As reported by Google Maps Mania and Google Earth Blog, StreetView has arrived in France! It’s not a lot of imagery — mostly along the Tour de France route, but it’s quite cool nonetheless.
Go check it out for yourself, and then post your cool discoveries in the GEH StreetView archive.
It’s time to roll out a site that a couple of us have been working on for the last few weeks — EarthSwoop!
Bits and pieces of the code have been used in some of my other plug-in tools, but this takes it a step further. Using the Google Earth plug-in and a simple interface, you can build collections of common locations, all viewed using an icon-based system. For some examples, go check out the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, the 30 Stadiums in Major League Baseball, or some of the venues in the upcoming Beijing Olympics. We’ve built 15 collections to get you started.
You can create a collection about any subject that you want. Once your collection has been created, the system will generate KML files for each location inside of it and give you embed code to put it on your own site. When viewing it, you can add other content such as WikiMapia and Panoramio to help provide more context.
Here is a brief video that shows how easy it is to start creating collections, and below is an embedded version of our NFL Stadiums collection. Please let us know if you have any questions.
Powered by EarthSwoop | More info about this collection
Now that the Google Earth plugin works in Firefox 3 (Windows-only still…), we thought we’d run through some of the best ways to embed Google Earth content on your site.
5. Embed existing files and collections from Google Earth Hacks
Google Earth Hacks has over 20,000 files on their site, all of which can be embedded into your own. In addition, their collections can be embedded. Both implementations are very straightforward, but require that a file is already on their site. Here is what an embedded collection looks like:
Powered by Google Earth Hacks | More info about this collection
4. Embed golf courses from Golf Nation
Similar to Google Earth Hacks, Golf Nation allows you to embed any of their existing courses onto your own site. This could be pretty useful if you just played a round and want to embed that course into your blog post about your great score. The quality of the files can vary quite a bit, so here is one of the better ones:
Powered by Golf Nation | More golf courses in Atlanta
3. Build your own map with StreetCities
StreetCities is by far the most complex integration we’ve seen, for better and for worse. You have a ton of options on how you want your map to look, and it’s very well done. It’s not a great place to go for a quick map, but it’s worth playing with when you have a chance.
2. Easily embed a KML with TakItWithMe
TakItWithMe was the first site to offer the plugin in an embeddable manner. Their script is quite simple, and allows you pull a KML into the map. However, the KML needs to be hosted online somewhere (no upload feature), which is kind of a bummer. Still, it’s nice way to build a quick embed from any KML that you know of.
1. Embed a map in a few seconds with ShareIt
ShareIt is another entry from Google Earth Hacks, but this one takes the cake. There are no frills with this one — just a very simple way to embed the map on your site. Title it, find your location on the globe (either by zooming or by searching with the box below it), and that’s it. If you want a simple way to show your house, your church, your favorite stadium, etc, this is the way to do it.
Powered by Google Earth Hacks | Map Details | Create your own!
There you have it! Honorable mentions go to Tagzania and GMap-Track, both of whom offer embeddable plugin code as well.
If you know of any others, please let us know in the comments below.
I didn’t expect to see it on a Sunday, but Google has updated the Google Earth plug-in to work with Firefox 3. The cool thing is that you don’t even need to update the plug-in — some server-side tricks are what make it work.
I haven’t seen an official announcement yet, but it was revealed in this Google Group thread. My previously non-working version is now fully functional, so apparently it’s live.
Now you can go play with ShareIt, or Monster Milktruck or anything else that you want using Firefox 3.
Popular Science is running a series of articles highlight various scientific visualizations using Google Earth. Google Earth Blog has a great review of the series, along with KML files and links to other related stories.
The five areas they cover are:
Again, you should probably read the Google Earth Blog post while you’re reading the articles, as Frank did a great job of adding extra KML data and links to supplement each article.
Firefox 3 is set to be released tomorrow, and Mozilla is hoping for five million downloads. My concerns had been two-fold: Firefox 3 breaks the Google Toolbar and the Google Earth Plug-in. However, the toolbar has been updated today to work with FF3, but what about the plug-in?
There has been no word from Google about a possible update, so maybe it’s not coming. However, with Firefox 3 getting rave reviews, I would expect that the adoption rate will be quite high. I would hate to see the plug-in take a bit step back by suddenly not working on millions of computers…
Google Earth Blog has revealed some extra 3D buildings that were recently added to Google Earth. Some of the cities with new models are:
Since there wasn’t an official list provided, there may be more out there. If you notice any other areas with new buildings, please let us know in the comments.
It’s a few weeks later than we expected, but Disney World is now 3D in Google Earth — and it’s impressive! They’ve included the Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Disney Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom and Disney Resorts.
There are actually two parts to this:
To activate the 3D buildings, simply check the box next to “3D Buildings” in the “Layers” tab like you normally would.
To activate the Disney layer, go to “Gallery -> Travel and Tourism -> Walt Disney World”. Once you’ve turned that on, along with the 3D buildings, fly down there (KML) and check it out.
The 3D aspect of this is stunning, but be warned — it’s very graphically intensive. I’ve got a pretty solid machine, and it slowed it down quite noticeably. Still, it’s well worth checking out. Have fun!
Update: Frank Taylor has just made a nice little video that takes you through the 3D Magic Kingdom. Check it out:
Here’s another fun game using the Google Earth plug-in, based heavily off of the Monster Milktruck demo. It has quite a few limitations (the biggest being no altitude adjustment), but it’s another step in the right direction.
The plane simply hugs the ground, and it runs in a pretty small window. The small window is an attempt to use less bandwidth. Since the plane can’t stop (or even slow down), the imagery has a hard time keeping up. The small window helps with that a little bit.
Despite the shortcomings, it’s a fun little app and it has me even more excited about the possibilities for the future.
Well, new to them at least. Panoramio has brought out a new feature to allow you to “Look Around” some landmarks using a very simple, intiuitive interface. As Google Earth Blog points out, this feels very similar to Microsoft’s Photosynth. In addition, as Google System points out, it’s not nearly as cool.
I’m a bit disappointed that this doesn’t yet work in Google Earth. I was picturing something much more similar to Photosynth, where you could interact in a 3D world. Still, it’s a very nice start and works very well. The transitions between photos are very smooth and really help illustrate how the photos are related to one another.
Some places to check out, as suggested by the Panoramio blog:
Update: A little more info is now up on the Google LatLong blog.
