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October 3, 2009

Find ways to help those affected by Tropical Storm Ketsana

As they often do after a natural disaster, Google is doing what it can to help those affected. In this case, they've set up various pages to give you quick access to information to help those affected by Tropical Storm Ketsana (named "Ondoy" locally) last weekend, which killed nearly 300 people, left dozens missing, and thousands without shelter.

To see a visualization of the flooding and aftermath, you can check out this kmz file in Google Earth, as shown in the image below:

For more information, Google has set up a special Help page that provides details about road conditions, donation centers, missing persons and other information. The page also lists many places where you can donate funds to assist those in need.

Posted by mickmel at 5:58 AM | Comments (0)

October 1, 2009

Use the Google Earth Plug-in with Google Wave

A few days ago, we showed you a quick glimpse of how Google Maps could be used inside of a Google Wave. Today, less than 24 hours after the semi-public release of Google Wave, Roman Nurik has already released a slick little gadget to embed the Google Earth plug-in in a wave.

To add it to a wave, simply click the green "Add Gadget by URL" icon and use the following URL: http://www.nurik.net/gadgets/earthwavegadget.xml

This gadget will fire up the plug-in, and plot the locations of all of the users in the wave. There aren't any other options than that, but it's more of a proof-of-concept than anything. The idea of combining the Google Earth Plug-in with Google Wave's real-time collaboration has some awesome potential.

If you have access to Wave, check it out and let us know what you think. If you find any other great geo-related Wave gadgets, please feel free to let me know at mickey@gearthblog.com. Below you'll find a short video I created that shows exactly how to use this gadget:

Posted by mickmel at 12:59 PM | Comments (2)

September 30, 2009

Loop Links, Biodiversity and the Law of the Sea

Loop Links: Rich has just posted a creative solution to a problem he was having in Google Earth. Wanting to connect two lines via a "loop", he built a spreadsheet that can generate the necessary code for you automatically. Enter your starting and ending lat/lon, and it'll calculate the rest. You can download the spreadsheet here, but you'll probably want to read the instructions on his site first.

Biological Diversity of the Guiana Shield Tour: An increasingly popular way to show presentations is using the Google Earth "Tour" feature, especially via the Google Earth Plugin. Recent examples include the Copenhagen fly-through and Google's ambitious climate change tools and tours. The Biodiversity tour is another great example of how the tour mode can be used. I would have liked to see more close-ups of things they discuss, but they used the mapping and borders very effectively.

Healy 2009 Law of the Sea Mapping: Kurt has just posted a large KMZ file showing the path that the ship "Healy" has taken as it continues it's polar mapping. The file includes the ship's path, images from each point, weather and water depth data, and a time-lapse YouTube video of the journey. You can read more about the Law of the Sea Mapping Program here. The time-lapse video can also be seen below:

Posted by mickmel at 5:12 PM | Comments (0)

September 29, 2009

Links: Building Design Competition, Google Wave

Hasbro Monopoly Building Design Competition: Hasbro, the company behind Monopoly City Streets, has just announced a competition to let users design buildings that might appear in the game. Between now and October 6, design your building using Google SketchUp and then upload it to the Google 3D Warehouse. Within 48 hours, your model will appear in the official Building Competition Collection. The more buildings you create, the better your chances of winning. Be sure to get your buildings submitted by October 6, and the winners will be announced on October 13.

Google Wave: The much anticipated Google Wave is set to open up to 100,000+ new users tomorrow. While this is primarily a collaboration tool, it's got some huge potential for the mapping world. Google's Pamela Fox has been working on a Maps gadget for Wave, and she gave a sneak peek of it today. Integrating Maps and Wave is simply brilliant, as you'll see in the video below. Beyond just Maps, I'd expect we'll see a Google Earth plug-in gadget before too long. Check out the video below to see what they've cooked up so far:

Posted by mickmel at 6:05 PM | Comments (1)

CyberCity 3D adds models to Google Earth, launches "Virtual Viewing"

The folks at CyberCity 3D have been busy. Last Friday, as Google unveiled the cities of Copenhagen and Marseilles in 3D, they also released a handful of creations that were built by CC3D. In particular, their models covered part of the DuPont Circle area in Washington, DC. The models they construct are fantastic, as demostrated by the Embassy of Indonesia below.

Today they've launched a new feature that they call "Virtual Viewing" in Google Earth. Using the Google Earth plug-in, real estate companies can show off 3D models of the homes they're trying to sell. I've long felt that this would be a useful tool for agents to use, but it still needs some work. There are major two problems that I see:

1: It's too hard to show off their work to a typical internet user. This new system uses the Google Earth plug-in, which is much easier for many users than just giving them a KML file. However, it simply drops you into an aerial view of the property, and you need to use the tools to navigate around. An automatic preview that swings the camera in a slow loop around the property might make it easier for novice users. They could create a semi-automated tour like EarthSwoop does, or even show a brief narrated tour similar to the Appalachian Mountaintop Removal. Here is an example of one of their properties.

2: It's cost-prohibitive for many people. They don't list costs on the site, but high-quality models like this don't come cheap.

Ultimately, I think we'll see most houses 3D-generated automatically, as both Google and Microsoft are already doing that for major cities. Over the coming years, I'd expect it to spread to an increasingly wider area. In the meantime, CC3D fills a nice niche for high-end homes that need additional exposure.

Posted by mickmel at 4:09 PM | Comments (1)

September 28, 2009

Links: Iranian nuclear plant, Tuvalu, Monopoly City Streets, Video of 3D Copenhagen

• Finding Iran's hidden nuclear site - Iran has admitted to building a second nuclear fuel plant, with an unknown location. However, Stefan at Ogle Earth has been working to pinpoint the location and may have found it. See his previous post for a bit more background information.
• Monopoly City Streets - The Google Maps-based "Monopoly City Streets" is still going strong. Even better, they've recently reset the game to give users a fresh start, so it's a great time to dive in if you're looking for diversion during your day.
• Tour of 3D buildings in Copenhagen - The city of Copenhagen, Denmark was unveiled in 3D late last week, and a short tour of the city has been created by a fan to show it off.
• Tuvalu Visualization Project - The small island of Tuvalu is potentially in danger of going under water due to rising sea levels, so an impressive visualization was put together to "present the real situation of Tuvalu, to improve the interest in Tuvalu, and to receive feedback from all over the world." You can download their KMZ file here, or check out the video below.

Posted by mickmel at 11:12 AM | Comments (0)

September 25, 2009

Links: Boston University goes 3D and a fun real estate video

Boston University goes 3D - With the help of concept3d, Boston University has just pushed out 3D models of their entire campus, along with a custom informational Google Map. As seen below in this split image, the 3D models are very sharp and well done.

Real Estate + Monopoly + Google Earth - A loyal reader who runs a real estate company in France has made a fun video. It shows their properties as Monopoly-style buildings on top of Google Earth. The Star Wars theme music is a nice touch. Watch it below, or view it on YouTube here.

Posted by mickmel at 3:08 PM | Comments (0)

Two More 3D Cities Added to Google Earth

Google has had a busy week. Not only did they release Google Earth version 5.1 and then release new imagery for many parts of the world, but today they added two more cities in 3D: Copenhagen, Denmark and Marseilles, France.

The addition of Copenhagen is very timely, as Google just recently released some tools in preparation for the COP15 climate change conference in Copenhagen. Oddly, though, the building that will house the conference (the Bella Center) was a bit too far away from downtown to get modeled.

To view these or any other 3D buildings, make sure you turn on the 3D Buildings layer inside of Google Earth.

Posted by mickmel at 3:03 PM | Comments (1)

September 23, 2009

New Google Earth Imagery - September 23

[Update Sept. 25: Google has just released the official list of locations, including the KML file that shows them all.]

We've just verified that there is new imagery in various places around the world. You can check out the Google LatLong Blog for hints on where some of the new imagery is located.

New and updated imagery (UPDATED 25-SEP 0615 ET)

• Antarctica - Dry Valleys (thanks 'Tom')


• Argentina - Cordoba and Mendoza


• Austria - Strip of new winter imagery near Tirol (thanks 'Jonas')


• Brazil - Florianopolis (thanks 'Tiago')


• Canada - Diavik Diamond Mine


• China - Lhasa (thanks 'jk')


• Finland - Various area (thanks 'cristi')


• Iceland - Some stripes of imagery


• Italy - Strip of winter imagery east of Rome


• Maldive Islands - Male' (thanks 'Alsay')


• Mozambique - Maputo (thanks 'Antonio')


• New Zealand - Te Anau (thanks 'dapascha'), and Central parts of the country, including places like Canterbury and Darfield


• Nigeria - Lagos (thanks 'Snakeye')


• Pakistan - Karachi (thanks 'Adil')


• Portugal - Madeira (thanks 'Samuel')


• Russia - Norilsk (thanks 'cristi')


• Saudi Arabia - Color corrections


• South Korea - Ulsan (thanks 'Munden')


• Ukraine - Sevastopol


• United States
  
  
  • California - Mission Viejo and Ventura
  
  
  • Connecticut - Central part of the state
  
  
  • Delaware - Most (or all) of the State
  
  
  • Florida - Large parts of the state, including: Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Marion County, Miami and part of Taylor County
  
  
  • Maryland - Most of the state
  
  
  • Massachusetts - Eastern 1/3 of the state
  
  
  • Michigan - Metro Detroit area
  
  
  • Washington - Various parts of the state


• Also, there appears to be new hi-res bathymetry off the east coast of the US - east of the continental shelf.

As you find others, please leave a comment and let us know. Because this imagery has not yet been added to Google Maps, you can compare any area in Google Earth against the same location in Google Maps to know for sure whether or not it's been updated.

Posted by mickmel at 9:03 PM | Comments (30)

Update for Google Earth 5.1 released

Google Earth 5.1 (beta) has been widely regarded as a great update, with a much faster, more responsive interface. Being a beta release, though, means it's still got a few kinks to work out. Last night, Google pushed out an update to 5.1. Presumably, this latest release fixes some of the bigger issues. See below for one we know about.

It won't auto-update to this latest release, so you'll need to go to earth.google.com and download it for yourself. Downloading it from there will get you from version 5.1.3506.3999 to 5.1.3509.4636.

Perhaps more importantly, this will also upgrade your Google Earth plugin to the latest version. Some of you had issues with Al Gore's new COP15 tour that Google released yesterday, and this latest update seems to resolve the issues.

Posted by mickmel at 7:25 AM | Comments (10)

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