youbeq

Google Earth plugin gradually fading away

October 17, 2014

Due to the uncertain future of the Google Earth plugin, many prominent sites that used to use it have started to transition to other alternatives.

Here are three examples:

Ships 2 Career from PlanetInAction.com

Back in 2009 PlanetInAction.com released a fantastic free ship simulator using the Google Earth plugin. In 2011 it was upgraded to version 1.5.

However, the developer, Paul van Dinther, is now working on Ships 2 Career, which is entirely Google Maps based. Follow his progress on his Google+ page. We are sure that when it is released it will be an excellent game.

Ships 2 Career will be entirely Google Maps based.

GE Teach

GE Teach, a site developed by 9th-grade geography teacher Josh Williams, received a Geographic Excellence in Media Award in 2012. The site, until now, has been making excellent use of the Google Earth plugin to show side by side comparison views of various maps.

However, the site is now transitioning to a new version based on Google Maps. Despite the lack of 3D, it still looks good and has a number of notable features, including drawing tools, access to Google Maps Gallery, and Street View.

GE Teach Google Maps version

YoubeQ

YoubeQ is a cross between a social network and a driving/flying simulator. It allows you to drive or fly a large number of different vehicles/aircraft around the globe while socializing with other people you meet on the way. When we featured it in June 2014, it had 13 vehicles and 3 languages. Until recently it was based on the Google Earth plugin. It has now been completely redone in WebGL using Cesium. Read more about it here. It now uses Bing Maps for the 3D portion and Google Maps for navigation.

The new YoubeQ, using Cesium and Bing Maps.

YoubeQ adds new languages, vehicles, places and more

June 17, 2014

We first told you about YoubeQ nearly three years ago, and they’ve been hard at working continually adding features.

You can try it all for yourself at youbeq.com or read below for their list of new features.

New languages

In this new version, we have introduced, for the first time, new foreign languages, besides English. Now, YoubeQ users can also choose either Portuguese or Spanish.

New vehicles

The new youbeQ enables its explorers to travel around the world with 13 different vehicles, from cars, motorcycles, to military or civil planes and even more means of transport such as the jetpack.

New Places

In order to help the travelers exploring the earth, we’ve pre-selected the 157 most interesting places around the world where they will be able to see other travelers exploring these areas with them.

Make miles to unlock

The new youbeQ is developed in order to entice the user to run more and more miles. The users who travel more, will be rewarded by unlocking new vehicles and places associated with each of them. The more miles you run, the richer the experience becomes!

Global chat

There is also a global chat where users may exchange opinions and tips about interesting places and other knowledge.

VOIP Call feature

Whenever you add another traveler as a friend, you may activate the voice connection with him. This allows you to have a completely immersive experience while you explore the earth together.

Direction arrow

If you click on the map on the left side (2D), you may add a destination. On the exploiter, you’ll see an arrow that shows you the direction to follow in order to reach the destination you selected. This destination can also be a user and can follow him while he is moving and you are exploring the map together.

Progression Score

The more vehicles you gather and the more unblocked places you get a better score. This together with a complete profile will contribute to improve your score, estimated between 0 and 100%.

New sound engine

The new youbeQ also brought a new sound system that will increase the immersive experience you obtain when you explore the earth.

New physics engine

The new physics engine of youbeQ is a complete revolution. It allows you to have vehicles with separate components (for example, the wheels of the vehicles and lights). In a near future, collisions between vehicles will be a reality.

Create your own Google Earth app with Smarturbia

July 10, 2013

Back in 2011 we told you about youbeQ, an innovate “3D social network” from the iNovmapping team. They’ve now developed a new app called Smarturbia, which they consider to be the gaming side of the youbeQ platform.

In their words:

Smarturbia is a Web and Mobile (Android) crowd sourced concept. In it we can explore the world as a game in our Desktop or Smartphone having at the same time the opportunity to know better the history and culture of those places, what might become a great touristic booster, promoting destinations and companies from this sector. Since the release of the app until now, users have already travelled further than 290 thousand miles, more than enough to go from Earth to Moon.

The platform uses the Google Earth/Maps API and allows users to build their own apps with their toolkit. Inside of your app, you can customize a variety of elements, such as the color of your vehicle or the image in your Taxi’s plaque.

You can learn more about it at Smarturbia.com, or download their app from Google Play.