GE Plugin

Chrome now making it harder to use the Google Earth plugin

April 17, 2015

[Update: As of Chrome version 45, released circa 1st September, 2015, Chrome no longer supports NPAPI at all. ]

In June last year the Google Chrome team announced that they would be ending support for NPAPI based plugins by September 2014. NPAPI is an ageing technology used by, most notably, Java, Silverlight and the Google Earth plugin. It is being dropped largely because it is considered a potential security risk.

In September Google released a 64-bit version of Google Chrome that did not include support for the Google Earth plugin or other NPAPI based plugins. However, the 32-bit version still supported it and has continued to support it. Over time, however, Chrome has been making it increasingly difficult to run NPAPI plugins, requiring the user to explicitly allow a plugin to run before displaying it.

Now, Google has just released Chrome version 42 that drops support for NPAPI plugins by default. It is still possible to get them back is via a Chrome flag, but presumably that option will soon be disabled too.

For now, if you really need the Google Earth plugin in Chrome 32-bit, you can reenable NPAPI by entering the url: chrome://flags/#enable-npapi in the address bar then selecting ‘Enable’ below the ‘Enable NPAPI’ section then relaunch the browser.

The Google Earth plugin itself was deprecated in December and is set to stop working on 12th December 2015.

Firefox is also slowly phasing out NPAPI plugins and as far as we know the latest Internet Explorer only allows them in the 32 bit version in compatibility mode and not at all in the 64-bit version.

Google Earth plugin showcase: Trans Taiwan Ultra-Marathon

April 1, 2015

This is the thirteenth in our series showcasing the Google Earth plugin. Today’s story demonstrates that although the Google Earth plugin has been deprecated it is still very much a working product and can be used for projects that do not need to be kept alive beyond its expiry date of December 12, 2015. The biggest downside is that most browsers nowadays require you to allow the plugin to run, which may put off your website visitors.

Today we are looking at a project from Steven Ho, whose excellent work we have looked at many times in the past. He has created a set of Google Earth tours for the 2015 Trans Taiwan Ultra-Marathon which can be viewed here using the Google Earth plugin.

In addition to a map of the route and tours of each leg of the race, when the race is in progress the live positions of some of the runners is displayed. This is achieved via an app on their cell phones. We have noticed that even during a leg of the race, not all racers are on the track, suggesting that some have either dropped out, or lent their cell phones to other people. He has also included the option to see ‘rabbits’ which are a set of markers used to indicate the minimum pace expected of the runners. Read more about it here.

The race has been running since the 28th of March and continues until this Saturday April 4th, 2015. Each leg starts at 6 am Taiwan time.

Runners waiting to start a leg of the race.

A leg of the race in progress.

For those wishing to view the tours directly in Google Earth rather than via the plugin, Steven has also provided a KMZ file to download.

Google Earth plugin showcase: HeyWhatsThat eclipse

March 17, 2015

This is the twelfth in our series showcasing the Google Earth plugin. This Friday, March 20th, 2015 there will be a total solar eclipse. We have looked at number of eclipses in the past and one of our favourite tools is the HeyWhatsThat website’s eclipse page that makes excellent use of the Google Earth plugin. It features two panes, one showing the expected path of the eclipse on the earth and the other, using Google Sky, shows the current position and path of the Moon across the sky. Remember that most browsers will require you to give the plugin permission to run.

The total eclipse will only be visible along a narrow band north of Scotland, but a partial eclipse should be visible from much of Europe, weather permitting.

Another useful site created by Xavier Jubier has a list of eclipses and corresponding KML files that you can download to view the path of the eclipse in Google Earth. The relevant KML for Friday’s eclipse can be found here

Google Earth plugin showcase: Geo-Wiki

February 25, 2015

This is the eleventh in our series showcasing the Google Earth plugin and its various uses. Today we are looking at Geo-Wiki, a site that uses crowd-sourcing to do environmental monitoring of the earth.

Although the site has an option to try it out as a guest we couldn’t get that to work, but registration is free so we went ahead and did that. Once registered, the site uses the Google Earth plugin to display a variety of maps, mostly relating to global agriculture patterns. There is a wealth of information, such as where various crops are grown and livestock production patterns. The Google Earth plugin is also used as a means to gather feedback from users, who can select an area and submit comments relating to the maps.

An interesting map of cropland field sizes.

The site includes a game called cropland capture, which shows you a series of satellite images or photos and asks you to identify whether the image includes crop land. The results are then used to create a global map of land under cultivation. There is also a more advanced version that enables you to give more detailed information about land use using the Google Earth plugin, but it seems they only make it available during competitions. To get an idea of how it works see the YouTube video below:

Google Earth plugin showcase: FlightRadar 24

February 18, 2015

This is the tenth in our series showcasing the Google earth plugin. Today we are looking at FlightRadar24, a website that shows live air traffic around the world.

FlightRadar24 uses a number of different data sources to track aircraft. One of the main sources, ADS-B, requires special equipment on board the aircraft as well as detectors on the ground. Only about 65% of commercial passenger aircraft have the necessary equipment, so do not expect to see all air traffic on the map. To learn more about how it works, see their ‘How it works’ page.

The main interface uses Google Maps. To see the Google Earth plugin in action, select an aircraft, then click the ‘3D’ button on the left hand side of the screen below the picture of the aircraft. The ‘3D’ button opens ‘Cockpit View’, which uses the Google Earth plugin to show the view from the aircraft. It includes a basic instrument panel and will also display the locations of any other aircraft in the vicinity. It can also show a model aircraft, although it is a generic gray model that does not correspond to the specific aircraft you are tracking.

Coming in to land, Vancouver, Canada.

Most of the time, aircraft will be flying too high to see much of Google Earth’s 3D imagery. Even if you pick an aircraft that is landing, you may find it is flying too fast to load all the 3D imagery before you have gone past. We also discovered that the positioning is not always accurate, as the aircraft we tracked missed the runway by over a hundred metres.

You will need to have the Google Earth plugin installed, a browser that supports it, and in most cases, you will have to allow the plugin to run on the flightradar24.com site.

Several times we experienced glitches with the graphics, we think because the view is constantly moving and the Google Earth plugin can’t keep up. Reloading the page usually fixed it, however.