Network Links Archives
November 9, 2009
Track Hurricane Ida in Google Earth
Hurricane Ida is on a path for the central Gulf Coast, expected to make landfall tonight somewhere between New Orleans and Pensacola. While the storm is expected to weaken before it hits land, it will still arrive as a strong tropical storm and could cause quite a lot of damage.

As you know, Google Earth has some excellent tools for tracking storms like this. You can overlay weather satellite photos, radar, storm tracks, real-time lightning strikes, pressure maps, wind maps, sea surface temperatures, and more. We've written about many of the tools available in the past. Here is a set of weather tools in a single network link
that lets you get access to great weather data in one convenient package. Check out the many datasets starting with two different storm tracking tools. You can also read more details about the collection.
To help you understand what's possible with these weather tools, here is a video demonstration that Frank created a few years ago:
There's also an excellent new tool available for Google Earth which lets you follow the hurricane hunters as they fly into the storms and collect data. Check out the story about live hurricane hunter mission data.
Posted by mickmel at 9:55 AM | Comments (0)
November 3, 2009
Links: Seero for sale, i-gotU GPS logger review, Best of Building Maker expands
Seero For Sale: We've talked about Seero a few times in the past. They offer live video with GPS and did some cool stuff with Where 2.0 2008. Recently, the Seero team decided to sell the site (eBay auction) and all assets so they can focus on other projects. The site would be a serious investment, with a starting bid close to $50K. A good example of Seero's capability can be seen in this Steve McQueen video.
i-gotU GPS: The folks at @trip have a nifty new GPS device to help you put your activity into Google Earth. I've been playing with it for a few days and I tend to agree with them -- it's a great little device. It's tiny, waterproof and can be used for 80 hours non-stop; quite impressive!
The only big problem I had with it is that it's not very compatible with Windows 7. My primary desktop and my primary laptop are Windows 7, and my netbook doesn't have a CD drive. That meant I had to dig out my old XP laptop and fire it up. To their credit, it worked reasonably well on there. However, they need to solve the insane Windows 7 directions as quickly as possible. As neat as the device is, having to boot Windows in a special manner each time just to use the device is a bit too much. Also, there is no Mac version of the software available; they simply recommend Windows 2000, XP or Vista.
If you have a computer that can handle it, the cost isn't too bad (under $100 for both models) and would probably be excellent if you do a lot of travel and/or hiking. I'll keep an eye on it and let you know when they finally release decent software for Windows 7 and/or Mac. In the meantime, I'd hold off on this purchase unless you have an older Windows machine with no intention of upgrading to Win 7. Here's a short sample video from their site to show what a track looks like:
Best of Building Maker: We've mentioned this collection before, but felt it was worth showing off again. With all of the Building Maker models that are arriving in Google Earth, the Best of Building Maker collection is a great way to see some of the best. None of my models have made it in there -- have yours?

Posted by mickmel at 9:16 AM | Comments (6)
September 22, 2009
Fresh Update to the Ocean Expeditions layer
Google has just updated the Ocean Expeditions layer in Google Earth, and they've added some great content about expeditions around the world. To access this layer, simply check the Ocean Expeditions icon inside of the Ocean folder or you can open this kml file
.

Once opened, a variety of ship icons will appear in the ocean. Ships with a yellow shaded background represent live or recent expeditions (such as the National Geographic expedition to Cocos Island), while ships with a blue shaded background represent expeditions older than six months (such as various expeditions by the Cousteau Society). As you zoom in, more details will appear. Also, if you select a placemark for a particular expedition, it will load tracks and other placemarks for more details on that expedition.
Hopefully you'll find the Tahina Expedition in this layer in the not too distant future. :-)
Posted by FrankTaylor at 2:11 PM | Comments (1)
August 7, 2009
Cat 4 Storm Felicia Headed for Hawaii - See in Google Earth
Google Earth is a great tool for checking on weather - tropical storms in particular. Right now a category 4 storm is in the Pacific Ocean making a bee-line for Hawaii. The good news is that current forecasts have it losing strength before it reaches the islands. But, you can view the storm's track, forecasted path, satellite photos, and much more using the Storm Tracking Tools for Google Earth collected by Google Earth Blog. These tools are collection of great weather resources from a variety of organizations and individuals using data from NOAA, the US Navy, and many other weather providers.
In the screenshot below, you're seeing storm forecast and tracking data from iMapWeather.com and NOAA satellite imagery from just a few minutes ago showing category 4 storm Felicia:

Read the GEB storm tracking post for more details on how to use Google Earth to perform storm tracking.
Posted by FrankTaylor at 10:36 AM | Comments (0)
July 25, 2009
Google Marries Panoramio Lookaround to Street View
Google has announced an update to Street View that further marries Panoramio features into the Street View experience. In June of last year, Google added a feature in Panoramio called "Look Around" - it includes an interface that lets you see outlines, in perspective of the angle they were taken, of other photos available of the same scene. In March of this year, Google added Panoramio user photos into the Street View interface. Now the look around feature has also been married into Street View. Here's a video showing what it looks like:
Here is a link to view Street View with the new interface for Big Ben - which Google refers to as "Photo Zoom". Note: if you click on the link of the title of each photo (in the upper left of Street View's interface), you can fly to that photo in Panoramio. Find the link to "Look Around" below the photo and you can use the Panoramio interface (which may make it easier to find even more photos).
Earlier this year, I discovered you can include the Panoramio Look Around interface into a Google Earth placemark. It works pretty well. But, the interface needs some tweaking to work properly within a placemark. (I suggested that to Panoramio, but it hasn't been changed yet.) It should be possible to make a network link to view Look Arounds for any popular location inside Google Earth. Unfortunately, you can't embed the Street View "photo zoom" interface at all apparently. Otherwise I would try putting that in a placemark.
Posted by FrankTaylor at 7:57 AM | Comments (4)
More entries for this category:
- Links: Google Moon Monday, Tax Evasion, Panoramio Winners, Canada Wins - July 17, 2009
- View Details on July 22 Total Solar Eclipse in Google Earth - July 13, 2009
- NASA Doing Robotic Recon with Google Earth - June 30, 2009
- Tour de France 2009 in Google Earth - June 29, 2009
- Huge Waste of Energy Visible in Google Earth - June 2, 2009
- Links: North Korea, Network Links, National Geographic - June 1, 2009
- 3D Flight Tracking in Netherlands with Google Earth - May 28, 2009
- Astronomers Use Google Sky to Raise Research Funds - January 12, 2009
- Links: Santa Tracker Popular, Volvo Ocean Race, Lost World Discovered, Cold War KML - December 26, 2008
- Upgrade to EveryTrail GPS Trails Layer in Google Earth - December 17, 2008
- Top 10 Games With Google Earth - September 24, 2008
- Update on Using GPS for Tracking in Google Earth - September 19, 2008
- Google News Layer for Google Earth Next Week - May 15, 2008
- Where 2.0 - Day 1 - May 13, 2008
- NASA Time Animation of Ionosphere For Google Earth - May 5, 2008
- Space Debris Viewed in Google Earth - April 23, 2008
- Links: GE Lesson, GETools, Microsoft KML, 3D Bridges, Royal Australian 3D, EPA Award - April 18, 2008
- Links: SR22 Cockpit, Jane Austen, Magnetic Pole, Taiwan GE Bonanza, Tutorial, VE3D on Mac - March 17, 2008
- Iditarod 2008 Dog Sled Race Live in Google Earth - March 10, 2008
- Super UK Photo Project geograph Turns Three - March 6, 2008
- Live Orbit Tracker in Google Earth - March 3, 2008
- UK Earthquake - View Data in Google Earth - February 27, 2008
- Links: Star Viewer, Green Screen, World Hockey, European Pollution, Golden Shadow - January 29, 2008
- New Layer Goodness for Google Earth - January 2008 - January 25, 2008
- Links: KML Wrap-up, New Orrery, Zip Scribble, South China Sea - January 23, 2008
- Top 10 New Google Earth Features 2007 - December 31, 2007
- Top 25 Stories of Google Earth 2007 - December 27, 2007
- Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2007 - December 26, 2007
- Links: Daily Earth Imagery, Antarctica Photos, Panoramio Searchable, Santa Sleigh - December 18, 2007
- AGU Fall Meeting - Day 1 Highlights - December 13, 2007
- Earthquake Activity Time Animation - December 12, 2007
- Links: Maps Terrain in GE, GPS Trip Planning, Geo Lessons, and more - December 11, 2007
- Tropical Cyclone Sidr in Google Earth - November 16, 2007
- San Francisco Oil Spill in Google Earth - November 12, 2007
- Big Layer Update - Weather Layers in Google Earth - November 8, 2007
- Caribbean 1500 Sailing Cup in Google Earth - November 5, 2007
- X PRIZE Cup Photos Mapped - November 1, 2007
- Trip Status, Links: PhotoOverlay tool, CIA World Factbook, Another BMNG - October 29, 2007
- Links: Chinese Cop Catches Crook, Malibu Fire, EveryTrail Update, CIA WorldFactbook, Hungary Weather - October 22, 2007
- Improved KML Support for Google Maps - October 17, 2007
- 2007 Wirefly X PRIZE Cup - October 8, 2007
- Links: Ohio Class Sub, Galactic Delight, Constellation Drawings - October 5, 2007
- News Roundup: Poles Overlays, Rocket Garden, Army Topos, Astronomy, Roads - September 20, 2007
- Sky News Roundup: New Horizon, SpaceNavigator, Google plans for Sky - September 12, 2007
- FlashEarth Mashup with Google Earth 4.2 - August 28, 2007
- News Roundup: Peru Earthquake, Virtual Earth Update, Stefan's Alps Hike - August 16, 2007
- Best Storm Tracking and Weather Tools for Google Earth - August 15, 2007
- Scientific Ocean Drilling Database in Google Earth - August 14, 2007
- R/C Planes and Camera Fun with Google Earth - August 12, 2007
- Improved International Polar Year Content for Google Earth - July 30, 2007
- Population Data for Mexico - July 27, 2007
- Energy Production Information for Western US - July 17, 2007
- Google Finds Matt in Google Earth - July 11, 2007
- 3D Dresden in Google Earth - July 9, 2007
- Quasi-global Near real-time Rainfall in Google Earth - July 3, 2007
- News RoundUp: Football Game, VesselTracker, Antarctic Bases, Egyptian Digs, 3D Cities Help, Chimps, Gallery - June 12, 2007
- ISDE Day 3 Summary - June 8, 2007
- News Roundup - France Censors, Flickr, Seabeds, Live tracking - June 4, 2007
- Weather and Storm Tracking Tools for Google Earth - June 2, 2007
- PhotoFlyr - A Google Earth 3D Flying Photo Viewer - May 23, 2007
- Watch Weekend Boating Live in Google Earth - May 18, 2007
- FlickrVision - And Now for Google Earth - May 15, 2007
- 3D Warehouse Map Mashup for Collections - May 4, 2007
- Yahoo! Pipes Supports KML - May 3, 2007
- Globe Glider Video Demonstration - May 2, 2007
- Super Mapping Mashup -> Globe Glider Next Generation - May 1, 2007
- Dynamic Map Showing AIM Chatters in Google Earth - April 30, 2007
- News Roundup: Tour de France, Tasmania Logging, Somalia, GE-Sharing, More Biking - April 23, 2007
- The Google Earth Network Link - April 19, 2007
- Continuous Flow of New 3D Buildings - April 17, 2007
- Google Earth Classified Ads by Safarri - March 26, 2007
- News Roundup - Fixes for Windows Vista, Airshows, FBOWeb update, Photos with Search - March 19, 2007
- Dig a Hole Through Google Earth - March 16, 2007
- gCensus - US Census Data for Google Earth - March 14, 2007
- Skype + Unype = Multi-User Google Earth - March 10, 2007
- Topographical Maps and Other Goodies for Google Earth - March 6, 2007
- News Roundup: KML Standardization, Cruise ship tracker, IGiGLE, 3D Printing - March 3, 2007
- New Real-time Traffic in Google Maps for USA - February 28, 2007
- Planes in Flight Hobby - February 13, 2007
- Using Satellite Photos to Document Human Rights Violations - February 7, 2007
- Google Street Maps Overlay for Google Earth - February 2, 2007
- High Res Photos from an Aerial Drone in Google Earth - January 26, 2007
- Track Cruise Ships in 3D in Google Earth - January 22, 2007
- Daily NASA MODIS Satellite Imagery for Google Earth - January 20, 2007
- NOAA Voluntary Observing Ship (VOS) Weather Feed for Google Earth - January 13, 2007
- Shaded Relief Map of US Terrain in Google Earth - January 12, 2007
- Upper Green Valley Environmental Issues Illustrated with Google Earth - January 10, 2007
- New Layers - Yelp Reviews, Textured 3D Buildings, Brazilian Roads, and more - January 7, 2007
- Watch Remote Control Plane with Camera Capturing Real-time Images for Google Earth - January 5, 2007
- Using GPS in Real-time with Google Earth - January 2, 2007
- Play "Mars Sucks" Game in Google Earth - December 29, 2006
- Multilingual Wikipedia Project Linking to Google Earth - December 28, 2006
- Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race in Google Earth - December 27, 2006
- Amazing Implementation of Marine Charts for Google Earth - December 21, 2006
- Avian Flu Tracker Updated - December 12, 2006
- NOAA's Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab Publishes Google Earth Content - December 8, 2006
- Plazes.com Does Google Earth - Social Network - December 6, 2006
- Beautiful Blue Marble and Clouds Add-on for Google Earth - November 16, 2006
- CBS News Does Google Earth - November 9, 2006
- Earth on Fire - November 4, 2006
- Route du Rhum - Live Sailing Race in Google Earth - November 1, 2006
- News Roundup - Animated 3D, EmerGeo, Altered Oceans, Virtual Airlines - October 29, 2006
- National Weather Service Releases Radar Loops for Google Earth - October 26, 2006
- Global Paleogeographic Time Animation - October 16, 2006
- Watch UK Autumn Leaves Changing Colour - October 13, 2006
- Space Atlas for Google Earth - October 10, 2006
- More Space Content for Google Earth from Wirefly X PRIZE Cup - October 8, 2006
- RoboGEO 5 Released - Geotag Photos with Google Earth - September 27, 2006
- Google Earth Las Vegas - September 22, 2006
- Roundup - Pillows, redtrails, earthpoint, Robogeo 5, libferris, virtual land rush - September 20, 2006
- Anousheh Ansari Blasts off to Space - September 18, 2006
- Track Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Lane in Google Earth - September 16, 2006
- New Storms - Track Hurricane Gordon, Typhoon Shanshan - September 13, 2006
- CBS News Does Google Earth - Missing Last Step - September 8, 2006
- Track Tropical Storm Florence in Google Earth - September 6, 2006
- News Roundup - RoboGeo, PhotoModeler, Trippermap, EditGrid - September 5, 2006
- Global Clouds with Altitude for GE 4 - September 3, 2006
- British Airways Uses Google Earth to Improve Online Sales - September 1, 2006
- Track Hurricane Ernesto in Google Earth - August 27, 2006
- World's Largest Cosmic Ray Detector Shown in Google Earth - August 16, 2006
- Homemade Network of Real-time Lightning Data - See it in Google Earth - August 9, 2006
- Three Flickr Photo Browsing Tools for Google Earth - August 3, 2006
- Tropical Storm Chris - August 1, 2006
- New Tsunami Hits Southern Java Indonesia - July 17 - July 17, 2006
- News Roundup - July 15, 2006
- Bus Live Tracking at USC - Research Project - July 14, 2006
- Tour de France Live Tracking Enhancements - July 12, 2006
- Traffic Cameras for Quebec/Montreal, Canada in Google Earth - July 10, 2006
- FSEarth 3.0 - MS Flight Simulator and Google Earth - July 8, 2006
- Magnalox Provides Live Tracking Interface for Google Earth - July 7, 2006
- Tour de France by Google - July 6, 2006
- Weather and Storm Tracking Tools for Google Earth - July 3, 2006
- Live Tracking of Tour de France in Google Earth - July 2, 2006
- Tour de France 2006 Starts Tomorrow - June 30, 2006
- Aeronautical Information System - June 26, 2006
- Project Thin Ice - Expedition to North Pole in Google Earth - June 7, 2006
- FIFA World Cup Football Stadiums in 3D - June 3, 2006
- Avian Flu Outbreak Map Update - Human Cases in Indonesia - June 1, 2006
- Near Real-time Severe Weather Data for the US from NOAA - May 31, 2006
- Unicycling for College Money - Track Max in Google Earth - May 28, 2006
- Tour de France 2006 in Google Earth - May 25, 2006
- Integrating Calendar Events to Location in Google Earth - May 23, 2006
- See More Recent Aerial Photos in Google Earth - May 22, 2006
- Decrease in Avian Flu Spread During Last Month - May 19, 2006
- Volvo Ocean Race Leg 7 in Google Earth - May 18, 2006
- Mount Merapi Volcano in Google Earth - May 15, 2006
- Real-time Stream Flow Sensor Net in Google Earth - May 14, 2006
- Win a Mazda CX-7 in a Sweepstakes Contest in Google Earth - May 1, 2006
- Near Real-time Ocean/Weather Data - April 28, 2006
- Seattle 911 Live in Google Earth - April 18, 2006
- NOAA's Coral Reef Watch Adds Google Earth Data - April 13, 2006
- Wikipedia for Google Earth and WikiSearch Tool - April 11, 2006
- Follow Volvo Ocean Race Leg 5 - April 3, 2006
- Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race in Google Earth - March 29, 2006
- Enhanced Avian Flu Outbreak Tracker - March 27, 2006
- Real-Time Sensor Net in Google Earth - March 23, 2006
- GlobalFlyer Attempting Third World Record - March 15, 2006
- Bed and Breakfast Locations in Google Earth - March 6, 2006
- GolfNation.org - Courses in Google Earth - March 3, 2006
- Emotion Map in Google Earth - February 21, 2006
- Follow Steve Fossett/Global Flyer in Google Earth - February 9, 2006
- Pilot World-wide Weather in Google Earth - February 8, 2006
- Earthquake Monitoring - February 7, 2006
- Real-time Shuttle Bus Tracking in Google Earth - February 1, 2006
- Arctic and Antarctic Ice Floes in Google Earth - January 25, 2006
- Real Estate for Google Earth by Re/Max - Again! - January 14, 2006
- Aurora Viewing Map in Google Earth - January 5, 2006
- Globe Glider - Integrated Maps within Google Earth - January 3, 2006
- Locations for Amusement Parks/Roller Coasters in Google Earth - December 9, 2005
- Near Real-time Flight Tracking in Google Earth - December 2, 2005
- EarthBooker - 80,000 Hotels in Google Earth - November 7, 2005
- Geocaching.com Uses Random Approximate Coordinates in Google Earth - November 1, 2005
- Meteor Craters on Earth - October 18, 2005
- The Ants Go Marching One by One - October 1, 2005
- UK Autumn Leaves Changing Colour - September 30, 2005
- Owners of Geocaching.com Stifle Innovation - September 24, 2005
- Placeopedia Links Google Earth to WikiPedia - September 21, 2005
- Storm Tracking Tools - Hurricanes Rita/Phillipe - September 20, 2005
- Dynamic Clock - Big Ben - September 16, 2005
- Much Improved Method for Viewing Katrina Damage Imagery - September 8, 2005
- Up To Date Katrina Damage Imagery - September 5, 2005
- City of Portland GIS Adds 3D Buildings - September 3, 2005
- Real Estate Done Google Earth Style - August 29, 2005
- Hurricanes/Tropical Data - August 26, 2005
- City of Portland GIS - August 25, 2005
- Geosnapper.com Photos - August 19, 2005
- Geotagged Flickr photos on the fly... - August 3, 2005
