All about Google Earth - News, Tips, Technology, Applications, Business, and more.
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Google Looks for More 3D Cities
On October 1, Google quietly added 10 new US cities to the Google Earth 3D Buildings layer. Each of the cities has up to hundreds of new photorealistic buildings. The 10 new cities join another nearly 20 other cities around the world in Google Earth which have a large percentage of the buildings completed with photorealistic textures. There are also a couple of dozen cities which have untextured 3D buildings. There are hundreds of other cities in Google Earth which have notable buildings completed which have been submitted to the Google 3D Warehouse by people around the world. And, you can find 3D renderings of many other notable structures around the world like the Golden Gate Bridge, Stonehenge, Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty, Pyramids of Giza, and much more. I pretty much fly around in Google Earth with the 3D Buildings layer turned on all the time now.
Google has just posted more details about their 3D buildings layers and details on how you can get your city included in Google Earth's 3D layer. There is even a special Cities in 3D program which encourages city planners to share their data with Google so they can help render your city in photorealistic detail.
I was surprised Google didn't mention the ten new cities they added on October 1st. There still not been an official recognition of the new additions. Why are they waiting I wonder?
Worldwide Marine Protected Areas in Google Earth
Today, at the 4th World Conservation Congress, IUCN's World Commission on Protected Areas launched a plan to help protect planet ocean using Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Over the past year several groups have been working with the teams at Google Earth and Google Earth Outreach to devise a way to change a major gap in knowledge and bring marine protection, and the wonders that our nature reserves in the sea can offer, to internet users worldwide. As part of the celebrations at the 4th World Conservation Congress in Barcelona they have launched a special IUCN WCPA - Marine layer through Google Earth Outreach that not only shows you where we have protected the sea, but which also allows you to get involved by sharing pictures, videos and stories about your local sites in a way not previously possible.
This Google Earth content will presumably be a layer in the Global Awareness folder, but you can see it now as a KML file from the Google Earth Outreach site. You have to zoom in a bit to see the placemarks appear. Included are placemarks marking marine protected areas, and also outlines in many places of sanctuaries, protected areas, fish nurseries, etc. There are detailed outlines of existing areas in the US especially. The placemarks show more information on each location. More importantly, you will see a button allowing you to "Add Photos or Videos" of each location. I think they should also encourage people to turn on the Panoramio layer to show the many photos already available in Google Earth for many of the sites. You can also view the protected areas right on the home page of their new web site Protected Planet Ocean which uses the Earth API plugin. Personally, as someone who is a sailor and very concerned about our world's oceans and marine life, I think this concept and use of Google Earth is really great.
The organizations are working together to provide the first illustrated picture of global ocean protection of wildlife and habitats using Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). The MPA layer is an outreach initiative between Google, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and its global commission of scientific experts – the World Commission on Protected Areas. via the Official MPA blog.
Earth Atlas - Google Earth Plugin Application
Bjorn Sandvik has produced another Google Earth application as a by-product of his Thematic Mapping Engine plugin written about last June. He calls the new plugin application Earth Atlas which is described in his post here. What I like about this interface is that he has combined a friendly "layers" interface on the left which lets you turn on and off a bunch of different layers in the Earth plugin. He even provides a way for you to add your own selection of KML files to the scene (see "Your KML files" and add a URL to a KML file). The Earth Atlas of course shows several of the statistical KML maps Bjorn had previously created. This is definitely one of the better Google Earth plugin applications I've seen and shows the potential of alternative interfaces for Google Earth data.
First, some good news: the Panoramio layer, which is the great photos layer found under the Geographic Web layer folder, has new better looking blue icons. This just appeared within the last 24 hours I think. Back in early August, Google changed the Geographic Web layer and icons. As I said then, the Panoramio layers were almost indistinguishable little gray icons that looked too much like the new Places layer. With the new blue icons, they are much easier to see and differentiate. Big improvement!
On another Panoramio note, the excellent new "Look Around" feature which was released on June 3rd seems to have been suddenly removed from the Panoramio site. This feature was very cool because Google was taking any location which had lots of photos and turning them into a simulated "panorama" using a flash application. The feature was somewhat reminiscent to the PhotoSynth application Microsoft has been touting over the last few months. But, Google's Panoramio Look Around had hundreds of places around the world already compiled (maybe thousands). A very useful way to look at a given location from multiple perspectives. I hope the feature comes back soon. I've e-mailed several folks at Google and Panoramio, but no reply yet about the missing Look Around links. [UPDATE 1530 PM ET: Got a message from Google that the missing feature was a temporary bug and it has now been fixed. Just checked and did find it was back on a few photos I checked.]
Introducing Our First Sailing Partner: Google
During the past month I announced my grand plan for a five year sailing adventure around the world which will begin next year. My wife Karen and I have already purchased a boat called "Tahina", delivered it from the Bahamas, and are now working on a huge list of preparations. A big part of the plan is to share the experience with people through a "geo-documentary".
My vision is that we will use a combination of a blog, and extensive geo-spatially organized content to share where we go, provide information about our travel locations, and show the sights we see. You will be able to follow our paths on the sea, on land, and possibly even under water all from within Google Earth (and with Google Maps, the Google Earth plugin, and other tools - maybe Google Ocean?). Not only that, but I will be taking aerial photography of some of the destinations using a combination of kite aerial photography, remote controlled aircraft, and by flying regular planes. I figured the resulting high resolution aerial photography would make for some very interesting views in Google Earth of exotic or unusual locations around the world. Places where few high resolution aerial photos are available. My inspiration for this idea was the excellent work by Michael Fay in the MegaFlyover images already in Google Earth for National Geographic.
When I started envisioning the creation of all this content, I naturally was thinking it would be more useful if a larger audience could see the content. So, I approached Google and told them about my circumnavigation plans. The Google geo team has enthusiastically embraced the idea and we have an arrangement where they will be acquiring content from our trip for use in their products. Teaming with Google for our circumnavigation is the realization of a dream which started three years ago when I first started using Google Earth to document our sailing trip back in 2002-2003. It was during that first trip that my wife and I began our plans for the circumnavigation. But, leveraging Google Earth to share our experiences became an integral part of what I wanted to accomplish. We also have plans to help raise awareness about issues facing the world's ocean environment and marine life. All of this is more feasible thanks to the help we will be getting from Google.
Location of Plane Wreck of Steve Fossett
[UPDATE 2-Oct 2010 ET: According to AP, some human remains were found at the crash site today by the NTSB. It's a sad day in the story of a great adventurer. But, its good to know that evidence points to a quick end with little chance of suffering.]
I've been tracking the developing story of the discovery of Steve Fossett's plane wreck, and personal items belonging to him. See earlier GEB story with notations. Now, one GEB reader pointed out the FAA has posted coordinates for a no-fly zone to keep planes from flying over the wreckage area. The coordinates of the no-fly zone are most likely the coordinates of the wreck - they match other details released in previous news reports. See this KML file which shows the location of the Minaret Lake (location near initial reports of where the items were found), one reported location of the wreck site, and the location of the no-fly zone coordinates. You can clearly see that the terrain is very rough and matches descriptions of the crash site. The news reports of the wreckage site describe that the plane apparently flew into the side of a mountain at about 10,000 feet a few miles west of Mammoth Mountain.
I will update the KML file when even more official coordinates of the wreck site are released.
[UPDATE 1426: A photo from the LA Times of a rescuer near the crash site confirms the "no-fly zone" coordinates I included above is the approximate crash site location. The terrain in that area is close to matching the photo. Based on the photo, I estimate the site where the photo was taken as .85 miles NW of the no-fly zone coordinates. I've added this to the KML file above. I used the terrain in Google Earth to match the position where the photo was taken.]
[UPDATE 1750 ET: I've now added an image overlay of the topographical map provided by the Sheriff at the briefing today showing the location of the items found and the plane wreck. They compare well with the placemarks I located earlier. Apparently the FAA No-Fly zone coordinates are closer to where the IDs were found.]
[UPDATE 5-Oct 2100 ET: I've added a blow-up topo map overlay from the SAR team that went to the site. This shows an even more accurate map of the location of the crash site, and demonstrates that the placemark of the wreck site I put in based on the first photo released is quite accurate. I would guess my placemark was within a few yards of the actual place the photo was taken, and is near the middle of the crash debris path.]
Maker! Launched - Geocommons Finder! is a service allowing people to upload and find datasets suitable for geospatial applications - like Google Earth. Most of the data visualizations support GE's KML file format. During the past week, I had the opportunity to beta test the new Maker! service. The brand new GeoCommons Maker! service is now live and provides you with easy-to-use mechanisms to create useful maps, again including Google Earth maps. Read Sean Gorman's announcement (CEO of GeoCommons). Also, Stefan Geens does an excellent job of summing up the importance of Maker!. I expect to see a lot of useful visualizations for Google Earth from this new service.
GEH Mobile - Google Earth Hacks has created a mobile version their site. Perfect if you want to view some unusual Google Earth satellite views on your iPhone. Mickey has culled his database to just those collections which are suitable for viewing on the mobile version of Google Maps. The service works very well - especially if you're on a WIFI connection. Read Mickey's announcement, or just go visit m.gearthhacks.com. On a side note - Mickey also has created a map based on the TV show Amazing Race 13.
Sharing 3DWH - Google continues to evolve the 3D Warehouse to add additional social networking interfaces. Already we have seen many features like "reviews", "ratings", "comments", etc. They have now enabled the ability to "share" 3D models. This new feature means you can work collaboratively on a 3D model with others and the "owner" can control which changes become permanent. They say you can even control who can edit, view, or even download your models. Read more about it at the SketchUp blog.
Barcelona Google Outreach - I got a press announcement that Google will be launching Google Earth Outreach in Spain on October 7th. In attendance from Google will be Outreach Director Rebecca Moore, and Director of GeoMarketing, Bernardo Hernandez. The announcement will be between 1600 and 1630 at: "Centro Internacional de Convenciones de Barcelona, Sala de Ruedas de Prensa, situada en el P1, room 111".
Events Map - Got a notice from the author of Map Channels Events about his excellent mashup for showing music and sporting events with cool mapping technologies. You can view calandars of events, but more importantly you can view their locations in Google Maps and simultaneously view Street View imagery of the routes and locations themselves (in some cases). Brought to you by the same guy who did the excellent site which lets you embed StreetViews on your web sites: StreetCities. See a great review of the Map Channels Events on GoogleMapsMania.
Steve Fossett Items Found Near Mammoth Lakes
[UPDATE Oct 2, 2:30 PM ET: Wreckage of Steve Fossett's plane has been confirmed according to this Reuters story. According to another report I read the plane apparently crashed into a ridge and the engine was found about 50 yards from the plane. I've added the coordinates of a no-fly zone from the FAA - a 9 mile radius from coordinates given in their post. I've now estimated the position of the wreck based on a photo released to the press showing the wreck site. See the KML file below for the location, and the placemark contains the photo. I used Google Earth's terrain to match the location where the photo was taken. I will update again when I have official coordinates. No mention has been made about finding Fossett's remains.]
Last year, adventurer Steve Fossett went missing after leaving for a recreational flight in a small airplane near the border of Nevada/California. Thousands of people used Google Earth to search aerial and satellite imagery for signs of where his plane may have gone down. Nothing was found after months of intensive searching on the ground, on the Internet, and from the air. He was declared dead in February 2008.
Now, a hiker near Mammoth Lakes, California found Steve Fosset's FAA license, another card, some money, and a weathered sweat jacket. The location was mentioned in this story, as being near Minaret Lake. GEB reader Matthew Dettinger was the first to e-mail with the specifics including coordinates for the lake. You can view the location, near where the items were found, here in Google Earth. However, the imagery in Google Earth for this location is from 2005. Since Fossett went missing in September 2007, those images won't help find him or his plane. However, it does give you an idea of the terrain and the number of nearby lakes where his plane may have completed its journey.
[UPDATE 1655: More details in this LA Times story. The amount of money reportedly found was 10 $100 bills. ]
[UPDATE 2350: Authorities discovered some wreckage late in the day which may be related to Steve Fossett's disappearance. However, authorities pointed out there have been many crashes in the area, so we will have to wait for ground crews to verify the wreckage on Thursday. See AP story.]
[UPDATE 2-Oct 1245 FAA releases a no-fly zone within 9 miles of these coordinates: 37º39'32"N, 119º07'32"W - Possible location of the wreck.]
New 3D Textured Cities in Google Earth
[UPDATE 1250: The list is growing quickly. Found four new cities in the last few minutes with help from readers.]
When Google Earth 4.3 first came out, Google released a few cities with more complete 3D textured buildings. Just turn on the 3D Buildings layer - or more specifically the Photorealistic sub-layer of the 3D Buildings layer folder. Google wasn't saying how they generated them, but the new cities were more complete and had a consistent color and high quality 3D textures. (Read the GEB review of 4.3).
My guess is that the textures are coming from aerial photography (based on the angles of reflections in the textures). In some cases, I'm guessing the 3D models are coming from 3rd party sources. Google is leaving any 3D buildings already modeled by others and selected from the 3D Warehouse. But, they are adding hundreds of buildings for these new cities with textures. In June they added a few more cities. You can tell when they have the auto-generated 3D buildings, because with GE 4.3 they won't highlight in "blue" when you put your mouse over the new buildings.
I was checking out Chicago and by accident noticed there were many of the new buildings. So far, I've discovered the following new cities have the new 3D buildings: Chicago, Nashville, Philadelphia, San Diego, Minneapolis, Kansas City, St. Petersburg, Jacksonville, Clearwater, and Miami Beach (the last four all in Florida). Other cities already known to have the new buildings: US: San Francisco, Baltimore, Raleigh, Atlanta, Charlotte, Boston, Orlando, Austin, Oakland, Dallas, Tampa, Memphis, and Phoenix. Also, Zurich, Munich and Hamburg in Europe; and Tokyo in Japan has a smattering of 3D textured buildings. And, don't forget Disney World in 3D. I've just noticed that Berlin has mostly complete coverage in non-textured buildings. I can't remember if that is new. Here is a screenshot of Miami Beach:
I'm guessing there are other new 3D cities out there. If you find some, let me know with a comment here, and I'll add them to the list. Just remember to check the list above, and if the 3D textured buildings don't highlight when you put your mouse on them - then they are probably new.
I should mention that Google is in competition with Microsoft on 3D cities. Microsoft's approach for Virtual Earth 3D from the beginning has been to auto-generate 3D buildings and textures from aerial photography and photogrammetry. Microsoft now has hundreds of cities (I last heard 300) with 3D buildings and low-resolution textures. They also have a few cities with higher resolution textures AND auto-generated trees. Read the GEB review of the first set of version 2 cities in VE. It would be cool if Google added trees for realism as well, and I wouldn't be surprised if they did (oh yeah, I forgot they did include them in the Disney World models!). Meanwhile, Google is obviously adding additional cities with high resolution textures. In fact, I think Google's textures in these new cities are even higher quality than Microsoft's version 2 cities. Also, I think Google's approach with user-generated 3D buildings does have one quite positive result: there are certainly many more cities and locations around the world in Google Earth with 3D models than are in VE. Even if the coverage is not as complete for cities with only 3D Warehouse models.
Peachtree City Public Information Interactive Map
Yesterday GEB wrote about some Google Earth maps for sharing public information about cities (the fire hydrant story). A regular GEB reader, Joe Wade, sent me an E-mail telling me about an excellent Google Earth plugin interactive map for a city. Peachtree City in Georgia (near Atlanta), has built this Google Earth plugin map which lets you turn on many layers of GIS information. Included are layers for fire hydrants, potholes, police reports, parks, floodzone map, bike trails maps, restaurants, churches, and much more.
I believe the developers of the Peachtree City map probably wanted to use Google Maps, but they have so much data to present they ran into the limitations on data in Google Maps. Google Earth is much better at handling large datasets. Also, the plugin API enables you to build your own interactive interface around the map. They used this so they could present a long list of layers in a friendly fashion. So, this map is an excellent case for using Google Earth API and plugin.
One thing the Peachtree City map doesn't have yet is the ability for people to report issues/problems. Adding the ability for citizens to add complaints for things like potholes would make this an even more useful utility. For an example of how this could be done, look at the Pune, India citizen complaint map.
Fire Hydrants in Google Earth
Washington DC is the first city I'm aware of to use Google Earth to report on the status of fire hydrants. The DC Water and Sewer Authority has released a KML network link which reports on both working and non-working hydrants throughout the city. Not only that, but if you see a hydrant which is not working you can report it through the KML file placemarks! While fire hydrants may not be an every day concern for most people, I think this type of public information ought to be easily accessible to citizens of cities all over the world. This is GIS (Geographic Information Systems) for the masses with Google Earth making it easy to visualize and use the data. via DCist
An even better example of this I read about a while back was a city in India which had released a similar file showing potholes. Unfortunately, I didn't find the KML file for this one, but here is a Times of India story on it. (UPDATE: A commenter below provides the link to the potholes interactive map - it uses Google Maps.) I can't think of the number of times I've wished I had a mapping application online so I could report a pothole since I read that. In fact, I may actually write my local county office and suggest they do that. You could even write an iPhone app to make it even easier to report location!
(UPDATE 30-Sept.: GEB reader Joe Wade points to an excellent Google Earth plugin GIS map for Peachtree City, Georgia. This is my new favorite city-wide GIS site. Check it out.)
Links: A Million Photos, Wii Jogging, Transportation, Argentina Roads, KML Contest, Ryder Cup
A Million Photos - The Panoramio photo layer in Google Earth (and Maps) now has 1 million more photos. Panoramio is working towards more frequent additions of photos uploaded to their service. It's a great free service for sharing geotagged photos. And, it's a great layer for seeing places from another perspective.
Wii Jogging - I saw this story and video by a guy in Japan who is using Street View and a Wii controller to jog through a city. The only problem is that Street View is a series of photos so you get "jerky" motion as you run. It occurs to me someone should use the Earth API and plugin and you could use the Wii to jog through a 3D city and look around as if you were there. You could also have a Street View window open as well.
Transportation Layer - The Transportation layer folder under the Places of Interest layer folder in Google Earth has new icons. They are all light blue and have the same style/color as seen in Google Maps. This layer folder contains things like world-wide airport locations, railroad tracks, ferry routes (in the US), and subyway/tram/bus stops or routes. Very handy layers.
Argentina Roads (Spanish) - Apparently Microsoft has beaten Google by getting some road maps for Argentina. Here's their beta for Argentina Maps.
KML Contest - Google is conducting a KML in Research contest to "spur innovation and creativity in science and engineering". I think this is a great idea. This is part of an educational outreach for science and engineering that also includes a Google Earth Conference to be held in Michigan on October 22nd and 23rd.
Ryder Cup - I missed sharing this while when it happened, but GolfSmack.com created some special content for the Ryder Cup golf competition. Included was a cool KML file that includes 3D trees to add realism to the Ryder Cup golf course.
New Virtual Earth with 3D Clouds
The new release of Virtual Earth 3D by Microsoft has very cool realistic 3D clouds. The clouds only appear when you are near the Earth's surface for a localized region. But, they are based on real-time weather conditions for that location. Microsoft is obviously re-using some of their excellent Flight Simulator clouds rendering technology in the latest release of Virtual Earth. There are a lot of other features in the new release, but I was immediately impressed with these new clouds. They are especially awesome if you have a SpaceNavigator (which is supported by VE3D). The clouds are darker when thick, and there are different clouds types (cirrus, cumulus, party cloudy, etc.) according to weather conditions. To check out the new clouds, you have two choices: 1) load the new update for VE3D by going to local.live.com and clicking the 3D button (you should be prompted to load the new version - make sure you restart your browser after installing); or 2) check out his YouTube video I've just made:
I've always been a fan of the later generation cloud visualizations in Flight Simulator. Now Microsoft has brought them to the virtual globe applications. Google Earth's built-in clouds are more useful because you can get a global perspective of real-time weather conditions. But, these clouds in Virtual Earth sure are pretty for local conditions! [UPDATE: for comparison, here is a video showing the clouds in Google Earth 4.3.
One other note: it took a few moments for both the SpaceNavigator to work and for the Clouds to appear the first time I used them (possibly background installations/downloads occurring).
Singapore Grand Prix Track in 3D
The Singapore Grand Prix Formula 1 race begins tomorrow. The race goes right through the Marina Bay Circuit Park. If you've never been there, you can still get a very realistic feel for what the race will be like thanks to Google Earth! As mentioned last summer, the guys at Earth@Sg created a detailed 3D visualization of the race track as well as the surrounding buildings for Google Earth. There are also ways to tour the track built in. You have two ways to view the model:
Singapore Grand Prix in Google Earth - This version loads in Google Earth and gives you instructions for setting up your viewing options in Google Earth so you can pretend you are an F1 race car flying down the race course. Select the "Route Animation" in the Places pane and the choose "Tools->Play Tour" menu option. There is also a time animation allowing 3D cars to move down the race track. You can adjust the speed of the car animations by clicking the little clock to the left of the time slider.
Singapore Grand Prix with Google Earth Plugin - this works in your browser (Windows only at the moment). Simply click the various locations pictured in the viewer to fly to each one.
Be patient, it may take a few moments to load all the 3D buildings and detailed textures. This is an excellent visualization that really gives you a feel for the event. You can also turn on the 3D Buildings layer to add a few more buildings to the area. Earth@sg did a great job with this visualization!
Google Earth is more than just a 3D map of the Earth. Between the cool data and the sophisticated interfaces to connect back end servers with Google Earth, it's only natural games have been developed as well. Here are the best games I've seen with Google Earth over the last three years:
Flight Simulator- Google themselves added perhaps the best game as a built-in feature: did you know there's a flight simulator in Google Earth? Read some tips on starting and using the flight simulator, and here is a video for watching it in action.
DND Game - You can actually play a role-playing dungeons and dragons game on top of Google Earth. The game is a multiplayer game in which you go and fight monsters found across the planet. Read more.
Mars Sucks - This game places you in a space ship and you find aliens based on clues and blast them with your big guns. Read more.
Football - This game lets you play an American Football game within Google Earth. Read more.
Milktruck Madness - This one is played with the new Google Earth plugin (Windows only at the moment). It simply lets you drive a milktruck around the Earth. But, it's fun! Read more, try it out here.
Battleship - This was a really cool idea for a game where you would mix going in the real world with a cell phone with Google Earth to play a battleship game. Unfortunately not available to play now. Read more.
Where in the World - Each month, Google puts out a free newsletter which has a puzzle game. They give you a screenshot of a place on Earth, and you have to find where on the Earth it was taken. See a recent example, and you can see all the issues of the newsletter here.
National Geographic Geography Quiz - As part of National Geography Awareness Week, National Geographic made this cool quiz in Google Earth. You can try the quiz here (a local copy, their link is broken at the moment). Read more.
Fun and Games - The Google Earth Community has a whole forum dedicated to games in Google Earth. This is mostly guessing games similar to the newsletter, but it's played in a forum and some of the puzzles are much more sophisticated. Read more.
Geo Whiz - Yet another geography quiz game, this one is more interactive. It also uses the Google Earth plugin (Windows only for now). Check it out.
from the Google Earth Outreach 
