layers

Today Google has announced a new initiative called Google Earth Outreach designed to help nonprofit organizations around the world leverage the power of Google Earth to illustrate and advocate for the important work that they do. The announcement was made at the New York City Google office by Elliot Schrage, Google Vice President for Global Communications & Public Affairs, and John Hanke, Director of Google Earth & Maps. The initial Outreach partners include: Jane Goodall, Founder, the Jane Goodall Institute; Kathy Bushkin Calvin, Executive Vice President, United Nations Foundation; and Edward Wilson, President and CEO, Earthwatch.

Google Earth Outreach enables any organization to quickly and easily get the resources it needs to create compelling stories through Google Earth layers. The program includes comprehensive online guides, video tutorials, and case studies about using Google Earth specifically targeted to the needs of nonprofit organizations. In addition, there are online forums connecting new participants to Global Awareness partners and experienced programmers who can assist in developing Keyhole Markup Language (KML) layers for Google Earth. These forums, actively moderated by Google Earth Outreach staff, serve to foster discussion and cooperation among organizations and the broader Google Earth community. More information is available from the new Google Earth Outreach web page.

Jane Goodall has already leveraged Google Earth for the Jane Goodall Institute's pioneering geoblog called the Gombe Chimpanzee Blog. The blog documents the activities at the Gombe Stream Research Center in Tanzania, site of the longest-running field study of wild chimpanzee. Every post at the blog is geotagged and viewable through Google Earth - as well as other helpful information about the site. Google began highlighting the Chimpanzee layer as a "Featured Content" layer last fall. Being featured in this way draws a lot of attention because of the huge world-wide audience available with over 200 million people having installed Google Earth. This kind of exposure helps any organization get more attention for their efforts.

Other example non-profit layers along these lines have included the Crisis in Darfur layer, the UNEP environmental layer, the Mountaintop removal memorial, the World Wildlife Fund, and several others.

As part of today's Google Earth Outreach announcement, Google also published three new Global Awareness layers from their new Outreach partners (open the Global Awareness layer under the Layers pane on the lower left inside Google Earth). Here are the details about the new layers from today's press release:

• Global Heritage Fund (GHF) - The GHF Global Awareness layer explores cultural heritage sites around the world that GHF is working to preserve for future generations. From ancient Mayan Mirador pyramids buried in Guatemalan forests threatened by clear cutting to the crumbling Lijiang Ancient Town in China, GHF takes users to these endangered archaeological treasures of human civilization and details the efforts to save them in partnership with local governments and resources.

• Earthwatch Expeditions – The Earthwatch Global Awareness layer enables users to virtually visit more than 100 volunteer Earthwatch expeditions in Google Earth— from recording the activities of lemurs in Madagascar to determining the impact of climate change on grey whale populations in Mexico and Canada. Enthusiasts and would-be volunteers can explore scientific field research projects in progress around the world and learn how they can help collect field data in the areas of rainforest ecology, wildlife conservation, marine science, archaeology, and more.

• Fair Trade Certified - The TransFair USA layer introduces users to the over 70 Fair Trade Co-ops located throughout Latin America, Asia and Africa. Fair trade is an innovative market-based approach to sustainable development that helps family farmers in developing countries gain direct access to markets and develop the business capacity necessary to compete in the global marketplace.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 11:00 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Google Earth Gallery Enhanced

Google has made some enhancements to the Google Earth Gallery. The gallery enables Google to share unique KML files which highlight the many capabilities of Google Earth. On the Google Earth Gallery page there is now a button called "Explore the archive" which lets you find several new KML files from a variety of organizations and individuals. These are all notable collections of data, many of which have been written about here at GEB. There are also some new stuff I haven't seen before, more on this a little later today.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:53 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 25, 2007

Google Adds Mapping to YouTube - What does it mean?

Google has added an important new feature when you upload a video to YouTube. You now have the ability to give coordinates for the associated video - you can give lat/long coordinates or you can point the location out on a Google Maps map. Thanks to OgleEarth for bringing this to my attention. Here's what it looks like:

The brief mention on the new feature in the YouTube blog doesn't tell us anything about what they've planned for this new capability. But, given the ability of Google Maps to show video clips inside placemark descriptions, it can't be that long before they have an ability to show YouTube videos based on location in Google Maps. In fact, I'm sure they are somehow creating KML files associated with the locations of the videos and will be able to show videos tied to a search for a location. There will be even more possibilities when they can have a KML network link to show video locations in either Google Earth or Google Maps. Having an ability to access YouTube videos which are geotagged with an API would be really nice. And, hopefully they will allow people to add location to existing YouTube videos.

However, Google Earth can't currently show videos inside placemark descriptions. And Google Maps doesn't yet officially support KML network links. I expect both of these problems to go away soon. Actually, I believe that Google will soon release a version of Google Earth which runs as a browser plug-in. It's the obvious thing to do so they can have even tighter integration between Google Maps and Earth and better support of KML. And, it would easily enable implementation of embedded videos in the placemark descriptions since Javascript support will be part of the browser (just like with Maps). Microsoft already supports a plug in with their Virtual Earth 3D version - it runs inside either IE or Firefox on Windows. I hope Google will offer a browser plug-in version as an option (and supports Mac OSX and Linux too) and still keeps the separate application as well though. I believe you can achieve better performance as a separate application.

Anyway, I think it is great Google is starting to support geo-tagging of YouTube videos. This is another step towards the "Geoweb" - adding geospatial context to all forms of content on the web.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:45 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

Google Earth Sky - Part II

[NOTE 22-August: this article is NOT about the new Google Earth 4.2 "Sky" feature which shows the view of the stars and galaxies of space. It is about a feature someone created for making clouds in the sky of Earth. Read this story about the new night sky feature of GE 4.2.]

Yesterday we explored the nifty simple 3D model James published at his Barnabu blog for adding a sky with clouds over any spot in Google Earth to enhance realism. James had published a 3D model, which he calls a "skydome", for use with the free Google SketchUp, which I then output to Google Earth. Now James has taken this to the next step, and made the skydome even more useful. He created a simple network link which will capture your current view and allow you to place the skydome model at that location. He also increased the scale so the dome is 50 miles in diameter so you can move around in the area and still have the sky around you. The screenshot shown here is of the Grand Canyon with clouds. (The new high-resolution terrain for the Grand Canyon is awesome).

Here are some tips on how to use the skydome network link:

1. Go to a place you want the sky. It's best if you are looking straight down. Then download the skydome network link (230 Kbytes)
2. If you tilt your view, you should now see the sky with clouds. If you don't have a SpaceNavigator, you can use the built-in Google Earth G-Force mode (Ctrl-G) to allow you to look up in Google Earth (read this article for some tips on G-Force mode - this is not an easy mode if you're not used to flight simulators). Note: to get back to normal viewing mode hit "Ctrl-T".
3. Go to another location in Google Earth - again, make sure you are looking down.
4. Select the Skydome network link with the right mouse button and choose "Refresh". This refreshes the network link which grabs your current coordinates and moves the dome model over the new location.
5. You can move (or cut and paste) your skydome network link to your "My Places" folder to keep this handy for future use. Just turn it off when you're not using it.

I've already suggested to James the next logical extension for the skydome - a night sky. The trick will be to make the ground also look like night - possibly a dark transparent image overlay. And then you'd have to do custom 3D buildings with night colors as well. But, it should give James something else to innovate for Google Earth. Nice job on the skydome James!

Related:

• How to add sky to Google Earth - Part I
• Global Clouds with Altitude
• Real-time Global Clouds
• Blue Marble Add-on - with Global Clouds

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:33 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

June 24, 2007

How to Add a Sky to Google Earth

James Stafford, better known at the Google Earth Community as "Barnabu", has written a cool post on creating a 3D sky for Google Earth at the Barnabu blog. He calls it a "skydome". He basically created a half-sphere (or hemisphere) using Google SketchUp, and then adds a properly projected sky full of clouds to the inside of the 3D model. He took one of his 3D models, the Turning Torso building, and created a video showing how it looks inside SketchUp. Watch it here:

I took this one step further. I loaded his Turning Torso building , and then loaded his example skydome in SketchUp. Then, I imported my current view from Google Earth (simply select "Tools->Google Earth->Get Current View"). Next I simply outputted the skydome back to Google Earth (by selecting "Tools->Google Earth->Place Model"). Note: there are also two icons in the tool bar of SketchUp which make this easy.

[UPDATE June 25: Check out the GE Sky Part II for an even better solution.]

You can see the results by loading this skydome model which will show the sky model and, if you already loaded it, the Turning Torso building inside Google Earth. Only now you have a sky around the building. You can edit the properties inside Google Earth of the skydome "Model" and drag and move your sky to a new location. You can even change the size as well. You can look up at the sky if you have a SpaceNavigator. The Barnabu's story explains how you can add different sky images to the dome using SketchUp. Thanks Barnabu!

Other cool things by 'barnabu':

• Bouncing Earth
• Turning Torso Building
• Jupiter Clouds in Motion
• Animating Building Growth in London
• Google Saturn
• Kings College Chapel in Cambridge
• MI6 Headquarters

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:44 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

June 22, 2007

News Roundup: Google Earth Nonproifts Initiative, Giant Earth Screen, Pollmapr, Conferences,

• Google Earth Nonprofits Initiative - On Tuesday, June 26th, I'm going to Google's New York office. Google sent out invitations two days ago to the press for an announcement about a new program created especially for nonprofit organizations around the world. The Nonprofit Technology Network reported on the invitation they received. The only details released right now are the speakers: John Hanke, Director Google Earth; Jane Goodall, Jane Goodall Institute; Kathy Bushkin Calvin, United Nations Foundation; Edward Wilson, Earthwatch Institute; and Elliot Schrage, Google Public Affairs.

• 

  Giant Earth Screen - Apple displayed Google Earth on a giant video wall using eighteen 30-inch Apple high-resolution screens. Apparently one Mac Pro was used for each of two screens. I wish I could have seen this myself! It was demoed at the 2007 Apple World-wide Developer Conference. via OgleEarth.

• Pollmapr - Free Geography Tools reports on a new free site which lets you set up polls. What's interesting is that the service includes the ability record the result of the locations where pollsters came from using the IP address to look up city/country locations. Pollmapr then provides a KML file so you can view the results in Google Maps or Google Earth.

• Conferences - Upcoming virtual worlds/globes related conferences worth noting: Virtual Worlds Fall Conference and Expo will be held in San Jose, California October 10-11, 2007. Also, coming next month is Geoweb 2007 on July 23-27, 2007 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Google Earth CTO Michael Jones will be one of the Keynoters at this conference. This one probably has more interest to Google Earth people. I would be interested in going myself, but I'm going to be gone sailing that week in the Caribbean!

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:11 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 21, 2007

Taipei 3D Models for Google Earth

While we are on the topic of 3D models, a GEB reader in Taipei, Taiwan named Steven Ho has sent me a collection of 3D models he has created for Google Earth. He has a blog (in Chinese) which shows off a number of interesting projects he has done. Of particular note is his collection of Taipei 3D Buildings (these are simple non-textured buildings, but they cover many buildings throughout Taipei).

Steven has also created a model of a new Taipei tourist attraction - a gondola system in the mountains near Taipei called the Maokong Gondola. He not only modeled the Maokong Gondola , but has also created a time animation showing it in use. However, this time animation is very memory intensive - you don't need to turn on the 4D option though, just watch his YouTube movie:

Here are some details about it:

The Maokong Gondola was planned and built by Taipei City Government. It travels a distance of 4,030m with four stations at which passengers can embark and disembark: Taipei Zoo Station, Zoo Precinct Station, Zhinan Temple Station and Maokong Station. There are also two ancillary stations where the gondola changes direction. They are used to control the movement of the gondola and are not for passenger use.

The gondola is made of aluminum alloy and can carry eight people. This system travels at a speed of 3-5m/s and can carry a maximum of 144 gondolas at one time, a total of 1,300-1,990 passengers per hour in one direction. The shortest journey on the gondola is 17 minutes.

Google should probably talk to Steven Ho about his 3D buildings and including them in the default 3D Buildings layers. Great work Steven!

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

3D Buildings Update for Google Earth - June

Google has pushed out an update to the "3D Buildings->Best of 3D Warehouse" layer. This means models which have been selected to deserve the new "Blue Ribbon" status are now part of the default "Best of" layer (see tips on how to submit your 3D model).

I had noticed there were a bunch of buildings being added to the 3D Warehouse for Christchurch, New Zealand a while back. The models were built by architects ZNO Christchurch (see their recent blog post). The ZNO guys had previously been using real architectural software and converting them over for viewing in GE over a year ago (before GE 4 came out). But, they now seem to be using SketchUp pretty enthusiastically. They say in their blog they will be adding more buildings every month. Right now it looks like several blocks in downtown are available.

Another huge improperly scaled building can be seen at these coordinates: "39.48, 26.90" (western Turkey). Make sure the 3D Buildings layer is turned on. You may have to zoom out to about 20 miles to see it as the building is 11 miles wide. I imagine this will be removed from the layer pretty quickly. A GEB reader e-mailed me about it yesterday, so I told Google about it.

There are cities all over the world getting 3D Buildings created by people using SketchUp. Check out cities like Chicago, Karachi, Rome, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Moscow, and more.

[UPDATE 1420 ET: Got a list of cities from Google which had significant new buildings: Kabul, Afganistan; Montreal, Canada; Dusseldorf and Frankfurt, Germany; Madrid and Barcelona, Spain.]

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:50 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

June 20, 2007

Tour de France 2007 in Google Earth

As in the previous two years, biking enthusiasts have put together the details on the routes for all stages of this year's Tour de France. Someone called "Timetxu" in the Netherlands has published this TdF 2007 KMZ file in this forum post (Dutch).

Viewing the Tour de France routes in Google Earth is one of my favorite examples of the power of Google Earth. With GE's 3D terrain, you can tilt your view and truly get a feeling of how challenging this race really is - even if you have never been to see it in person. An important difference this year for Google Earth viewers is that the imagery for the French Alps has been greatly improved now that Google Earth includes medium resolution 2.5 meter resolution imagery from Spot Image. Still fuzzy up close, but better than it was last year. Also see a thread of posts with some other KML files showing some of the different stages for this year's Tour de France.

The GE file for this year's TdF posted above is not as detailed as some previous versions of the Tour de France, but it gives a good overview of all the stages. Last year Google helped develop an official Google Earth file (in four languages) for the stages for the official TdF web site. And someone even developed a live tracking capability of the race for 2006 (see below). Maybe we'll see some other innovations before the race begins on July 7th.

[UPDATE: here is a Google Maps mashup for live tracking of the 2007 Tour de France].

Related:

• Tour de France 2006
• Live Tracking of Tour de France 2006
• Link to Tour de France 2005

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:18 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

News Roundup: GE 4.1 Stuff, Plotting a Trail, Business Reviews, More Second Earth

• GE 4.1 Stuff - The Google Earth 4.1 beta has been out for more than a month. There are a couple little features I haven't mentioned. First, they fixed a bug which prevented you from looking straight up in Google Earth. And, when using the SpaceNavigator you can look up at a 3D Building and when you let go the view stays looking up (pre-4.1 would pop the view back to the horizon). In addition, during time animation, the background star field animates according to the passage of time (see a post about this at Barnabu's site). There is an annoying bug in 4.1 which prevents the compass in the upper right from automatically disappearing like it is supposed to. There are also a number of subtle rendering bugs which are annoying. I hope a new beta will come out soon.

• Plotting a Trail - Googler John Gardiner posts about his hobby of helping plan trails. He uses topo map overlays, a GPS track and placemarks to help communicate a planned trail. See an example trail near South Yuba River in Northern California.

• Business Reviews - Google has added a new feature to Google Maps which lets you review and rate a business you find in a map search. Maps already showed ratings and reviews from other web sites, but it also now allows you to give your own reviews and ratings. Simply search for a business and choose "More Info". Then choose "Write a review". You have to be logged in to a Google account. Very simple and straight-forward. A couple of suggestions I have: Allow folks to just give it a rating without writing a review, and allow people to use anonymous as a reviewer name (but, limit them to one review per establishment).

• More Second Earth - Avi Bar-Ze’ev, former Keyhole developer of the application which became Google Earth, shares his thoughts about the recent article by MIT Technology Review called Second Earth. Avi goes into depth about the possibilities / impossibilities of Google Earth and Second Life being combined as a mashup. Definitely a worthy read if you liked the Second Earth article. Wade Roush (author of the Second Earth article) even commented he really liked Avi's article.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 19, 2007

Google Earth Helping Amazon Indians

A post at Google Lat-Long blog by Googler Rebecca Moore tells of a recent visit she had from the Chief of the Surui Indian tribe from the Brazilian Amazon jungles. The Amazon rain forests are rapidly disappearing due to logging and mining. The Surui people are doing everything they can to protect their lands. For the last year an organization called the Amazon Conservation Team has been helping train the Indians to use Google Earth and GPS units to map Surui villages, hunting grounds, sacred sites, and cultural sites as well as areas where they've found illegal mining and logging incursions onto their land (see GEB post from last year). This effort has helped their lands become properly registered with the Brazilian government which enables the government to do a better job to protect the lands from encroachment. I recently attended a presentation by Mark Plotkin of the Amazon Conservation Team at the ISDE5 conference where he describe the project in detail. It sounds like a wonderful project and the efforts appear to have had good results. Stopping rain forest destruction is an important step in preserving the future of our planet in my opinion.

UPDATE: Just saw this article from the International Herald Tribune on this subject.

The Google Earth team has supported a number of different projects to help raise awareness of environmental problems and human issues. See an excellent article summarizing several Google Earth awareness projects at Imaging Notes which was written by Rebecca Moore as well.

Related:

• Google Earth Critical Tool in Fight Against Logging
• Crisis in Darfur
• New Global Awareness Layer
• UNEP Environmental Layer

Posted by FrankTaylor at 04:28 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Pict'Earth - UAV Aerial Photography Solutions

Back at the beginning of the year, I wrote about a video someone posted showing a guy flying a remote controlled plane (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle or UAV) and used a digital camera to take aerial photos and show them in Google Earth. The guy who created it is David Riallant, and his company Pict'Earth is located in France. He has now expanded his operation and has a new office in the USA, which is being run by Jeffery Johnson and Stewart Long. They have a new web site called PictEarthUSA.com. The new company has a system available which uses a basic remote controlled plane, Pict'Earth software, and a Nokia N95 as both the camera system and wireless broadband communicator. They offer both live and professional aerial image processing services. Not ony that, but they have recruited the efforts of the well-known Google Earth innovator Valery Hrosunov in Perm, Russia to develop the software for the image processing and display in GE. Check out their gallery of example photos.

Related:

• Remote controlled plane video
• High resolution photos from a UAV in Google Earth
• Driving a Car with a SpaceNavigator

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:19 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Best of 3D Warehouse - Blue Ribbon

Google's 3D Warehouse is a repository for all kinds of 3D models created for use with Google SketchUp (the popular 3D modeling tool). The 3D Warehouse is also home to models which can be placed in Google Earth. Many of you know that Google has a layer under the 3D Buildings layer called the Best of 3D Warehouse. Google has just added a new "Blue Ribbon" marker to entries in the 3D Warehouse which are part of the "Best of 3D Warehouse" layer. Here's an example of the famous Big Ben clock tower in London. Enter "Westminster, London" in the GE "Fly To" search, and turn on the "3D Buildings->Best of 3D Warehouse" layer. And here are tips for qualifying for the layer.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Second Earth

MIT's Technology Review has published an interesting article called "Second Earth" by Wade Roush. This is a lengthy article, but is a worthy read if you are interested in the developing trends on virtual globes - like Google Earth, World Wind, and Virtual Earth - and social virtual worlds like Second Life, There, and World of Warcraft. Not surprisingly, most people in the industry believe the Internet is evolving towards increasing 3D interfaces and that real virtual globes like Google Earth with soon be linked up with fantasy virtual worlds like Second Life. The article is full of examples of the many different ways Second Life and Google Earth are being used to represent different aspects of real life including links to KML files, videos, and Second Life URLs to the examples. Wade Roush last fall wrote about how KML has been developing towards a defacto standard and he has a good grasp of what is going on with these virtual world/globe technologies.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 18, 2007

Gallery Update

Apparently Google plans to be updating their new Google Earth Gallery each week. This week we have another six entries. Three have previously been featured here at GEB, but three have not. Here's the list this week, with some extra information:

• World Oil Consumption - a globe-wide 3D bar chart showing countries with the most oil consumption. Gallery link. More details from GEB. KML Link

• Biography of Phillis Wheatley - Phillis Wheatley was the first black individual, the first slave and the third woman to publish a book of poetry. Gallery Link. Original GEC post. KML Link

• Real-time Earthquakes - From the US Geological Survey. Gallery Link. More detail from GEB. KML link

• Jeneau Ice Field Research - Photos, overlays and descriptions of Jeneau's ice fields. Gallery Link. More details by Nichols College. KML Link

• Night Lights of the World - Global light pollution. Gallery Link. More details at GE Library by Matt Fox. KML Link

• King Tut - Tutankhamun's Tomb in 3D in Google Earth. Gallery Link. More details from GEB. Original GEC post. KML Link

Check out the GE Gallery Gadget you can add to your iGoogle page.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:21 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 15, 2007

Photo Finding in Google Earth - Just for Fun

I do a bit of mountain biking now and then, and happened to notice an article on the New York Times today. The article is called "Where Mountain Bikers Carved Their Dream Terrain" and is about a remote place in western Colorado near a town called Fruita, Colorado. I decided I would like to find this place in Google Earth. There were some nice photos in the article, so I thought I would try finding an exact spot. I noticed the name of a trail in one photo was "Zippety Trail". My first thought was to try Garmin's MotionBased.com site which lets people upload GPS tracks of their favorite outdoor activities. A simple search for "Zippety" and I got four results (like this one) - all listed as being near Fuita. I loaded up this trail in Google Earth (Motionbased supports GE for all tracks). It didn't take me long to find the place on the trail where the photo was taken in the satellite photos. This placemark tries to duplicate the same viewing angle as in the camera (as seen in the screenshot).

One thing that really helped me find the location is that Google just recently updated the terrain resolution for the western US (see coverage area) and this area now has 10 meter resolution data. Another way I found the location was by simply searching in Google Earth for "Zippety Trail". This returned a "Web result" for "Zippety Trailhead" that also showed me the location.

For a really cool example of photos matched to places in Google Earth, check out this article about a book called "Earth From Above" and the cool collection of placemarks people created trying to duplicate each view for 500 of the beautiful photos from the book in GE. The photos were so beautiful in this book, I just had to buy it. It's my favorite coffee table book.

On a related note: check out Googler John Gardner's post about a Google mountain biking team's plan for a race.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 12:25 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

June 14, 2007

Global Lightning Animation for Google Earth

Received a tip from a GEB reader about some new weather data for Google Earth. The data comes from a web site called GuiWeather.com which predominantly is focused on providing global lightning data, but also has other GE weather tools. GuiWeather hopes to help people avoid lightning strike dangers by alerting them to nearby lightning using cell phone alerts. More importantly from a GE perspective, they are sharing their global lightning data in the form of lightning time animations. The data is near real-time (less than 2 minutes old when I last checked) and the animation shows the last 30 minutes of lightning strikes world wide. Check out the global lightning time animation . I like the way they show you how to configure and play the timeslider with little "pointer hand" graphic icons overlayed on the screen. GuiWeather's site says they have a world-wide network of sferic sensors collecting the lightning data.

In addition to the lightning data, the GuiWeather site has a number of other KML files with weather data. Current temperatures for many cities in the US are color coded as well as giving temperature values. This same temperature data is also available as a Google Mapplet. I also like GuiWeather's buoy and ship weather collection.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 02:01 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Google Preparing Map Visualizations for Books

Google's Michael Jones (Chief Technologist of Google Earth) gave a sneak preview presentation late last week, at the New York State Geospatial Summit, where he demonstrated some upcoming map visualizations based on books related to Google's Book Search project. Michael has many times mentioned his fascination with maps created from books (like the collection showing places quoted in Shakespeare, or the maps showing the travels of Odysseus). According to a summary by Adena Shutzberg of Directions Magazine, Michael gave a sneak preview of technology where Google has taken public books (out of copyright) and scanned the text for location information, then created a collection of placemarks for the locations mentioned in the book. You can click on a placemark and go to the page where it was mentioned. He also demonstrated a time animation map related to books. I'm looking forward to seeing the results of this project, it sounds really interesting!

Posted by FrankTaylor at 09:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 13, 2007

Road Maps and Local Search for Sweden in Google Earth and Maps

Google has released new map data for the country of Sweden. You can now turn on the "Roads" layer for Sweden, and you can now search for business listings (search for "pizza" for example). You can also get directions for road travel in Sweden. Google also announced on their Lat Long blog that they have Google Maps for Sweden at maps.google.se. The layers of point of interest (dining, lodging, etc.) have not been added yet for GE. Google already has roads for many countries around the world, and the list is growing every couple of months. Great job Google!

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:55 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 12, 2007

News RoundUp: Football Game, VesselTracker, Antarctic Bases, Egyptian Digs, 3D Cities Help, Chimps, Gallery

• Football Game - Google Earth Hacks has developed an American-style football game you can play within Google Earth. The game is played within a football stadium inside GE, and you interact through radio buttons in the Places pane. You either choose Offensive or Defensive plays depending on who has the ball. You see the position of the ball at the end of each play, and get feedback on statistics for each play including scores. Pretty fun to play, and an interesting application of GE technology.

• VesselTracker - The VesselTracker.com site is dedicated to providing ship vessel tracking data (right now for north of Europe) using maps and Google Earth using the Automated Identification System (AIS). Interestingly, VesselTracker are using Virtual Earth for the 2D maps, but Google Earth for the 3D maps. Thanks to a tip from GmapsMania. Try a free version in GE (24 hour delay).

• Antarctic Bases - Google's recent imagery update includes some high resolution photos of portion of Antarctica. Stefan Geens found a KML collection of placemarks for all antarctic bases (via this site). Many, but not all, appear in the new high res photos.

• Egyptian Digs - OgleEarth reports about a LiveScience article on how satellite photos are helping Egyptian archaeologists to find new dig sites. OgleEarth notes that satellite photos are helping make many kinds of scientific discoveries.

• 3D Cities Help - The Google Lat Long blog has posted about a new 3D Warehouse "Help Model a City" feature. The intent is to help foster a community based approach to creating 3D models of buildings in cities around the world.

• Chimps - Jane Goodall's Gombe Chimpanzee blog has released a new site design. It's appropriate that the first blog which used Google Earth initially as the only way to view blog entries is now supporting GeoRSS (geotagged RSS). They are also now supporting Google Maps for viewing entries, and are using a new blogging tool called EarthWatchr. via OgleEarth.

• Gallery - The new Google Earth Gallery has been updated with new entries. You can also install a Gallery Gadget for your iGoogle page. My favorite new entry is the collection of placemarks showing the life of Neil Armstrong (first man to walk on the moon).

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:42 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

June 11, 2007

London Eye Animation with Shadows for Google Earth

Barnabu is at it again adding more realism to an animated ferris wheel. Previously Barnabu was shown with a 4D animation of the London Eye where he used a modified ground image to remove the projected image of the ferris wheel from the ground (from the satellite photo). Now he has also added the shadow from the ferris wheel as it animates by using a feature in Google SketchUp (a 3D modeling tool) for projecting shadows. You can view the London Eye with shadows animation <