June Layers Additions/Updates for Google Earth

Earlier this week Google added new layers and updated layers to Google Earth.

New Global Awareness Layers - Google added three new layers which have been highlighted in the Global Awareness layer. The layers were timed for release with the new Google Earth Outreach program - a fantastic program to help non-profits (Read more...)

New Road Layers - The following countries now have new detailed roads in the "Roads" layer: Sweden, Slovakia, Croatia, and Slovenia. (Read more...)

Geographic Web - The Geographic Web layer was substantially changed. First, they took away the ability to turn on/off each of the three sub-layers individually (Panoramio, Wikipedia, and Best of GEC - see original announcement). In addition, from higher altitudes you now just see very small round icons for each layer (Panoramio is blue, Wikipedia are kind of purple, and the GEC layer is tan). When you zoom in closer, (Read more...)

New Blog for 3D WareHouse Buildings

Greg Rose started up a blog earlier this month which highlights new 3D SketchUp building models as they are added to Google's 3D Warehouse. The blog is called SketchUp Buildings. Each day he shows the models that were added. Click on the pictures to view the 3D Warehouse entry for a building and get the option to load it in SketchUp or Google Earth. Adding his blog to your RSS reader is a quick way to review what's being added to the 3D Warehouse collection. There are a LOT of buildings being added in the world. The question is: are there more buildings being added in 3D Warehouse than new buildings in the real world? (Read more...)

Google Maps Click and Drag Directions - Google Earth Tip

Google has just announced on the Google Lat-Long blog that Google Maps has a really cool new ability to create and modify driving directions. You can now simply click the map with your right mouse button to pick your starting and ending points for driving directions. Then, you can simply click (Read more...)

OgleEarth Roundup: Illegal Fishing Caught, Picasa Web Albums Review, Geo-Ads Patent, HeyWhatsThat

Stefan Geens of OgleEarth during a good portion of the spring had not been writing much on his blog. This was because he was busy developing the first official embassy in a virtual world - the Second House of Sweden is a virtual embassy inside Second Life. (Read more...)

News Roundup: Panoramio 2 Million, Geographic Web, Loop the Loop, Starbucks, Bug in GE

Panoramio 2 Million - Panoramio mentions in their blog that people now have uploaded 2 million photos to their web site, and the recent update to the Geographic Web layer now includes 1.2 million of the photos for viewing in Google Earth. (Read more...)

Geographic Web - Some people don't like some of the changes to the Geographic Web layer (Read more...)

Loop the Loop - Near the Oregon/Washington border, someone named jerrymeyer last fall discovered a really unique plane in flight in GE. It's a small plane performing a loop the loop near a bridge. (Read more...)

Starbucks - For those world travelers who MUST have Starbucks wherever they go. (Read more...)

Bug in GE - No, we're not talking software bug here. Another squashed bug has been found in an aerial photo shown in Google Earth. Of course, it looks much bigger than (Read more...)

Google Earth Outreach Announcement Video

You can now watch the video Google recorded of the announcement of the new Google Earth Outreach program which was done at the New York City Google Earth office on Tuesday: (Read more...)

Google Earth/Maps Is Changing the Way We See the World

An article by Wired Magazine had a slightly different title, but the title really should have included Google Earth: "Google Maps Is Changing the Way We See the World". This article is a good summary of how Google Maps and Google Earth have had a significant impact in many ways on individuals, organizations, governments, politics, (Read more...)

New Picasa Web Albums Integration with Google Earth/Maps

Google has announced new capabilities with Picasa Web Albums allowing even more capabilities to map your photos. A year ago, Google implemented a means for geotagging your photos from Picasa in Google Earth and then uploading them to Picasa Web Albums. You can also view the photos within Google Earth. Now, Google has added an ability to take photos already in your Photo Album and map them using Google Maps. You can then view the photos in (Read more...)

Notes from the Google Earth Outreach Announcement in NYC

John Hanke, Director of Google Earth and Maps at Google, was one of the founders of Keyhole - the company which Google bought which produced the application which became Google Earth. John made the announcement about the new Outreach program. He said it wasn't long after Google Earth was released that non-profit organizations started developing powerful visualizations with the application. Google people helped a number of these organizations with their noble causes, mostly with their 20 percent time and this work has been inspirational for many members of the Google Earth team. Many of the non-profit organizations (Read more...)

Google Earth Layer Changes - Geographic Web, Roads Layers

Just discovered that the Geographic Web layer has now been made into a single layer (instead of three sub-layers). The layer still contains the Wikipedia placemarks, the Panoramio photo layer, and the Best of Google Earth Community placemarks. But, they (Read more...)

Introducing Google Earth Outreach - New Global Awareness Layers

Today Google has announced a new initiative called Google Earth Outreach designed to help nonprofit organizations around the world leverage the power of Google Earth to illustrate and advocate for the important work that they do. The announcement was made at the New York City Google office by Elliot Schrage, Google Vice President for Global Communications & Public Affairs, and John Hanke, Director of Google Earth & Maps. The initial Outreach partners include (Read more...)

Google Earth Gallery Enhanced

Google has made some enhancements to the Google Earth Gallery. The gallery enables Google to share unique KML files which highlight the many capabilities of Google Earth. On the Google Earth Gallery page there is now a button called "Explore the archive" (Read more...)

Google Adds Mapping to YouTube - What does it mean?

Google has added an important new feature when you upload a video to YouTube. You now have the ability to give coordinates for the associated video - you can give lat/long coordinates or you can point the location out on a Google Maps map. Thanks to OgleEarth for bringing this to my attention (Read more...)

Google Earth Sky - Part II

Yesterday we explored the nifty simple 3D model James published at his Barnabu blog for adding a sky with clouds over any spot in Google Earth to enhance realism. James had published a 3D model, which he calls a "skydome", for use with the free Google SketchUp, which I then output to Google Earth (Read more...)