Right after yesterday’s post about how popular the Google Earth 5 Tours will be with the Google Earth plugin, I ran into a post showing a new Google Gadget that lets you easily embed a Tour in a browser with a simple code snippet. It uses Google Gadget to generate the necessary code, and provides a simple interface to give a URL for the Tour and for choosing options for the playback. Perfect for blogging and putting on a web page! As an example, here’s the Jimmy Buffet Tour Google did for the GE 5 launch event (if you are using a feed reader, you’ll need to visit the blog to see this) :
By the way, this is NOT a video! First hit the “Play” button to start. While it is playing, try clicking with the mouse and moving while the Tour is playing. Interactive 3D playback! You can also pause and go exploring GE and resume playback. I’m sure other developers will either modify or create tools for embedding Tours on your site as well. But, if you have a burning need to show off content and make it available on your blog/web site – you can start right now. I think my blog posts may get more dynamic in the future…
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.
Delighted to find your post on embedding. I’m a real fan of the new touring opportunities and thought the Buffet example was a hoot. It appears that the embedded GE runs quite efficiently. I’m in London now looking for ways my students can share their experiences. This may be the kay. Thanks, Jim
New Imagery added today in Dublin/Ashburn/Skerries/Ballbriggan (Ireland) dated 2008.
Awesome! Really, it is.
This is such a cool tool! Wondering why the pictures embedded in the description bubbles are not visible/always show up as broken links? I am having this problem in embedding a tour of my own in my blog as well…
I just want to embed a “Google Earth” map and with a list be able to add “pinned” locations. I am kind of new at this and I have seen it done on the net with Google maps several different ways but can not find the help i need to do it with GE. Do you have any ideas or can you point me in the correct direction?