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GE Plugin

Google Earth Plugin Now Runs in Firefox 3

June 22, 2008

As promised by Google in a comment on my post about Firefox 3 last Tuesday, Google has quietly fixed it so the Google Earth plugin (which lets you run a subset of Google Earth in your browser on a web page) now works with Firefox 3 (as of today – Sunday, June 22). Digital Earth Blog gets points for being the first GE blog to post about it. Google’s Paul Rademacher (the chief architect behind the Google Earth API and plugin) posted an announcement about the support for Firefox 3 and that it does NOT require you to download a new plugin binary. Wanna check it out? Try the Milktruck game!

Filed Under: GE Plugin, Google Earth News, Google Earth Tips

Easy Embedding of the Google Earth Plugin

June 20, 2008

Judging from the E-mails and blog posts I’ve been seeing, the Google Earth plugin continues to get a lot of attention from developers wanting to put Google Earth’s 3D capabilities on their web pages. The very first post-announcement mashup with the new API was done by Virgil Zetterlind who made it possible for you to embed the plugin with a KML file of your choice. Since then, many other Google Earth savvy sites have started offering the ability to embed the plugin with interesting data. Here’s a quick summary of Google Earth pluging embedding options starting with two new ones:

  • StreetCities – This is probably the slickest of the new embedding options. The guy who brought you DualMaps (which lets you embed a map view showing simultaneously Street View, Google Maps, and Virtual Earth Bird’s Eye views), now has created StreetCities which lets you combine Street View, Google Maps and Google Earth plugin on your web page. Not only that, but he’s included a slick “orbit” animation capability with the Google Earth plugin. I really like this!

  • GoogleEarthHacks – Mickey at Google Earth Hacks had already added the ability to view highlighted Google Earth content with the plugin. He’s recently added above each entry a copy/paste snippet to embed any of his entries on a web page using the Earth plugin. Not only that, but he now has added a cool new feature making it easy for anyone to mark a place in Google Earth using the plugin and share it with anyone via a GE KML file, or by embedding it with the Earth plugin.

  • First Embed Tool – Virgil’s GEEmbed tool is still very useful because it lets you give it a KML file OR a Google My Map that you can embed with the Earth plugin on your site. Read about it and see an example.

  • Tagzania – As previously mentioned, the place tagging site Tagzania was quick to add the ability to view their maps with the Earth plugin by simply adding the “Earth” tab in the Google Maps on the upper right. They also added the ability to embed any map from Tagzania with the plugin (see the “Embed 3D” code snippet below a map).

  • GMap-Track – Also previously mentioned, GMap-Track allows you to embed a map on your blog showing your current position. They now have the option to show your position with the Earth plugin, and will automatically determine whether your browser supports it and revert back to Google Maps if your browser doesn’t. Definitely a great way to do it! See OgleEarth‘s home page for an example of it in use.

See also GoogleMapsMania’s post today about the two new ones.

Filed Under: Applications, GE Plugin, Google Earth News, Google Earth Tips, Sightseeing

Roundup: Firefox 3 and Earth plugin, Google I/O, Spam Alert, Google Analytics

June 18, 2008

  • Firefox 3 and Earth plugin – The Google Earth API plugin does not currently work now works with the new Firefox 3 on Windows. I’m sure Google is working quickly to release a compatible update for Firefox 3. But, if you only use Firefox on Windows, you might want to wait before upgrade to Firefox 3 if you really like the Earth plugin. Otherwise, you may be stuck with using IE when you want to use the Earth plugin. If you’re on the Mac, the plugin doesn’t work on OS X yet, so go ahead and get Firefox 3 now!

  • Google I/O – I’ve been waiting to do a summary post on Google I/O until more videos were available for the talks. There was a talk by Paul Rademacher on the Earth API, but the video of his talk still hasn’t appeared. Anyway, here are Google’s photos from Google I/O, a link to all the available videos of Google I/O talks, and here’s a link to some photos I took. I highly recommend watching Michael Jones’ talk where he introduced the new Earth API plugin during the last half of his talk. Also, see GoogleMapsMania’s excellent summary of the available information from Google I/O.

  • Spam Alert – Stefan Geens at OgleEarth mentioned briefly about the issue of some Google Adsense ads leading to web sites which try to sell you “Google Earth” and deliver you the free version. These sites, if you read the fine print, are trying to sell you “support” that you don’t need for Google Earth. If you see an ad trying to sell you Google Earth, or support for it, you should ignore it. There are premium versions of Google Earth, but you can only buy those through Google’s official site. But, please note that the premium versions do NOT get you better resolution satellite imagery.

  • Google Analytics – Two years ago, Jacob Cord wrote a program to let you process raw data from Google Analytics to generate a KML showing the locations of everywhere people access your web site. Unfortunately, sometime during the last year, this program stopped working because Google removed the raw data option from Analytics (I wish they would re-enable that feature). Now, there is an XML option which at least lets you get the country-level summary of your site visits. Johann Blake has written a web based application which lets you take the XML and generate a KML with placemarks showing the number of visits colorized according to scale. [UPDATE: you can map at the “City” level as well, but you are limited to 500 at a time by Analytics.] Right now, the KML is kind of boring to look at. I’ve suggested he might want to try generating more visually interesting maps with the data using techniques like the Thematic Mapping Engine.

Filed Under: GE Plugin, Google Earth News

Thematic Mapping Engine, Plugin

June 6, 2008

TME plugin GDP in Google EarthPeriodically during the last three years since Google Earth was released, some talented developer gets the Google Earth bug and develops a wave of cool stuff. Right now, the guy with the most momentum is Bjørn Sandvik at the United Nations Association (UNA) of Norway. He’s written a flood of blog posts in the last few weeks at his Thematic Mapping Blog with really innovative visualizations and applications of GIS technology for Google Earth. This week, he’s released a cool new application he calls the Thematic Mapping Engine (TME). TME lets you easily take data (no programming required!) from UNdata and create initially 3D prism charts (country shape files represent data about each according to height for things like life expectancy, population, etc.). Bjørn’s TME lets you easily create different charts and view them in Google Earth in 3D. He also has plans for other kinds of chart projections/symbols. Not only that, but based on initial feedback, he’s now added the ability to view the output using the new Earth API plugin. So, if you have the GE plugin, you can view the output right on the web page. The screenshot here shows one of the charts with the plugin. You can still get a KML version for loading in the full GE as well. Great idea!
See also Bjørn’s series of posts on different ways to map symbols in Google Earth.

Filed Under: Applications, GE Plugin, Google Earth News, Sightseeing Tagged With: Thematic Maping Api

Sweet! Bouncing Google Earth Plugin Animation with Controls

June 2, 2008

It’s been a few months since James Stafford has treated us with one of his innovative creations for Google Earth. But, the Google Earth API was too cool for him to resist. He has taken one of his old ideas of a bouncing Earth animation, and used the API to create something similar – but, with a very cool twist. Check out his new bouncing Earth in the plugin . The bouncing Earth animation speed can be controlled, and you can select one of several different kinds of camera views. My first two favorites are the “Look Up” and “Bounce cam (down)” views. These definitely gave me a laugh. But, the one that really grabbed my attention was the “Bounce cam (rotate)” view – definitely one to induce spatial disorientation (aka tossing your cookies)! As James points out, using the API it’s now possible to create all kinds of animations using your own programming skills, SketchUp models, and the plugin. In fact, lots of folks were talking about “Second Life” kind of applications at Google I/O last week. Anyway, great idea James! Read his post for more details. Here’s a screenshot:

Bouncing Earth animation

Filed Under: 3D Models, Applications, GE Plugin, Google Earth News

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