There are a variety of mapping mashups (mapping hacks) which provide a way to link into Google Earth. But, sometimes you would like to take your currently viewed coordinates in Google Earth and view them in another mapping tool on the Internet. A guy named Barry Hunter posted at the Google Earth forums about a link between Google Earth and mapping sources. His post points out some nice mapping tools at Nearby.org.uk.
First, you need to download this GE File Nearby linker 
. Once you have this loaded, a placemark called Nearby will appear after you have paused your view (you can turn this on and off in your Places list, I suggest moving it to your My Places folder for future use). Select the Nearby placemark and choose either “View at Nearby.org.uk” or “Google Maps” . The Nearby site will let you choose from a variety of mapping sources to view your location, or you can go straight to Google Maps with your current view. Very nice, and a very useful tool!
It turns out Barry Hunter authored these tools (although he doesn’t mention himself on his web pages). You can read about his Google-related tools at the link he provided on his Nearby.org.uk site here.
Navigation
City of Portland GIS
The City of Portland, Oregon’s GIS (Graphical Information System) team just announced public availability of their KML (GE compatible) files allowing access to several layers of GIS data for their city. This includes things such as crime statistics, zoning, earthquake data, flood plains, and a lot of other useful data.
The neat thing is that these are network layers and are based on your current view of the city. It takes a bit of time to get used to, but you zoom to the area of Portland you are interested in, and a couple of seconds later an image loads showing that layer’s data. You need to turn off a layer (click on it’s checkmark box in the Places box), before loading another one or things become confusing.
So, you can go to their web site at: www.portlandmaps.com/google.cfm.
If you’re just curious, I suggest scrolling down on this page and viewing their screenshots, and clicking on the corresponding KML file for the layer that interests you. Or you can click here to see the Zoning layer shown here.
This is yet another example of serious business applications using Google Earth as the visualization tool.
Geocaching Google Earth
Even if you have never heard of Geocaching, you’ll find the following network link an interesting way to explore the Earth. What is Geocaching? It’s a recreational byproduct of the GPS and the Internet. From the Geocaching FAQ:
The basic idea is to have individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the internet. GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. Once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide variety of rewards. All the visitor is asked to do is if they get something they should try to leave something for the cache.
Arizona Hiking Trip
One of my first serious uses of GE was to examine data from a recent backpacking trip. The backpacking trip was up Mount Wrightson, Arizona and I took my GPS along for the hike. I saved the track and waypoints from the GPS and imported them into GE. Then I superimposed a USGS topgraphical map of the area for further reference. I also added some photos taken during the trip (which I georeferenced using the GPS track and time stamps from the camera).
The result is a GE KMZ file which you can view which really illustrates the backpacking trip. Especially if you use the tilt function (I recommend using your middle mouse button if you have one) to see the rugged terrain of this 4000 foot ascent. You also get an idea just how fabulous the view is from this peak.
By the way, if you turn on “Borders” in GE you can see that the border of Arizona and Mexico is easily viewed from the peak.
Earth at Night
Here’s a nice little addition to your My Places which shows what the earth looks like from space at night.
Astronomers see this picture as light pollution ruining our views of the heavens. Environmentalists see this as wasted energy. I have to agree with both. It wouldn’t take very much for us to start creating better lighting systems that light the ground, not the sky. But, still, this picture is pretty!