View Google Analytics User Data in Google Earth

A Jacob Cord wrote me an E-mail that he has developed a converter to take the data collected by Google Analytics for where users are visiting your site and display the data as placemarks in Google Earth. Last summer, someone wrote their own data collecting tool which showed this kind of information, but it wasn’t very scalable so it went away. A long time ago I sent suggestions to Google Analytics suggesting they support KML, and had just spoken to some people while at the Google Geo Developer Day about it. I hear there is a push to support KML in other Google products at Google, and the recent Picasa integration is just one example. You can try Jacob’s Google Analytics converter here. And, here’s an example showing visitors to Google Earth Blog during 13-June-2006. The user information is anonymous, but you can zoom in and see Google’s best guess for where visitors came from in the satellite/aerial photos. I found it interesting that only 11 people visited from the Fairmont Hotel on June 13th. I guess everyone was too busy attending Where 2.0 to take the time to read Google Earth Blog (although, Analytics doesn’t record RSS reading).

About Frank Taylor

Frank Taylor started the Google Earth Blog in July, 2005 shortly after Google Earth was first released. He has worked with 3D computer graphics and VR for many years and was very impressed with this exciting product. Frank completed a 5.5 year circumnavigation of the earth by sailboat in June 2015 which you can read about at Tahina Expedition, and is a licensed pilot, backpacker, diver, and photographer.

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