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The path of the Olympic torch in Google Earth

Our friends at DataAppeal, who recently released a variety of updatesto their excellent tool, are back with some great visualizations of the Olympic torch relay.

The first is the “Ribbon Path”, which you can view on their site here, or by downloading this KML file for use in Google Earth.

Sochi Olympic Torch Relay ribbon

They also have an animated version that can be found on their site here or loaded in Google Earth using this KML file.

Sochi Olympic Torch Relay

Lots of nice updates to the DataAppeal tool

We’ve written about DataAppeal a few times over the years. We first showed you their great tool back in 2011 along with some updates in 2012. They’re back again with a variety of enhancements that make their tool even more useful.

Some of their new features include:

  • The wrapping of the Google Earth digital globe with other base-map canvas, included Staman’s artistic maps (watercolor and black and white), in order to provide users more visual options for base-maps rather than the satellite look.
  • They also now allow for the export of the data-models (3D maps) as DAE and importing them into other 3D vector-based modeling programs like SketchUp and 3DSMax.  Users can take that extra step further and print their 3D data-maps.
  • They have released the ability to connect data-points along a path to create a wall of information. They also released buffer rings, which allows users to define a zone around selected points to analyze their relationship to their neighbors or surrounding area.
  • They also released a new look to their application and for enterprise users they offer “User Groups” in which a user can curate and manage the sharing of maps with his/her team members and colleagues in their own private space.

You can read more about what has happened with them over the past year in their 2013 year in review blog entry or check it out for yourself at DataAppeal.com.