Google Earth Blog

The amazing things about Google Earth


Google Earth plugin

Google Earth plugin showcase: Paragliding simulator

This is the third in a series of posts showcasing the Google Earth plugin as both a farewell to the plugin, which was deprecated last month, and as a hint to Google to consider working on a replacement if they aren’t already.

Yesterday we looked at GEFS Online, a flight simulator with a variety of aircraft, including a balloon. Today we are looking at a more specialized simulator: a paragliding simulator.

We first looked at Paragliding Earth back in October, 2008. The site is still running and the simulator still working well, although there seems to be a problem with the map used for locating sites not zooming in. The site is designed to allow paragliding enthusiasts to share information about paragliding sites all over the world and has a wealth of information available.

Landing
Coming in to land. Finding a site with 3D imagery took a while, but it was worth it!

Google Earth plugin showcase: GEFS Online

This is the second in a series of posts showcasing the Google Earth plugin.

Today we are looking at the unofficial Google Earth flight simulator known as GEFS Online. Google Earth has a built-in flight simulator that you can learn how to use here. GEFS Online expands on the idea with a number of significant features not available in the built-in version. These features include, amongst many others:

  • A better looking onscreen instrument panel, with more instruments than are found in the Google Earth version.

  • A wide range of aircraft, including helicopters and a balloon, as opposed to the two aircraft available in Google Earth.

  • Dynamic suspension on the aircraft.

  • A wider range of controls that are also customizable.

  • Multiplayer mode, allowing you to see other players’ aircraft, as well a chat.

  • A global map showing airports and other players.

  • Engine sound effects.

Flying over Sion
Flying over Sion, Switzerland, which recently received 3D imagery.


The map shows airport locations and basic stats, as well as the location of other online players.

Google Earth plugin showcase: Rally Navigator

This is the first in a series of posts we will be doing to showcase various uses of the Google Earth plugin. We are doing this as a farewell to the Google Earth plugin, which was deprecated in December.

First up is Rally Navigator. This is a website that helps you create printable rally navigation instructions called roadbooks. We first looked at it back in February 2013 when it was still an open beta and then again in October 2013 when a premium version with new features was released. The basic version is still free.

Rally navigator
Rally navigator lets you set up your route in the Google Earth plugin and then create a printable roadbook for the route.

See this YouTube video for more:

Rally navigator was developed by Paul van Dinther, whose other work we have looked at in the past, such as Ships, his Google Earth plugin ship navigation simulator that he is in the process of updating to a Google Maps based version.

Google Earth Api deprecated

Google has announced the deprecation of the Google Earth API (also known as the Google Earth Plug-in and its JavaScript API).

This has been expected, given that Google earlier announced that Chrome was dropping support for the Google Earth plugin due to security concerns with NPAPI, one of the technologies that the plugin is based on.

The plugin will continue to work in browsers that support it until December 12th, 2015.

Because of its usefulness, we hope that Google will release an alternative to the Google Earth plugin. Many plugin users have already started to migrate away from it to other technologies, such as the Google Maps API, or Cesium, but there is nothing yet that really replicates the best features of the Google Earth plugin.

Google does hint, at the end of their announcement, that there may be good news ahead :

Google Earth has a proud legacy, which continues with the new Google Earth for Android, powered by a brand new renderer. 3D is in our blood, and while we can’t announce anything just now, we look forward to sharing more exciting product news in the future.

Timeline for the end of the Google Earth plugin in Chrome

Last September Google announced that they would eventually drop support for NPAPI in Chrome, a key technology behind the Google Earth plugin. Then in September this year, they released a 64-bit version of Chrome without support for NPAPI and by extension, the Google Earth plugin. However, it was still unclear exactly when support would be discontinued in the 32-bit version. We also wrote a post showing you how some sites have decided to drop the Google Earth plugin in favor of other technologies with a more certain future.

On Monday, the Chromium Blog posted a more specific timeline for the phasing out of NPAPI. See the full details here.

In summary:
From January 2015, the plugin will be blocked by default, but users will still be able to enable it.
From April 2015, it will be much harder, although still possible, to use the plugin.
From September 2015, NPAPI support will be permanently removed from Chrome and it will be impossible to use the Google Earth plugin in Chrome.