wish list

Here is our wish list for 2017:

• Google has been making bug-fix updates to Google Earth, which have been very welcome (the crash that used to happen when moving placemarks was very frustrating), but there have been no new features added. We would love to see new features, or even a major update.

• Google has recently shut down the Google Earth plugin / API. The main reason given for discontinuing it was that it relied on old technology called NPAPI that is considered insecure by browser makers and is being removed from browsers or made harder to use. We would love to see Google provide some alternative ways to control Google Earth via code and query Google Earth’s datasets. It could even provide information that could not be easily obtained with the old API such as imagery providers, or the boundary of a given image.

• Given that the Google Earth plugin / API is now shut down, we will be unable to create imagery update maps. A few years ago Google would release update maps on a fairly regular basis. Over the last few years, however, it has only provided teasers in the Voyager layers, usually covering only a tiny fraction of all the updates that have taken place. It would be fantastic if Google was to resume publishing imagery update maps.

• The yearly global mosaics of Landsat/Sentinel-2 imagery that were recently added to historical imagery are a welcome addition, but also come with some disadvantages. They make it much harder to explore historical imagery and in some places Google has got the settings wrong. We would like to see the altitude at which they fade out raised slightly and even better, the option to turn them off.

• An interesting additional setting for the ‘historical imagery’ feature would be to allow the selection of a date range rather than the current maximum date. That way you could easily find all imagery within a given date range (especially if the Landsat / Sentinel-2 layers could be turned off).

• The global mosaics are created by merging multiple images at any given location and as a result lose some resolution and do not show seasonal changes and events. It would be fantastic if Google could find a way to allow us to view the raw Landsat and Sentinel-2 imagery in Google Earth. The ideal would be to have a special layer where you could view them. Currently, although the imagery can be obtained relatively easily, it still needs to be downloaded, processed and then inserted in Google Earth. It would not be difficult at all to process all the imagery and make it work with Google Earth. The only issue is processing time and storage, which Google has in abundance. Google already offers the unprocessed data on Google Cloud. It could at least add processed ‘true colour’ versions to the database, even better would be to break it into smaller tiles.

• With Panoramio being shut down in November this year, it is time that Google finally fixes user contributed Street View in Google Earth.

• We would also love to see ‘historical Street View’ added to Google Earth. It currently only exists in the Google Maps version of Street View.

• Better navigation tools for Street View would also be nice. Some ideas from Google Maps could be incorporated into Google Earth.

• Google Earth has seen a number of layers being dropped. Other layers do not work correctly and are not being updated and maintained by the original data providers. We would love to see a revitalisation of the layers. Google could start by having a look at projects in Google Earth Engine such as the Global Surface Water Changes map.

• Google Earth’s altitude data is often far from accurate. There is better quality altitude data available from open sources. We would like to see Google update the altitude data.

• We are generally happy with the progress made in 3D imagery and hope to see this continue.

• We would like to see more of the solar system planets and moons included in Google Earth.

• We would like to see improvements to the Tour functionality of Google Earth. It is an underutilised feature of Google Earth, partly because it lacks flexibility and partly due to the lack of Tour creation tooling.

• We would like the ability to save ‘My Places’ to the cloud and sync it with other computers as well as allowing simultaneous editing from multiple locations.

The blue dots of user contributed Street View can be seen in Google Earth, but there is no way to view the actual photos.

See our wish list from a couple of years ago here. A few of our wishes and those of our readers were actually fulfilled.

What is your wish list for Google Earth in 2017? Let us know in the comments.

Here is our wish list for Google Earth this year:

• An update to the desktop version of Google Earth. We haven’t seen an update to Google Earth for more than a year. There are a number of well known bugs in the current version and it is showing its age.

• If the above update takes place, we expect it to use the new 3D graphics model demonstrated in the latest Android version. At the time off its release, Google hinted that we would see the new 3D graphics model used in other Google products before too long.

• One major issue with the current version is that the street map data is not a live copy of Google Maps and hasn’t been updated for over a year. If the above 3D update takes place, then we expect it will use live Google Maps data, as the Android Google Earth does. If not, then we hope Google will at least do a refresh of the Google Earth street map database.

• Continued expansion of the automatically generated 3D areas. We especially wish to see expansion of the 3D areas to Africa and Asia, the two continents where there is a notable absence of the new 3D.

• The use of Street View to generate 3D at street level, complementing the 3D generated from aerial photography. The current automatically generated 3D is particularly poor at street level and when it comes to overhangs, such as bridges and trees. An alternative would be to simply use Street View to enhance the resolution of building facades in cities.

• Historical Street View in Google Earth. Currently, the only way to view historical Street View is via Google Maps. In addition, as has been pointed out by a number of GEB readers, Google Earth does not correctly show the locations of user contributions in the form of Photo Spheres, even though they can be viewed in Google Earth.

What is your Google Earth wish list for 2015?

Google’s 3D imagery map shows the lack of 3D coverage in Africa and Asia.