GE Plugin Archives

November 11, 2009

Links: Full list of StreetView updates, TeachMideast.org, CyberCity 3D partners with HomeGain

Full list of StreetView updates We told you a few days ago about some large amounts of new data for StreetView. As time passed, Google slowly revealed more and more coverage. Along with the already covered Mexico, Netherlands and Hawaii, Google has released details about the new imagery in Spain, and it's been confirmed that new imagery has been added to various locations in the United States and has finally come to the Canary Islands.

Google Maps Mania showcases some of the best views in each area: Spain | Hawaii | Netherlands | Mexico

TeachMideast.org Launches Teach Mideast has just launched, and it provides a ton of free K-12 resources that cover the Middle East, Islam and Muslim societies. It uses an embedded map on the site to showcase their data, and gives a quick "View in Google Earth" link to allow you to go deeper. For teachers that cover that part of the world (history, geography, etc), this could be an excellent resource.

TeachMideast.org

CyberCity 3D parters with HomeGain While I still think that ultimately we'll all be able to easily model our own homes using something like Building Maker, it'll be quite a while before that's available in a wide enough area. Until then, it's neat to see the growing competition between various "home modeling" companies as they fight for real estate business. The big winner in all of this is us, in the form of a more informative (and fun!) house-hunting search.

CC3D launched their "Virtual Viewing" product a few months ago, and now they've teamed up with HomeGain.com to showcase some of those renderings on their site. I'm disappointed it's not an embedded model, but it's still nice to see at least some level of integration. Here's a sample page where you can click on some of the "View in 3D" buttons.

Concept3D does some similar work (as we discussed last month), but they don't have any direct ties to real estate companies that we're aware of.

Here's a screenshot of how the CyberCity3D/HomeGain integration works.

CyberCity3D with HomeGain

Posted by mickmel at 9:02 AM | Comments (6)

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November 4, 2009

The best finds in the new imagery

As part of Google's imagery release yesterday, they encouraged users to Tweet about neat locations that they found in the new imagery by using the #GEarthIMG hash tag. Here are some of the best that we've seen come through so far:

Historic planes in Sacramento (from Spathiinc)

sac-planes.jpg

Sunken ship and pier (from @Mpegg)

Sunken ship and pier

Turkmenistan's "Door to Hell" (more info | from @gsightseeing)

Door to Hell

A person feeding Sea Lions in Santa Cruz (from Spathiinc)

Sea Lions being fed

If you find any other cool stuff in the new imagery, Tweet it out using the #GEarthIMG hash tag or simply leave a comment below and tell us about it.

Posted by mickmel at 8:48 AM | Comments (1)

October 28, 2009

A closer look at Africa

Yesterday we told you about a variety of organizations that Google is showcasing, both through their Google Earth Outreach and their Heroes Project. One of the organizations, MAPA (Mapping Africa's Protected Areas) was featured more in-depth on Google's blog today.

MAPA's March Turnbull has provided a deeper look at what MAPA is all about. Their goal is to make sure no one can say "We never knew!" when it comes to keeping African parks and wildlife in the public eye. Through their comprehensive KML file , you can view the major parks, reserves and protected areas in Southern and Eastern Africa. They plan on adding thousands more parks and other data in the future, and continue to build this already valuable resource.

MAPA

A semi-related item comes from Google Maps Mania, where they showcase a photo safari tour that Soren Johannessen created of J. Michael Fay's African imagery. Fay spent more than a year flying 70,000 miles in a small plane at low altitude over Africa, taking photos every twenty seconds, as part of his MegaFlyover project. Many of those extraordinary images can be found in Google Earth, and the tour that Soren created is a neat way to highlight those. You can view the tour here using the Google Earth Plug-in. It takes a while to load, so it's recommended that you have a fast connection. Alternatively, you can download the KMZ file to view it directly in Google Earth.

Posted by mickmel at 9:29 AM | Comments (0)

October 9, 2009

Links: Load KMZ files on handheld Garmin devices, video of NASA rocket crashing into the moon

KMZ in a Garmin deviceGarmin has quietly released a pretty cool beta update for some of their devices; the Colorado, Oregon and Dakota, specifically. This update allows users to create image overlays in Google Earth, then load the resulting KMZ file on their device. Once loaded, the overlay will simply appear as part of the map when they view that area.

The instructions are pretty straightforward for anyone that has built an image overlay before. Simply build the overlay, save it your PC, and upload it to your device. It looks quite slick. Hopefully more devices and services will start supporting the KML/KMZ format, making the datasets in Google Earth even more useful.

Rich and Scott have both posted blog entries with tips on doing this with your Garmin. Rich covers some best practices for creating these maps to keep redraws to a minimum, while Scott gives a step-by-step walkthrough, along with a resolution chart to keep things looking sharp on your device. (via SlashGeo)

Also today, as you may have heard, NASA intentionally crashed a segment of a rocket into the moon to study the impact. Keir has built a simple page that lets you browse the moon, the Cabeus Crater where the impact occured, and view a video of the impact as an overlay on top of the moon.

You can read more about the mission on the NASA website, or view the video below for a raw look at the impact:

Posted by mickmel at 3:45 PM | Comments (1)

October 8, 2009

Links: Improve Map Data, Urban Planning Webinars, Students building 3D models

Improving Map Data: Google has just released some tools for Google Maps to make it easier to report map errors (misspelled street names, for example) in the United States. By right-clicking on the map, you can choose to "Report a problem". Google hopes to have issues corrected within a month of being reported.

The new mapping data does not yet appear to be in Google Earthis now in Google Earth, but I'd expect that it (and any error correction updates) will find it's way over to Earth before too long.

[Update, 10-Oct: The data now seems to be live in Google Earth]

Here's a short video showing the new process:

Urban Planning Webinars: Planetizen will be hosting a few webinars in the next month on how to use Google SketchUp, Maps and Earth in the context of Urban Planning. They are:

  • October 21: Using Google Maps and Mashups for Planning

  • October 28: Google Earth for Planners -- An Introduction

  • November 4: The Virtual Staff Report -- Using the Free Version of Google Earth

  • November 11: The Virtual Staff Report -- Advanced Google Earth for Planners

More information about all of their courses is available here.

Italian students building 3D models: An Italian math teacher has been using Google SketchUp with his 13-year-old students for the last few years as they work on solids. In that time, they've submitted 622 models to the 3D Warehouse! In addition, they've done some work using the Google Earth plug-in, such as head-to-head modified Monster Milk Truck. Here is a video showing models of the cars the students made this year:

For more information, you can read their Italian language blog, or read a short paper about why he chooses to use SketchUp with his math students.

Posted by mickmel at 10:19 AM | Comments (0)

More entries for this category:

  1. Use the Google Earth Plug-in with Google Wave - October 1, 2009
  2. Loop Links, Biodiversity and the Law of the Sea - September 30, 2009
  3. Links: Building Design Competition, Google Wave - September 29, 2009
  4. Update for Google Earth 5.1 released - September 23, 2009
  5. Climate change tools for Google Earth - September 22, 2009
  6. New World's Largest Optical Telescope - August 26, 2009
  7. Afghanistan News Overview in Google Earth - August 21, 2009
  8. Google Earth Lesson Presentation - August 12, 2009
  9. Links/Tweets: Google Mistake, Shadow Animation, Locating Missile Strike, - August 10, 2009
  10. Kaisei Project - Researching the Plastic Vortex - August 5, 2009
  11. Links: Timelapse 3D, Star Tweeting, New Imagery, GeoWeb Glimpse - August 4, 2009
  12. New 3D Perspective in Maps API for Flash - July 31, 2009
  13. GE Tweets: 3D Cities, 53 Stations, New Earth API Docs - July 29, 2009
  14. Amazing Lunar Lander Game Using Google Earth - July 27, 2009
  15. Links: Multiple Searches, More Moon Stuff, New Sightseer, 3D Cities - July 23, 2009
  16. Best Google Earth Tour To Date: Apollo 11 - July 22, 2009
  17. Favorite Places of Famous People in Google Earth - July 18, 2009
  18. View Details on July 22 Total Solar Eclipse in Google Earth - July 13, 2009
  19. Beastie Boys Create Google Earth Driving Game - July 9, 2009
  20. Snoovel - Google Earth Tour Creation and Hosting Site - July 7, 2009
  21. EarthURL Released - July 6, 2009
  22. New Places Site - Record Movie Postcards in Google Earth - June 22, 2009
  23. Gimme Shelter Campaign via Google Earth - June 18, 2009
  24. Using Google Earth to Review Urban Development Project - June 15, 2009
  25. Making 3D for Google Earth, Google Seeking Help, KML Regions, OpenStreetMap in Google Earth - June 4, 2009
  26. Links: New 3D Tours Gallery, Earth API Update - May 29, 2009
  27. Where 2.0 - Day 1 - Workshops and Ignite - May 20, 2009
  28. Fantastic Free Google Earth Game: Ships - May 18, 2009
  29. Earthtwit - Combining Twitter with Google Earth Plugin - May 13, 2009
  30. KMLFactBook - A Data Visualization Tool with Google Earth - May 6, 2009
  31. Henry Hudson 400th Anniversary in Google Earth/Maps - May 4, 2009
  32. Swiss Fighter Video Synched - GE 5 Style - April 26, 2009
  33. Links: Ocean Now, Michigan Earth Day, Goldman Prize, Convention Center, Queen Mary - April 21, 2009
  34. 3D Tour of Tahina Expedition Catamaran - April 20, 2009
  35. USS New Jersey Battleship in 3D - April 16, 2009
  36. Synchronized YouTube with Google Earth Plugin - April 15, 2009
  37. Submarine Sim for Google Ocean - April 14, 2009
  38. Visualizing GPS Tracks for Trips with GE Plugin - April 13, 2009
  39. Simple Embedding of a Google Earth 5 Tour - April 10, 2009
  40. Why Google Earth 5 Tours in a Plugin Rock - April 9, 2009
  41. Introduction to Mars Tour with GE Plugin - April 7, 2009
  42. Touring with Google Earth Plugin - April 6, 2009
  43. New Google Earth 5 Plugin Released - April 1, 2009
  44. Home Made Street View for Google Earth - March 25, 2009
  45. Stereo 3D Views for Google Earth - March 23, 2009
  46. US Solar Jobs Map - March 11, 2009
  47. Links: Missing Atlantis, In the Navy, Predators Not Censored, Utrecht Building Plans, English Lake District - February 24, 2009
  48. CO2 Emissions Data Visualization in Google Earth - February 23, 2009
  49. Links: New Geo Developer Stuff, Embeddable GE Plugin Gadget, Google Earth Cache Basics, Mac Stuff - January 15, 2009
  50. Google Earth Surfing with Wii - January 9, 2009
  51. Happy Holidays from Google Earth Blog - December 23, 2008
  52. Google Earth Plugin Roundup - December 5, 2008
  53. Google Earth Plugin Available Now For Mac OS X - December 3, 2008
  54. Famous Tourist Sites in 3D - November 14, 2008
  55. Links: Location OS, GeoEye, Super Tour Mashup - November 10, 2008
  56. Google 3D Warehouse Adds Google Earth Plugin - November 7, 2008
  57. Frank Gehry Buildings in Google Earth - November 3, 2008
  58. WikiSailing - Flying/Sailing Sightseeing Tours in Google Earth - October 29, 2008
  59. Paragliding Simulator with Google Earth Plugin - October 23, 2008
  60. Terrain of Google Earth - Awesome Tour - October 22, 2008
  61. Enhancing Presentations with Google Earth - October 20, 2008
  62. Interior 3D Building Tour With Google Earth Plugin - October 13, 2008
  63. Budapest 3D Tour in Google Earth - October 11, 2008
  64. Worldwide Marine Protected Areas in Google Earth - October 7, 2008
  65. Earth Atlas - Google Earth Plugin Application - October 6, 2008
  66. Singapore Grand Prix Track in 3D - September 25, 2008
  67. Top 10 Games With Google Earth - September 24, 2008
  68. Real-time Satellites in Google Earth - September 8, 2008
  69. EarthGamz Using Google Earth Plugin - August 19, 2008
  70. 3D Driving Directions and Driving Simulator - August 12, 2008
  71. Google Earth Plugin Now Runs in Firefox 3 - June 22, 2008
  72. Easy Embedding of the Google Earth Plugin - June 20, 2008
  73. Roundup: Firefox 3 and Earth plugin, Google I/O, Spam Alert, Google Analytics - June 18, 2008
  74. Thematic Mapping Engine, Plugin - June 6, 2008
  75. Sweet! Bouncing Google Earth Plugin Animation with Controls - June 2, 2008
  76. Plugin Links: Singapore Tour, Tagzania, PhotoFlyr, EveryTrail, - June 1, 2008
  77. Google Earth Plugin Adopted Quickly - May 29, 2008
  78. Monster Milk Truck Game for Google Earth Plugin - May 28, 2008
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