GE Plugin Archives

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)

Sunken ship and pier (from @Mpegg)

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

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

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)

Sponsored Ads:

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.

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

Garmin 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)

October 1, 2009

Use the Google Earth Plug-in with Google Wave

A few days ago, we showed you a quick glimpse of how Google Maps could be used inside of a Google Wave. Today, less than 24 hours after the semi-public release of Google Wave, Roman Nurik has already released a slick little gadget to embed the Google Earth plug-in in a wave.

To add it to a wave, simply click the green "Add Gadget by URL" icon and use the following URL: http://www.nurik.net/gadgets/earthwavegadget.xml

This gadget will fire up the plug-in, and plot the locations of all of the users in the wave. There aren't any other options than that, but it's more of a proof-of-concept than anything. The idea of combining the Google Earth Plug-in with Google Wave's real-time collaboration has some awesome potential.

If you have access to Wave, check it out and let us know what you think. If you find any other great geo-related Wave gadgets, please feel free to let me know at mickey@gearthblog.com. Below you'll find a short video I created that shows exactly how to use this gadget:

Posted by mickmel at 12:59 PM | Comments (2)

---

More entries for this category:

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

Google Earth Blog Copyright © 2005-2009 Frank Taylor. All Rights Reserved.

All image screenshots from Google Earth are Copyright Google