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December 31, 2008

World Sunlight Map in Google Earth

Automatically updates every 30 minutes, real-time clouds, and disappears when you zoom in.

Day Night and Clouds in Google EarthOne of my goals in life has always been to see the Earth from space. That's why I've been fascinated with add-ons for Google Earth with let you overlay clouds or better-looking views of the Earth. I noticed Gerardo (who translates for the spanish version of Google Earth Blog) had found an automatically refreshing image which shows current day/night views of the Earth and adds in current real-time clouds of the Earth. The image comes from Die.Net. Gerardo created an image overlay for GE which showed that image and automatically refreshes (every 30 minutes).

I took this idea one step further and added some KML that makes the image automatically disappear as you zoom in closer. Load the resulting World Sunlight Map for Google Earth . This way, you can still see Google Earth's normal imagery, but keep the more realistic view available when you zoom out for a view from space! Save the file in your "My Places" folder and keep it turned on if you want this view always available.

The image shows both day/night sides of the Earth. The night side shows lights of cities as seen from space. Also, there is an overlay of current clouds (updated every three hours). The day shots are courtesy of NASA's Blue Marble Imagery. The night shots also come from NASA - the Earth's City Lights collection. The clouds come from xplanet and show the current clouds around the Earth updated every 3 hours.

The resulting combined image was composited together and is available at Die.Net.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 9:15 AM | Comments (3)

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December 23, 2008

Happy Holidays from Google Earth Blog

Holiday Greeting in Google EarthIt has been another great year for Google Earth, and Christmas is almost upon us. Make sure you check out the Google Earth Santa Tracker on December 24th. There is also some other Santa content for Google Earth. And, there's a cool iPhone Santa tracker available for free from Earthscape which is a Google Earth-like globe.

Best of wishes to all GEB readers for some happy holidays! Thanks to all of you for reading my blog and best wishes for a happy new year! Last year I developed a KML Happy Holidays greeting with some help from an artist named Stefan Lorimer. This year, you can view the same "greeting card" in your browser. Happy Holidays!

Posted by FrankTaylor at 9:05 AM | Comments (2)

December 22, 2008

Alps Ski Information Layer in Google Earth

Layer info on Ski the Alps layerOver the weekend (I think) Google released a new layer under the Gallery->Travel & Tourism layer folder called "Ski Resorts in the Alps". The new layer was done by BergFex which provides ski information and reservation services. The new layer contains maps, current ski/snow conditions, and links to further descriptions, prices, lodging, and weather. The new layer is best used when you also turn on the Skiing layer found under the Points of Interest layer folder. As mentioned last year, Google added detailed lift and gondola maps for the Alps in the Skiing layer. I wish the US skiing destinations had detailed skiing information in the layers like this. BergFex has just shown how you can effectively provide information and also justify the cost by turning the layer into a revenue stream through reservations and other online ski business.

Below is a screenshot example showing both layers in action. The new layer is just placemarks of each destination (the icons indicate the status of each resort), but the placemark descriptions contain the details.

Layer info on Ski the Alps layer

Posted by FrankTaylor at 9:05 AM | Comments (1)

December 21, 2008

The Year 2008 in Google Earth

Google Earth had a great year in 2008 thanks to its continued growth in popularity, new features, and an enormous growth in new content both from Google and the people who use Google Earth. According to Google there have been over 400 Million unique installations of Google Earth since it was released in 2005. There were 8 major updates to Google Earth imagery in 2008. The Panoramio photo layer grew by millions of photos thanks to people all over the world. From a broader perspective, Google also put a great deal of effort into expanding and blending technology for both Google Earth and Google Maps. There's a Google Maps version of Sky, Street View works in Google Earth, Google Earth can now be viewed in a browser along side Google Maps, Google Earth is available on the iPhone, Google Maps gets several layers from Earth, and the list goes on. Also, Google's 3D Warehouse grew in size (with millions of new models added), and many new features (Street View, more social networking features, plugin support, and more). And let's not forget the Google Earth file format - KML became a standard.

Read below the fold for a summary of highlighted news and content for Google Earth from 2008 (see also a similar summary from Google Maps Mania):


Posted by FrankTaylor at 11:33 AM | Comments (3)

December 20, 2008

New Improved Ancient Rome 3D

Ancient Rome 3D in Google EarthWhen Google introduced the new Ancient Rome 3D layer last month there was a problem. The problem was the building models were derived from very complex data and the resulting 3D models in Google Earth were still too complicated for most computers to handle. I did some testing and it was clear in some cases a single building in Ancient Rome had tens to hundreds of thousands of polygons (a typical 3D building model in Google Earth may only have a few dozen or a couple of hundred polygons). It was little wonder there were many complaints that the new layer was too slow for most people to really use.

Well this past week, Google pushed out new improved Ancient Rome 3D models where the models have been simplified a great deal. I haven't seen an announcement yet, but I found out last week the models were much better. It still can take a few minutes to load the terrain and buildings (depending on your Internet connection and computer). But, I'm able to run the new layer on my Mac Book Pro laptop and fly around and look at the buildings much more fluidly than before. Building polygon counts are much better now.

How to view the Ancient Rome 3D Layer in Google Earth

  1. Turn off the "3D Buildings" layer and other layers which might interfere with your view

  2. Turn on the Ancient Rome 3D layer found under the Gallery layer folder

  3. Enter "Rome" in the "Fly to" window and zoom in until you see the yellow placemark icons

  4. Open one of the yellow placemark icons where you will see information about that building(s).

  5. Look at the bottom of the description in the placemark bubble for "Download Terrain and 3D Building models of Ancient Rome". Below that, click on "Ancient Terrain (Load First)". This loads the terrain from ancient rome and hides the underlying current view of the city. It may take a few minutes (depending on your Internet connection)

  6. Open another yellow placemark and look for the next link (after the terrain one) which says "Ancient Rome Landmarks (250 buildings)". After waiting another couple of minutes (again depending on your connection), you should be able to start moving around and looking at the buildings.

  7. If you're really ambitious, and have a powerful computer, open the third link "Ancient Rome Buildings" to load another several thousand more simplified buildings to load all the models from the Ancient Rome collection. I was able to do it on a gaming machine I have at home.

To really view the city, you need to know how to navigate in Google Earth. Here are some tips on navigating in Google Earth from the user guide. If you happen to have a SpaceNavigator, you have the ultimate ability to fly around to see the city with Google Earth.

If you were frustrated with how hard it was to load Ancient Rome when it came out last month, give it a try again. It's still not as simple as the built-in 3D Buildings layer. But, the experience of learning, and seeing, ancient Rome come to life is worth it. The placemark descriptions and links to further information are very educational. And the 3D buildings really help you visualize what it might have been like.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 7:16 AM | Comments (9)

December 18, 2008

Links: Google Geo Data Grows, Maps Gets YouTube, Licensing, GeoServer Nod

  • Google Geo Data Grows - O'Reilley's Brady Forrest talks about the huge growth of geospatial data resulting from Google's big investments over the last few years. Some really nice illustrations and video clips in Brady's post.

  • Maps Gets You Tube - Keir describes the new feature added to Google Maps adding the YouTube video layer which Google Earth has had since October 2007. You can find the YouTube layer in Google Earth under the "Gallery" layer folder.

  • Licensing - Google put up a post describing the basic process if you (or your government) would like to license (or grant) data to Google for use in Google Earth or Maps.

  • GeoServer Nod - Google's Geospatial Technologist Ed Parsons gives a big nod to (i.e. he really likes) GeoServer's new KML serving capabilities. GeoServer is a Java-based software server that allows users to view and edit geospatial data.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 8:43 AM | Comments (0)

December 17, 2008

New York City in Photo-Realistic 3D Now in Google Earth

Google has updated the 3D buildings in Google Earth for New York City! This is a HUGE update with at least hundreds (if not thousands) of new 3D buildings with photo textures applied. Basically, Google has completed nearly every building in Manhattan Island for Google Earth. Just fly to "New York City" and turn on the 3D Buildings layer in Google Earth. Tilt your view so you can see the buildings in all their glory. This is the largest city i've seen done with photo-realistic textures to date.

As a comparison, here is what New York's 3D photo-realistic buildings looked like in January 2007:

And here is what it looks like today (click on the image for a high resolution version made with Google Earth Pro):

By the way, many people had already contributed dozens of photo-realistic 3D buildings to NYC since January 2007. And Google has faithfully kept those models in the layer while adding in the new buildings to fill in the gap.

I plan to create a video fly through soon. In the meantime, check it out for yourself in Google Earth now. By the way, there's a cool way of flying around buildings in Google Earth 4.3+ - You can swoop between buildings like Spiderman.... read this story for tips.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 9:48 AM | Comments (32)

Upgrade to EveryTrail GPS Trails Layer in Google Earth

Yesterday Google published an upgrade to the EveryTrail layer in Google Earth found under the Gallery layer folder. EveryTrail allows you to upload both GPS tracks and geotagged photos to its free service and the results can appear in their Google Earth layer. Once you turn on the layer, zoom in and look for the green EveryTrail logo placemarks. They mark the locations of available tracks which if you zoom in you can see more detail.

The new update to the layer includes an improved interface for viewing the geotagged photos. When you click on a green placemark for an EveryTrail location you see a gallery of photos for some of them. If you click on a single photo, you get a placemark "slideshow" which lets you see each photo and fly to each location. It's pretty slick, and I recommend you try it out in Google Earth. You can also watch this video they released showing it in action:

By the way, EveryTrail also has an iPhone application you can download which lets you record your tracks and photos and upload them to their site in one convenient package. This is a pretty cool way to document your travel and get it into Google Earth with your iPhone. But, if you don't have an iPhone, EveryTrail still makes it pretty easy with a GPS and camera. (To be fair, there's another iPhone app called Earthscape which also lets you take photos and you can get KML from a User's collection of photos - which came out earlier this year.)

Another note: I got a message from Joost Schreve (Founder and CEO of EveryTrail) and he says they have grown rapidly since their layer was added to Google Earth. They now have over 36,000 public trips from over 120 countries. And, their iPhone app is really taking off with over 500 downloads a day. He recommends reading the EveryTrail blog where they have been talking about and releasing other mobile phone applications as well as other news.

And another note: Another GPS track layer is also available in Google Earth called WikiLoc which was released in GE last August. See first review of WikiLoc at GEB. Wikiloc is another GPS uploading web site, and has some very nice Google Maps and Google Earth features. I like the feature that shows your vertical profile for your tracks.

Here's a list of other GPS-related sites with Google Earth tie-ins from the past:

Posted by FrankTaylor at 8:35 AM | Comments (1)

December 16, 2008

Links: Obama Journey, Thematic Google, Street View Australia, SketchUp Contest, Google Ocean

[UPDATE 0800 17-Dec: I accidentally left off the link about Google Ocean. It has now been added].

I've been doing a bunch of traveling with limited Internet access (moving our sailboat south for the winter). So I've taken a bit longer than usual to get posts up. Here's a round up of some interesting news over the last few days.

  • Obama Journey - Someone named Virender Ajmani created some cool maps for Barack Obama (and McCain) a while back. He's now converted Barack Obama's Life Journey into a Google Earth plugin map. This is a really great example of how Google Earth makes flying around a travel journal very interesting. via Google Maps Mania

  • Thematic Google - Bjorn Sandvik has appeared in GEB several times for his innovative application of Google Earth for data visualizations. He's been working on a master's thesis involving the use of thematic mapping and using KML. He recently got invited to present his work at the Googleplex. In his post, Bjorn shares his slides and indicates the talk may appear online at some point (I'll link to the video when it goes live). Congrats Bjorn! It was certainly nice of Google to invite him out. Bjorn has done some great work with KML. See a post here about his Thematic Mapping Engine.

  • Street View Australia - Street View imagery has been expanded in Australia. Google has added new streets in Darwin, Geelong and remote parts of the Northern Territory. via Google Maps Mania.

  • SketchUp Contest - Google has announced a new SketchUp contest on the Official Google Blog called the "first annual Google SketchUp Gingerbread House Design Competition". This contest is just for a little holiday fun. So, no special prizes. Read the post for more details.

  • Google Ocean - Gerardo Paz, known as 'Gerardo64' at the GEC - and the GEB spanish translator, forgot to tell me he had found a cool program which might just give us a peak at what Google Ocean might be like - if it were to ever be released by Google. Gerardo found a program called COVE which shows colorful 3D renderings of ocean bathymetry and shared it at the GEC.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 1:45 PM | Comments (5)

December 15, 2008

AGU Conference Starting Today

Google has posted a reminder that the AGU (American Geophysical Union) Fall Meeting starts today in San Francisco. And in just 10 minutes from now, Google's Michael Jones is doing the Frontiers of Geophysics Lecture with a title of “The Spread of Scientific Knowledge from the Royal Society to Google Earth and Beyond”. Here's the link for the live broadcast of his talk.

There are a lot of scientists using Google Earth for all kinds of applications. And many will be giving talks at this year's AGU. Here's a previous story about this year's AGU with more details and links to abstracts.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 9:19 PM | Comments (0)

New Google Earth Imagery December 2008

[UPDATE 16-Jan-2009: This update also included updates to the 3D terrain data Google uses from NASA SRTM. The update reportedly fixed gaps or issues for many coasts and remote islands around the world. Some countries and regions (like the US and Switzerland) have higher resolution terrain from other sources.]

[UPDATE 0800 17-Dec: Google released the details on the imagery update here. But, you may find the GEB-reader-generated list below more interesting.]

Last night Google pushed out some new imagery for Google Earth. Unfortunately I had just arrived from sailing a boat down from North Carolina to St. Marys, Georgia - and the marina didn't have Internet. So, I had to wait until this morning to get to an Internet connection. Anyway, I got a tip from Mickey at Digital Earth Blog who reported last night about the update. According to Mickey's report (and confirmed by some GEB readers), below are places with new imagery (I will update this list as more details come in).

New imagery location list:

  • New York City - thanks Dave

  • Dubai - thanks Dave

  • Christchurch, New Zealand - thanks Dave

  • Cape Town, Johannesburg, South Africa

  • Australia - It appears the imagery for this continent has been processed so it looks more color/light consistent. The country no longer looks like a "zebra" with strips of different colored imagery.

  • Chennai, India - thanks Navneeth

  • Montevideo, Uruguay - thanks novolo

  • Budapest, Hungary - thanks several readers

  • Sao Paulo - thanks AKB

  • Italy:Perugia,Lucera, Foggia, Parma - thanks kecker, and Rene73

  • Baku, Azerbaijan - Thanks Rene73

  • Isle of Ibiza, Spain

  • Sofia, Bulgaria - thanks Rene73

  • Aman, Jordan - thanks Rene73

  • Kiew, Ukraine - thanks Rene73

  • Teheran, Iran - thanks Rene73

  • Ashgabat, Tukmenistan - thanks Rene73

  • Islamabad, Pakistan - thanks Rene73

  • Many places in eastern China - thanks Frank

  • Honolulu, Hawaii - thanks Bartman

  • Anchorage, Alaska - thanks Brian

  • Washtenaw County, Michigan - thanks Roy

  • Nicosia, Cyprus - thanks Vangelis

  • East Havana, Cuba - thanks hmngr06

[UPDATE: Google posted their "quiz" game with hints to locations with new imagery. Here are the answers from GEB readers:

  1. Isola di Ponza, Italy - thanks Mike
  2. Rabaul, PNG - thanks to Bartman and Mike
  3. Hamilton Island, Australia - thanks Bartman
  4. National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific,Oahu, USA - thanks Mike

You can tell whether suspected imagery is new by comparing the location with Google Maps. The Google Maps imagery database will be updated with this new imagery in a few days. Simply click on the "View in Google Maps" button in the upper middle of Google Earth to see the same location in GM.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 9:52 AM | Comments (36)

December 12, 2008

Planes on Poles in Google Earth (plus an extra feature)

It has been a while since I highlighted a large user-developed collection. The collection today is of places where you can see planes on "poles" (or stands). You see these in front of airports, museums, hotels, and places you would never expect (like in the middle of a grocery store parking lot). The plane on poles collection is maintained by someone called 'sasroodkapje' and has any and all planes found by people and posted to the thread at the Google Earth Community. If you know of a plane on a pole not in the collection already, post it at the thread. It's best if you also share a photo by putting the photo on a server somewhere and including a link in your post. Then 'sasroodkapje' will add it to the collection. Definitely check out the thread to see other cool photos people have posted.

And, here is the "plus" part: make sure you check the locations for Street View - you can see many of these planes in Google's fast growing database of Street View imagery. Although, there are no Street Views on military bases :-). Just turn on the Street View layer in Google Earth and zoom in to one of the "planes on a pole" placemarks. Then, see if a Street View camera icon is nearby and check it out to see if you can see the plane. Here are some examples of planes on poles you can both see in Google Earth and through Street View:

Fiat G-91T-1 in surplus yard in Rome, Italy:

View Larger Map

P-51 Mustang in Pigeon Forge, TN:

View Larger Map

F-104D Starfighter in Burbank, CA:

View Larger Map

Posted by FrankTaylor at 7:55 AM | Comments (3)

December 11, 2008

Links: Going Sailing, Mumbai Attacks, Street View, South Africa Award

This weekend I'll be moving our sailboat south to get to some warmer temperatures for the winter. I'll be posting a GPS track for GE after we get back along with some photos. Soon there will be a new blog for following our preparations and eventually the circumnavigation itself. And, eventually there will be a lot of Google Earth content available so you can follow our adventures (thanks to Google).

  • Mumbai Attacks - It has been mentioned by many news organizations that the attackers in Mumbai were technologically savvy and used many technology tools such as: GPS, phones, blackberries, and even Google Earth. All truly useful technologies have the potential for being abused by those with evil intent. That doesn't mean we should deprive everyone from the use of them. One lawyer has filed a petition to ban Google Earth because it could be used by terrorists. Stefan Geens has an excellent post about why banning Google Earth and the petition are bad ideas.

  • Street View - This year has certainly been a huge year for Street View by Google. There is a good summary of the accomplishments at the Google Blog including the fact they have expanded Street View imagery by 22 times in 2008, the recent doubling of coverage for the US, and the addition of several new countries (New Zealand, Italy, Spain, France, Japan, and Australia). And, Google added Street View for the iPhone last month, and just released Street View for Google Maps Mobile for other phones.

  • South Africa Award - A marketing company called Quirk eMarketing, which helped South Africa create a tourism layer for Google Earth, has won an award for Search Engine Optimization. The exposure from creating the Google Earth layer (which was released last July) had a very positive effect on the marketing for South Africa tourism. South Africa is one of only four countries with a tourism layer in Google Earth.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 9:01 AM | Comments (4)

Google Earth Plus Discontinued

Google has discontinued the Google Earth Plus version which cost $20/year. This move is not surprising because there were only two primary features in the Plus version not already in the free version: GPS support, and limited spreadsheet input support. Both of these capabilities are possible to do with the free version of Google Earth with other tools (free and/or for moderate one-time costs). And, Google states in the announcement that they will be including GPS features in the free version of Google Earth in a future update. Also, for those currently paying the $20/year subscription to GE Plus, Google is offering a deeply discounted subscription to GE Pro for $99 (instead of the regular $400 price). Google is also offering a two-month free trial of GE Pro. Here is a saved view of the web page comparing the different GE versions (including Plus). via OgleEarth.

Here are some links to tools you can use to get the Plus features with the free Google Earth:

Posted by FrankTaylor at 8:32 AM | Comments (5)

December 10, 2008

Google Earth and Santa 2008

[UPDATE: It's Christmas Eve! The santa tracker is now live!]

Every year since Google Earth was released, Google has provided a way to track Santa as he makes his deliveries around the world. This year is no different, and Google will once again provide tracking based on the data provided from Norad which has been tracking Santa since 1955. But, the tracking doesn't start until Christmas Eve. Visit the www.NoradSanta.org site to see the countdown or download a gadget to keep the countdown handy. On Christmas Eve day, you'll be able to follow Santa with Google Earth (or Google Maps), so make sure to check on that day.

  • Santa Tracker for Christmas in 3D in Google Earth

    Official Santa Tracker - Google officially teamed up with Norad (the US North American Air Defense Command), which has been tracking Santa on their radar system for many years, to officially provide tracking for Santa in Google Earth. You should visit the NORADSanta.org web site to see the countdown to Christmas Eve and some games and other information related to the tracking system (and choose other languages).

  • Santa Route in Google Earth

    Santa's Route - You can check out Santa's route right now in Google Earth based on information from Travel by GPS. Click on the "Points" folder and select "Tools->Play Tour" from the GE menu to see a really cool flying tour of the route. Pretend you are Santa! You can E-mail Travel by GPS a placemark from Google Earth for the location of your house, and they will add your house to the route. Click here for more information.

  • Santa from Space - Santa Picture in Google EarthIn 2005, one of the Google Earth Community members called 'ear1grey' posted an amazing discovery. He found a huge picture (36 miles tall) of Santa. He made a nifty Google Earth file for kids so they could go find the Santa by following the red nose of Rudolf the reindeer. Download this file and then turn on the "Little world" in your "Temporary Places". Look in the nose of Rudolf for Santa.

Don't forget that Google Earth Blog is the best place to learn about the amazing things you can do with Google Earth. Save Google Earth Blog in your bookmarks, or better yet, use the RSS feed.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 8:27 AM | Comments (0)

December 9, 2008

Google Doubles US Coverage of Street View Imagery

New Street View Imagery in Google Earth

Today Google has doubled the amount of coverage for Street View imagery in the United Sates. Street View is now available in many new cities and states. New cities such as: Memphis, Birmingham, and Charleston, SC. And new states for the first time such as Maine, West Virginia, North Dakota and South Dakota. If you turn on the Street View layer in Google Earth, you can zoom around and get an idea of the scale of the amount of Street View coverage available now in Google Earth and Google Maps (you used to be able to get an overview in Google Maps of the Street View imagery, but I'm not sure how to do that with the newly designed maps interface). There is coverage in roads going between cities and in smaller towns now - not just the major cities. Both Google Maps and Google Earth share the same imagery database, so the availability of the imagery is the same in both platforms. Here is the Official Google Blog post with more details on the new imagery.

Here are some tips on viewing Street View imagery in Google Earth (which is different from the Google Maps experience). And here are a couple of examples from Google's post of some of the new Street View imagery:

Devil's Tower, Wyoming:

View Larger Map

Pyramid Arena, Memphis, Tennessee:

View Larger Map

Posted by FrankTaylor at 2:32 PM | Comments (9)

Making Better 3D Models for Google Earth

Google recently posted at the SketchUp blog about new features in SketchUp 7 that help improve buildings 3D models for Google Earth. The new features help improve the textures for 3D models allowing you to separate each side of a building in the textures so you can re-touch the photos removing obstructions (trees or cars) which block the sides of the building in the photos.

Here is the start of the process using the original photo:

Adding original texture to model

And here is the final result:

Adding original texture to model

SketchUp Training DVDGoogle has a number of useful video tutorials for making models for Google Earth with Sketchup. If you are looking for some real training for SketchUp, the best resource I know is the Google-authorized training company "school". They have some online training webcasts here, you can also purchase some training DVDs, or attend one of the live training classes in locations in the US.



Posted by FrankTaylor at 7:45 AM | Comments (0)

December 5, 2008

Google Earth Plugin Roundup

Now that the Google Earth plugin is available for the Mac as well as Windows I thought it would be time to make it easier to find plugin related stories at GEB. So, there is now a GE Plugin category for posts on that topic. To help highlight some of the best GE Plugin stories, here is a short roundup of some of the best (in chronological order):

  • Announcement of Google Earth Plugin - I attended the Google I/O conference last May and was there when Michael Jones announced the new plugin.

  • Monster Milk Truck - The first game made for Google Earth Plugin with a 3D truck you can drive around.

  • First wave of plugins - Here are some of the first plugins done by non-Google developers.

  • Bouncing Earth - James Stafford makes a controllable animation with the plugin.

  • Embedding GE Plugin - Several tools to allow you to embed the GE plugin in a web page without programming.

  • 3D Driving Directions - A cool way to show driving directions by driving there with the plugin.

  • Real-Time Satellites - See 13,000 satellites around the Earth tracked in real-time. Includes a link to a plugin version available here at GEB.

  • EarthAtlas - An application which provides access to a broad range of the features of the plugin - making it closer to the real GE application.

  • 3D Building Tour - A cool way of doing architecture walkthrough using the plugin.

  • Paragliding simulator - Just like you would expect. Someone created a simulator which uses the plugin to let you fly like you were in a paraglider.

  • Frank Gehry Tour - A cool 3D tour of 3D buildings by a famous architect at EarthSwoop which is a plugin-based site which lets you create and view tours for Google Earth viewing.

  • Famous Tourist Sites - Another cool tour available at EarthSwoop.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 9:00 AM | Comments (1)

Links: GE Plugin Update, KML Contest Update, Panoramio Contest, Teaching with GE, Santa Video

  • GE Plugin Update - As mentioned Tuesday night, the Google Earth plugin became available for Mac OS X. Google announced the update also included an update to the Windows version as well. The update includes startup time improvements on Windows, KML parsing and renderings speed improvements, and some bug fixes (see release notes). Not only that, but Google released a new game to be played inside the plugin called Puzzler. Check out the GE Plugin catagory here at GEB for lots of plugin examples.

  • KML Contest Update - The deadline for the KML in Research contest has been extended to February 1st. Scientists, researchers, and students can submit their research oriented KML and win a Garmin GPS, and Apple iPod Touch.

  • Panoramio Contest Winners - Winners of the October Panoramio monthly photo contest have been announced. Winners of the monthly contest get handy photo accessories from the sponsor ATP.

  • Teaching with Google Earth - This looks like an excellent resource for GeoScience teachers on using Google Earth to teach. This was forwarded to me by GEB reader Glenn Richard of Stony Brook University. It also has some excellent overviews and guides for teaching with Google Earth which might be useful for any teacher. Definitely worth checking out.

  • Santa video - On Sunday, GEB mentioned about how Google is working again with Norad to track Santa with Google Earth on Christmas Eve. And, Norad also has a countdown to Christmas with different games and stuff each day in December. As part of Google's announcement of this year's event, they showed a cool video of Santa's journey last year flying around the world (using Google Earth as a backdrop). This video was created by Transvideo Studios for Google:

  • Weather Tools For GE - Got an e-mail a while back from Bryan Guarente who has been working on compiling useful weather KML content into a massive KML network link bundle of weather data. Here is a list of what is in the bundle. Bryan is an instructional designer with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and so has some experience on where to find some good weather resources.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 7:33 AM | Comments (0)

December 3, 2008

Google Earth Plugin Available Now For Mac OS X

The long-anticipated release of the Google Earth Plugin for the Mac has finally arrived! Mickey at Digital Earth Blog was the first to blog about it - after finding a mention of the new arrival in a forum post.

The forum post noted that the plugin install requires a 47 MByte download. A very large download for a plugin - a Googler responded that the download is actually both the Intel and PowerPC version of the plugin. You can download by visiting any Google Earth Plugin app or visiting the Earth API web site. When I went to install the plugin on my Intel-based MacBookPro it said it would take 147 Mbytes during the install. I have no idea why it would require that much space for the plugin. But, after the install I restarted Firefox and immediately went to EarthSwoop to try some plugin action. The plugin on the Mac worked just as expected! I also tried out the Google Earth API gallery to try some other examples. All worked great.

Having the Google Earth API available for the Mac will most likely result in more widespread support of the plugin for some serious applications. Keep watching this blog for more news on plugin applications.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 8:45 PM | Comments (7)

Tomb Raider Challenge with Google Earth

Tomb Raider Underworld in Google EarthIn a promotion for the latest Lara Croft game "Tomb Raider Underworld", Atari is running a contest called the Tomb Raider Challenge (GE Plugin and Adobe plugins required) with the opportunity over the next few days for a lucky someone to win a Sony PS3. The fun part is that it uses the Google Earth Plugin to play the game. Basically, you visit the site and are presented each day with a clue. You then have to hunt on the Earth to find the location provided by the clue. If you guess right, after you zoom in close enough, you will see an orange Tomb Raider icon. When you see that, you've found the answer! Click on it and you will be congratulated on deciphering the clue, and can submit your name and E-mail to see if you were first. There is also a bigger "Major Challenge" where you can win a trip around the world, a big screen TV, and a lot of other goodies.

NOTE: At least on my computer it takes quite a while for this web site to load up (over a minute). Once it does load, you have to close the video of "Lara Croft" ("X" button in the lower right) to see the underlying Google Earth plugin and today's challenge.

There's an extensive forum thread all about this challenge at the Tomb Raider Forums. Some people are posting hints on each day's clues. There was also discussion in the thread that apparently the contest is only for folks in New Zealand or Australia. But, I haven't verified that yet.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 8:32 AM | Comments (4)

December 2, 2008

Vendee Globe in Google Earth

Vendee Globe Race in Google EarthIt 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.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 9:14 AM | Comments (1)

December 1, 2008

Street View for New Zealand Released

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:


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Queenstown, New Zealand:


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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.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 2:32 PM | Comments (5)

Tilt Shift Photography Using Google Earth

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

Posted by FrankTaylor at 8:05 AM | Comments (1)

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