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January 13, 2010

Imagery Layer for Haiti Earthquake has been released

Google has been working with GeoEye over the last 24 hours to get fresh imagery from Haiti to help aid relief efforts. They've just released a KML file for it, which you're encouraged to download. The file is actually a network link, so Google can push additional imagery to you without having to release another KML.

The imagery is remarkably sharp, and shows some amazing scenes such a a soccer field turned into a make-shift camp (shown above), and smoke continuing to billow out of some buildings.

Google has done similar things in the past, with events such as the Myanmar Cyclone or Hurricane Katrina.

In addition to the KML file, Google has set up a crisis response page for the earthquake with lots of information. Specifically, those that are able are encouraged to give donations to help rebuild lives and communities.

Posted by mickmel at 11:06 PM | Comments (3)

January 13, 2010

Revisiting the SpaceNavigator

It's been more than three years since Frank introduced the SpaceNavigator to all of us, and I thought it was time to give it another look. I mentioned a few days ago (in the comments) that the iPhone version of Google Earth (with multi-touch control) was similar to using a SpaceNavigator when compared to the single-touch version on Google Android devices. After posting that, I thought I should explain what a SpaceNavigator actually is for those that don't yet know.

In a nutshell, the SpaceNavigator is a 3D mouse. Rather than having to pan, then zoom, then pan a little more, then tilt, etc, you can do it all in one motion. You can zoom in, while panning, while tilting a little more, to really feel like you're flying around the world. I've told many people that using the SpaceNavigator made Google Earth feel brand new again.

You can get a pretty good idea of what it can do by watching this video that Frank made a while ago that showed off some of the basic features of it:

You can also check out his review of Disney World 3D, which was done using the SpaceNavigator:

To be honest, I expected that we'd see some competition to the SpaceNavigator by now. A year after it came out, Sandio released their "3D O2 mouse", which was supposed to be even better -- you could use it as a mouse, but it also had various 3D control sticks on it. However, it was a piece of junk and the SpaceNavigator remained king.

Here we are three years later and I still use mine every day. It's a wonderful tool, and Google Earth simply wouldn't be the same without it. It works for Windows and Mac, and you can pick one up at the 3DConnexion online store, or at a handful of specialty retailers.

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

January 12, 2010

New Google Earth Imagery - January 12

It appears that the first imagery update of 2010 is upon us. As pointed out by sharp-eyed reader 'Kevin', parts of northern France have been updated.

I'm sure there are many other areas as well, but I've yet to track them out. As you discover updated regions, please leave us a comment and let us know.

This new imagery isn't in Google Maps yet, so remember that you can compare Earth vs. Maps to see what's new; the fresh imagery is already in Google Earth, but the old imagery is still in Google Maps. If you compare the two side-by-side and they're not identical, that means that you've found a freshly updated area in Google Earth!

[UPDATE -- 13-Jan, 5:09pm EST]
The KML file has been updated, so you can see the location of all of the fresh imagery.

• Albania: Tirana (thanks 'Edi')


• France: Various areas


• Germany: City of Chermnitz (thanks 'Kevin')


• Macedonia: Skopje (thanks 'Edi')


• Poland: Pila (thanks 'PaSKud')


• Romania: Botosani (thanks 'twist3r')


• Russia: Novorossiysk and Krymsk (thanks 'Mithgol')


• Saudi Arabia: Madinah (thanks 'Alsay')


• Sweden: Southern parts


• United States: Fresno, California (thanks 'David'), Austin, Texas (thanks 'Spencer')

Posted by mickmel at 7:55 AM | Comments (39)

January 11, 2010

Where the streets have your name

Steve Von Worley writes a neat blog called Weather Sealed, where he covers a variety of art, science and other topics. Last week he posted a collection of more than 2000 KML files that show the streets in the continental United States for a variety of common names.

As he says, it's a pretty fun collection if you're "a first grader...or the parent thereof". That fits me, and he's exactly right! My first grader had a fun time looking at all of the streets in the country with her name.

Personally, I had no idea that there were 80 "Mickey" streets (KML) out there.

I'm always looking for ways to get my children interested in Google Earth. Disney World and the Santa Tracker are two great ones to use, but this new tool is another neat one to add to the bag. Sit down with your kids and see how many streets have their name.

Posted by mickmel at 9:26 AM | Comments (1)

January 8, 2010

More 3D models added, with many more on the way

As they often do late in the week, Google has added a bunch more 3D models to Google Earth. There are no new 3D cities this time, but they've added a lot more user-generated models, presumably many of them from users creating them with the Building Maker tool. The official Building Maker Twitter account (@BuildingMaker) even showcased a user ("egRender") that has modeled over 200 buildings!

Google has also announced some numbers from the popular "Model Your Town" competition. As of now, more than 400 locations have taken the challenge to model their town.

As these towns begin producing their 3D content, we could see another nice stream of 3D buildings find their way into Google Earth. We already have three main channels: SketchUp submissions, Building Maker buildings and large cities that are auto-generated by Google. Having another way to get additional models show into Google Earth would be excellent.

Posted by mickmel at 8:35 AM | Comments (0)

January 7, 2010

Google Earth on the Nexus One

Earlier this week, Google unveiled the "Nexus One", an Android-powered cell phone manufactured by HTC with lots of input from Google.

During the keynote presentation when the phone was unveiled, they showed off a version of Google Earth on the phone, and the app will be available for Android devices soon. While the app looks very similar to the iPhone version, there are some key differences.

The advantages of each:

Nexus One

• Voice Commands: With Google Earth open, tell it where you want it to fly and it'll go there. The video below shows an example of this.
• High resolution: The Nexus One's screen is a touch bigger (3.7" vs. 3.5" on the iPhone), but has much higher resolution -- 800x480 vs. 480x320 on the iPhone, resulting in a much sharper view of the earth.
• Faster Processor: The processor in the Nexus One is quite a bit faster than the processor in the 3GS, which should make the application run more smoothly. However,due to the higher resolution, the application needs to deal with more than double the pixels. Until we can get them side-by-side, it's hard to say which one will run better.

iPhone

• Multi-touch: This is really the only advantage that the iPhone has, but it's a good one. Instead of having to pull various sliders around on the screen, you can just use two fingers to zoom, pan, tilt, etc. Holding the phone sideways and using your thumbs is a great way to do it.

Since the time that video was produced (with Google Earth version 1.0), Google has released version 2.0 of the app with some nice enhancements. Among them is synchronization with your "My Maps". No word on whether or not that feature is included in the Android version.

While it's fun to talk about the small differences in Google Earth on the two platforms, the two versions of Google Maps aren't even close. The Android version is simply amazing, and it's only getting better with the Nexus One. The main difference is that the Android version includes free turn-by-turn navigation. Just hold up the phone, tell it "navigate to xx" and it'll fire up Google Maps, locate your destination and start taking you there! It's very slick. In fact, when Google unveiled it, stock prices of the major GPS navigation companies (Garmin, TomTom, etc) dropped quite sharply.

For more information about Google Maps on Android, check out the latest entry on the Google Lat Long Blog.

Posted by mickmel at 8:37 AM | Comments (5)

January 6, 2010

Frank's Tahina Expedition is now in the Ocean Layer of Google Earth

Frank Taylor has dreamed (and planned) for many years to sail around the world and share it with people by using Google Earth and other tools. He's trying to visit many places he's seen in Google Earth in person. As most of you know, he finally departed late last year on his voyage aboard the Tahina.

He's been faithfully blogging about the adventure, but now even more people can follow his expedition; through the main "layers" menu in Google Earth. Google introduced the "Ocean Expeditions" layer when Google Earth 5.0 came out, and they've been expanding it ever since. Now the Tahina Expedition is part of the layer.

If you open the Ocean layer and then turn on the Ocean Expeditions layer, you'll see a bunch of icons. In the NW Atlantic ocean you'll find a large icon, under which you'll find the "Tahina Expedition". Loading this KML will show placemarks of his various stops, with blog entries and connection lines between each one.

While this makes for a neat way to keep up with Frank's journey, you can even see more Google Earth details, including his GPS tracks, on the Tahina Expedition map page, follow his blog, RSS feed or the @GoTahina Twitter account.

Posted by mickmel at 8:24 AM | Comments (1)

January 5, 2010

Links: Burj Dubai, Historical Imagery Updates, Updated EveryTrail App

Burj Dubai: The tallest building in the world, the Burj Dubai Khalifa (Update: renamed after opening), opened to the public yesterday. At over 800 meters tall, it is by far the tallest building on the planet. You can view it in Google Earth (KML) or view it here using the Google Earth Plug-in.

Historical Imagery Update Information: As pointed out by Stefan at Ogle Earth, Google's Imagery Update KML now includes information about previous updates as well.

EveryTrail Update: We've talked about EveryTrail a few times in the past (GE5 tour support, updated layer, etc), as it's a very slick GPS-oriented trip-sharing service. They've just released version 3 of their iPhone app, which has some great additions such as the ability to follow trips on an interactive map, see your current route being drawn on the map, and a lot of sharing capabilities with Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Here's a brief video showing off the new app:

Posted by mickmel at 8:28 AM | Comments (1)

January 4, 2010

Deforestation of the Amazon is uncovering Geoglyphs

700 years ago, for reasons that are still unknown, ancient people sculpted hundreds of geoglyphs in the Amazon. One of the most famous geoglyphs is the Nazca Lines in Peru. Recently, a combination of deforestation and high-resolution satellite imagery is beginning to expose many more of them.

Because of their huge size, geoglyphs are almost impossible to discover from ground level. It's only when you get high in the air can you begin to see the shapes coming together in a pattern. A quote from TreeHugger:

One of the factors that contributed to so many geoglyphs being undetected prior to the aid of satallites is their enormous size. According to leading geoglyph scientist Alceu Ranzi, his latest discoveries -- five sets of geometric shapes, with circles, squares and lines -- can measure more than a mile from one extreme to another.

As Ogle Earth noticed, the TreeHugger article didn't actually point out the exact location of any of the geoglyphs. However, GloboAmazonia found some of them, which you can view below, or download the KML file to view directly in Google Earth.

View Amazon geoglyphs in a larger map

While discovering more of them may help to eventually find out why they were created, further deforestation may be the only way to reveal them. To again quote TreeHugger, " if it takes more clear-cutting in the Amazon rainforest to find out the answer, hopefully it will always remain a mystery."

Posted by mickmel at 8:50 AM | Comments (7)

December 31, 2009

Santa Tracker was amazingly popular

In the past, we've told you about the popularity of the Santa Tracker on GEB. This year, NORAD has released the actual data from the noradsanta.org site and the numbers are amazing!

To go with the 1200 call center volunteers (who answered 74,000 phone calls and 3,500 emails), the website was visited by over 13 million people from 231 countries. I have to imagine that is by far their largest number ever, for a few reasons:

1 -- It's growing in popularity each year.
2 -- No KML file was available this year, so users had to visit the NoradSanta site.

All in all, it was an overwhelming success. My girls enjoyed it so much that I ended up leaving my netbook on the mantle so they could run in and check his position all evening.

Despite that, I have to think that Christmas 2010 will see even more great features and will be an even better experience!

Did you watch the tracker with your kids this year? What did you think of it?

Posted by mickmel at 8:25 AM | Comments (9)

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