Google Earth Blog

Google Earth Captures Tsunami Striking Fiji Island

Frank Taylor of Google Earth Blog — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 08:00:58 -0500

It's a Friday, so I thought I would share with you this interesting find from GEB reader Peter K. It appears Google Earth captured a giant tsunami about to strike this remote island in the Pacific. You can see it yourself right here . No tricks, this is really inside Google Earth! However, this isn't a real wave. Instead this is an anomalie in Google Earth's terrain data. The world is a big place, and 3D terrain data is based on billions of data points and then later processed to remove errors. However, not all errors are properly processed, so you occasionally get anomalies like this. These errors can be reported to the GE Data Error Compendium, and eventually Google fixes them.

Here are some other interesting data errors found (terrain, imagery, and other errors). Some of these errors may have been fixed, but others are still there:

360Cities - 3D Panoramas Now Available in Google Earth Layer

Frank Taylor of Google Earth Blog — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 09:08:24 -0500

The very cool panoramic photo site 360Cities.net now has their own layer found under the Gallery layer folder. The new 360Cities layer contains placemarks to nearly 10,000 full 360 degree panoramas which are viewable inside Google Earth. Here's what 360Cities' Jeffrey Martin has to say about being included as a Google Earth layer:

"This ranks at the top of 360cities' achievements to date. It brings our beautiful content to a whole new audience and it serves as a great showcase for VR photography, which is starting to get the attention it deserves. It's a real honor."

In a recent post, GEB not only shared with you details on what is available from 360Cities, but also produced this video which shows you what the new layer looks like:

Congratulations to 360Cities! I highly recommend you check out the layer for some really unique photography.

There are also two other layers available in Google Earth with very high resolution immersive panoramas: Gigapxl and Gigapan both also found under the Gallery layer. Read more about Gigapxl here.

Somalia Piracy Map in Google Earth

Frank Taylor of Google Earth Blog — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:34:53 -0500

The reports of escalating incidents of piracy off the coasts of Somalia have been getting a lot of attention in recent months. The piracy has been in all the news with the recent capture of a supertanker called "Sirius Star" and hostages of its 25 crew along with a full load of oil (worth over $150 million), and the capture of a cargo vessel and hostages carrying tanks a few weeks ago. Last month, Google Earth Community (GEC) member 'expedition' created a very interesting map for Google Earth showing the region of piracy and detailed placemarks showing the locations of the pirate strongholds all along the coast of Somalia. The file is the product of extensive independent research using maps, charts, and reports beginning in year 1860 through late 2008. Where possible he used the high resolution satellite imagery of the coast to identify actual buildings where pirates are based. Download the piracy map here .

From his post:

"See the building compounds where pirates and warlords cache arms, plan their attacks, obtain ransom, and communicate with the ships they seize offshore. View the actual pirate bases, vehicles, checkpoints, and pirate boats. Locate the precise areas of the sea where vessels are hijacked, and where the pirates drop anchor to hold their crews for ransom. Find secret airstrips where pirate crews get their daily fix of addictive khat leaf stimulant flown in. View the places where commandos have captured pirates fleeing or targeted their land-based resources.... Over 120 updated placemarks. Information and coordinates have been gathered from many news sources, maritime organisations, governments, insurance companies, and mariner reports."

An official international piracy map is available from the International Maritime Bureau which shows the locations of piracy reports in Google Maps for the year 2008 - so far. via GoogleMapsMania.

Links: Where 2.0, Weather Buoys, Argentina, Earthscape, MapMyPage, and more

Frank Taylor of Google Earth Blog — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 07:45:42 -0500

With preparations of our upcoming five year sailing circumnavigation in full swing, I will sometimes get so occupied I can't keep up with all the news. This past week I've missed on a few important bits of news, so here is a catchup post. Most of these were mentioned on OgleEarth during the past week - which also reports on Google Earth-related news.

Where 2.0 Call for Papers - Preparation for next year's Where 2.0 event (May 19-21, 2009 in San Jose, California) have now reached the point where they have announced the call for papers.
Weather Buoys - Virgil Zetterlind has updated the weather buoy data available for one of the many weather layers available for boaters using Google Earth at the EarthNC site. The Google Earth Buoy observation file is updated hourly and provides access to over 500 active buoy and shoreline weather observations provided by the NOAA National Buoy Data Center.. The new layer is easily combined with existing EarthNC weather and charting features for Google Earth including NOAA Marine Forecasts, U.S. Airport Weather Observations, NOAA Voluntary Ship Weather Reports, NOAA ENC vector charts, and more. Click here to view in Google Earth.
Argentina Finally has Street Maps - Argentina finally has some detailed roads in Google Maps as of Monday this week. Gerardo (who lives there and performs the spanish translation for GEB) is thrilled. Several major cities are completed, with Buenos Aires being the most important (with half the population of Argentina living there). But, there are still some areas in the southern region with sparse road detail. It will probably be a few weeks or months before the roads make their way into Google Earth though.
Earthscape Fire Photos - Got a message from Tom Churchill over the weekend that some iPhone Earthscape users had taken photos of the California fires (including a firefighter) and posted them in Earthscape. Stefan wrote an excellent write-up about the photos and also how Earthscape's market position has changed since iPhone Google Earth was released. Earthscape also releases KML files for users who post photos. Here is the firefighter's photos you can view in GE. On-the-scene geotagged iPhone photos viewable in GE...a new form of news reporting?
MapMyPage - This new site is very fascinating to me. For a long time I've dreamed of geo-blogs which automatically tie into locations allowing you to view them in Google Earth/Maps. This site allows you to simply insert a small bit of javascript code into a page and it will automatically add location links to maps. Developer Brandon Bruce wrote me to tell me about how he even incorporates the GE plugin so you can get the full 3D experience of the mapping locations. But, I first read about this last week at Google Maps Mania.
NeoGeo Developer Jobs - FortiusOne is looking for a few good men/women geo-developers who can help them continue their noble goal of developing awesome mapping tools and continuing to add to the GeoWeb. Follow the link for more details.
CyberCity and Concept 3D Join Forces - Two of the leading Google Earth 3D model developers have joined forces to collaborate on even bigger 3D projects. Hopefully Google Earth will be populated with even more of their work. Both of these companies have been involved in a number of the biggest 3D model collections seen in Google Earth.

Imagine Google Earth with Voice Search

Frank Taylor of Google Earth Blog — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:30:31 -0500

Last night I installed the new "Google Mobile App" on my iPhone to try out the new Voice Search. I was anxious to try it out after first seeing the demo in Google's announcement video, because this seems like one of those defining moments in technology advancement: combining the ease of voice queries with Google searching with results shown quickly on your phone is just amazing. And, it's location aware as well, which has all kinds of implications for the GeoWeb. Just imagine if you could do searching with the iPhone Google Earth application? Watch the Google announcement video to see what I mean:

Google's experiments with 800-GOOG-411 seem to have really paid off with good voice recognition. I had very good success rate with its accuracy - although it still messes up occasionally. What I was really interested in was the possibilities with mapping. You can say "Map <place>" to get an instant map of a place. For example:

"Map of London"

I hope they voice search enable the iPhone Google Earth application. That would be really cool. And, directions in Google Maps on the iPhone would be really handy. It's such a pain having to type addresses for directions or search for places when in a car - you either have to stop, or get someone else to do it for you. But, with voice search it could be so much easier. Now, imagine adding voice search to the Google Earth on your laptop/desktop...

Welcome to Geography Awareness Week

Frank Taylor of Google Earth Blog — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 08:25:14 -0500

Each year during the third week in November, the National Geographic and other organizations help celebrate Geography Awareness Week. The focus is to help raise awareness of the importance of geography education. They have a web site called My Wonderful World which provides a weeklong guide of activities and ideas for learning and experiencing education. Of course, included in the activities are some Google Earth files. For example, here is a tour of cultures which is based on a National Geographic publication called Glimpse. And, here is a tour of Global Hot Spots having to do with change in environments, cultures, politics, climate, or population. And there is a tour of geographers on the job around the world.

Google has highlighted Geography Awareness Week as well and links to these same files.

Google SketchUp 7 Released

Frank Taylor of Google Earth Blog — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 07:47:11 -0500

Google has released a big upgrade to Google SketchUp 7 - their 3D modeling tool. SketchUp 7 is available in a free version, and a Pro version which includes a number of features helpful to professional modelers (such as a presentation tool, more model making features, printing, and e-mail support - see comparison). The Pro version costs $495, but is available for free to educators and only $49 for students.

The free version of SketchUp allows you to create models, upload/download them to/from the Google 3D Warehouse, and place them in Google Earth. The new SketchUp 7 has even tighter integration with the 3D Warehouse allowing you to view and download models directly from within SketchUp 7.

SketchUp 7 also supports a major new feature for Dynamic Components - doors that open, wheels that turn, etc. Unfortunately, models with the dynamic component do not show the animations in Google Earth - yet. We'll probably have to wait for a future version of GE to get that support.

Here's the rather silly announcement video (which covers a few of the new features):

Although there are not substantial new features for Google Earth in this release of SketchUp, any improvements in model making capability will enhance the quality of 3D models seen in GE.

Stefan Geens at OgleEarth was first to report on the SketchUp 7 in my blog roll.

California Fires - November 2008

Frank Taylor of Google Earth Blog — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 07:41:24 -0500

Raging wildfires in California are once again in the news this weekend. At the moment there are three main fires dubbed the Tea Fire (In Santa Barbara area), Sayre Fire (or Sylmar fire), and the Freeway Fire (near the Chino Hills State Park). There are once again a number of Google Maps My Maps of each fire each showing the area of the fires, and other important information such as evacuation zones/centers, fire stations, road closures, hospitals, animal shelters, and more. Each of these maps can also be loaded into Google Earth where you can see even more useful information such as the 3D terrain, and - by turning on the "Places of Interest" layer folder - outlines of parks, business locations, churches, hospitals, and more.

Tea Fire (Santa Barbara/Montecito) - My Map of the fire in the Santa Barbara area. Includes evacuation zone. View it in Google Earth . This map was mentioned at Google LatLong Blog. This is an unofficial map, but pools resources from several local media and official sources.

View Larger Map
Sayre Fire (Sylmar) - My Map of the fire near Sylmar. This map came via ABC channel 7 news. Includes the evacuation area in blue, active fire zone in red. Again, view this map in Google Earth to see more data and a 3D view of the terrain.

View Larger Map
Freeway Fire (Chino Hills) - This My Map shows the fire near Chino Hills and comes from CBS channel 2. Shows the fire, evacuation area, closed roads, evacuation centers and more. View this map in Google Earth .

View Larger Map

A good list of maps available to this wave of fires can be found at Search Engine Land. The list even includes some maps showing which houses were burned.

New 3D Cities in Google Earth: Pittsburgh, Seattle

Frank Taylor of Google Earth Blog — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:20:22 -0500

GEB reader Chuck Alcorn wrote earlier today to let me know Pittsburgh, PA is now available as a 3D city in Google Earth.

After confirming this was true, I did some looking around, and I found at least one other new city - Seattle, WA:

Also, I forgot to mention after the October big 3D city update, that Google also added downtown Miami after they earlier added Miami Beach. The current list I have for other cities where Google has a substantial portion of the city modeled in 3D includes: US: Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago, Nashville, Philadelphia, San Diego, Minneapolis, Kansas City, St. Petersburg, Jacksonville, Clearwater, Miami, and Miami Beach, San Francisco, Baltimore, Raleigh, Atlanta, Charlotte, Boston, Orlando, Austin, St. Louis, Oakland, Dallas, Tampa, Memphis, and Phoenix. Also, Zurich, Munich and Hamburg in Europe

If you find any other cities where the majority of the city has been rendered in 3D, please leave a comment here.

Famous Tourist Sites in 3D

Frank Taylor of Google Earth Blog — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 09:45:27 -0500

Google Earth's 3D dataset continues to grow and improve in quality over time. Many of the most famous tourist sites around the world are viewable in 3D. And, if you haven't visited these sites recently, it's worth checking back. Google has been gradually improving the resolution of the 3D terrain around the world. Places like the Grand Canyon, Mount St. Helens, and the Matterhorn are much better than they were when Google Earth was first released. Famous sites like Stonehenge, Christ the Redeemer, Pyramids of Giza, and many others have recently had improved 3D models added. Many of these models are coming from modelers who submit them to the 3D Warehouse and were selected to be included in the Google Earth 3D Buildings layer.

To give you a taste of many of the best tourist sites visible in 3D in Google Earth, I've put together a tour in Earthswoop of some of my favorites. You can view the collection of 3D Tourist Sites at Earthswoop . You will see about 25 locations around the world including: the Sphynx, Big Ben, Big Buddha, Disney World, Taj Mahal, and many others. Have fun on your free world tour!

NOTE: Earthswoop uses the Google Earth plugin, which only runs on Windows at the moment. But, Google has been promising a Mac version is in the works. You can search inside Google Earth for almost any of these locations (e.g. "Christ the Redeemer"). You might also get better quality viewing these locations inside the real Google Earth (depending on your graphics card), and especially the terrain if you increase your terrain quality settings inside Google Earth's Options. However, keep your terrain quality lower for normal viewing to keep your graphics speed up.

Browse Google 3D Warehouse in Google Earth

Frank Taylor of Google Earth Blog — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:58:16 -0500

Google has made a major upgrade to their 3D Warehouse Network Link which lets you view 3D models from the 3D Warehouse in Google Earth. After clicking on the link above, you can save the link to your My Places inside Google Earth to keep it handy. It won't take much space when turned off. The previous version of this network link forced you to wait a moment before seeing the available models. This new version uses KML regioning and the placemarks appear and disappear as you zoom in and out very smoothly. Each placemark can be clicked on to view a screenshot of the model, its popularity rating, links to download the model in GE, view more details at the 3D Warehouse, and a link to review the model yourself.

I really like the improvements to this new network link. One thing you'll notice is that a few people have randomly placed models out in the oceans. So, there's a bit of "graffiti" - but, some are kind of interesting or amusing. But, for the most part the 3D Warehouse file can be handy to either see different renderings of the same building, or buildings that haven't been added to the GE 3D Buildings layer yet. An example location is the "Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao " - a building designed by Frank Gehry (see recent post on Gehry). There are several nice models of the Bilbao Guggenheim in the 3D Warehouse, but none has been chosen for the GE 3D Buildings layer yet.

A little footnote: The 3D Warehouse network link shown here only shows models which have been "placed" in Google Earth. There are many more models in the 3D Warehouse than just buildings or bridges which can be seen in Google Earth. Components for engine parts, consumer products, planets, and practically anything you can imagine which could be 3D are in the Warehouse. Most of them don't really belong in Google Earth. At least at the moment.

Ancient Rome in 3D for Google Earth

Frank Taylor of Google Earth Blog — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 06:00:00 -0500

[UPDATE 11 PM: As mentioned in the post below, the layer for Rome is found under "Gallery->Ancient Rome 3D". However, this just loads the placemarks describing the key buildings. First, uncheck the "3D Buildings" layer. In order to see the Ancient Rome 3D models, you have to click on one of the placemarks where you will see three links. Load the first one - which is the terrain for ancient rome (that hides the modern Rome and raises it above the new city. Then load the second link which loads the 250 most detailed models. CAUTION: these models have a lot of complexity and you may need a newer machine with a fast graphics card to get these to load and update well. I'm sure Google will be working to simplify these models to make them load faster in future updates. If you load the third link with 5000 buildings - don't expect it to load all 5000 buildings at once. These buildings will only show when zoomed in close and only the nearby buildings will appear.]

For the first time, Google has published a 3D model of an ancient city as a layer viewable in Google Earth. For decades archaeologists, students, scholars, and architects have studied the history and remains of Rome and worked to understand the city's history. The new layer, found under Gallery->Ancient Rome 3D, depicts Rome in the year 320 AD - at the peak of its development with over a million inhabitants. At this time it was the largest metropolis in the world. The 3D models are actually based on a physical model of the city called the “Plastico di Roma Antica” - created by archaeologists and model-makers from 1933 to 1974 and housed in a special gallery in the Museum of Roman Civilization in Rome. 3D digital models were created based on scans of the physical model. Google joined forces with the Rome Reborn Project and Past Perfect Productions to create the Ancient Rome 3D layer. Google helped convert the models into a format suitable for viewing in Google Earth. According to an interview with Bruce Poulderman of Google, there are about 200 buildings which are classified as "Class I" models which scholars and historians know a lot about and have been rendered as faithfully as possible.

The layer contains more than 6700 3D building models. You can learn more about some of the buildings by clicking on more than 250 placemarks on many of the key sites and the placemark descriptions link to more advanced information including a topographical encyclopedia, ancient literary sources and bibliographical information about each building. The layer's placemarks are available in: English, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, Italian, Japanese, Russian, and Dutch.

See Google's video introducing the layer:

An extra feature in the 3D city is that 11 buildings have viewable interiors - these include: Basilica of Maxentius, Colosseum, Forum of Julius Caesar, Ludus Magnus, Temple of Venus and Rome, Temple of Vesta, Regia, Basilica Iulia, Basilica Aemelia, Curia Iulia, Tabularium.

In order to avoid conflicts with the different modern day terrain and 3D models, Google chose to "float" the Ancient Rome 3D layer above the modern day city by a few dozen meters. You can speed up your performance a bit by turning off the 3D Buildings layer in Google Earth while using the Gallery->Ancient Rome 3D.

To help stimulate educational applications related to the Rome layer, Google has also announced "The Ancient Rome Curriculum Contest". The competition is open to all K-12 educators (US Only) that will challenge teachers to produce lesson plans for their classrooms using the Ancient Rome 3D layer in Google Earth. Lessons for all subjects - from Art History to Engineering to Philosophy - are encouraged, and projects can be submitted in any format (KML, doc, ppt, skp), though KML and Google Doc submissions are encouraged. The deadline for submission is February 9, 2009. Six teachers will win prize packages including a laptop, classroom projector, digital camera, 3D mouse, $500 gift card, and a plaque. Read the web site for more details.

[UPDATE: See also Google's LatLong post, and Stefan has an informative write-up at OgleEarth.]

Virtual Globes at AGU 2008 - Science Applications of Google Earth

Frank Taylor of Google Earth Blog — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 08:30:03 -0500

If you are interested in scientific applications of Google Earth (and other virtual globe technologies), then the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) is the place to be. They are once again hosting a series of special sessions called "Virtual Globes at AGU" - with many papers, posters, and demonstrations. In 2006 and 2007 I flew out to San Francisco to attend these sessions and learned about a lot of scientific Google Earth applications (see links below). This year's line up of presentations looks equally fantastic (NOTE: there are four sessions at the top and summaries link to abstracts with more details). Thanks to John Bailey (one of the principle organizers of the Virtual Globes sessions listed on their main web page).

Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to attend this year. If you plan to attend this year's AGU, have a good grasp of Google Earth technology, and would like to serve as a Google Earth Blog guest writer, please contact me (leave a comment here, or send me an e-mail - see about page). I will publish several posts covering the AGU event. Don't be shy, this is a big enough event that more than one reporter may be needed.

Posts on prior GE-related sessions at AGU:

Street View Car Spotted in New Zealand

Frank Taylor of Google Earth Blog — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 08:01:26 -0500

Over the weekend, GEB reader Mark Crook in Queenstown, New Zealand spotted a Google Street View car and snapped some photos. Google is really burning up the pavement taking photos all over the world. With Street View imagery available in Google Maps and Google Earth beyond the US now in: France, Italy, Spain, Australia, and Japan.

To see Street View imagery in Google Earth, just turn on the Street View layer. Here are some tips on how to use the interface.

Links: Location OS, GeoEye, Super Tour Mashup

Frank Taylor of Google Earth Blog — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 07:25:11 -0500

Location OS - The introduction of location awareness to the Apple iPhone OS, and Google Android OS, means that phone applications on these systems can have standardized availibility to location. The iPhone released location awareness in their OS upgrade in June 2008. And Android's location awareness was built in with the first phone released - the Tmobile G1. Already there are dozens of applications (if not hundreds) which support, or are built around, the location awareness capability. Applications like geotagging your photos, finding nearby friends for a meet up, finding the cheapest nearby gas station, and more are all available on your phone. According to Google's Geo Team tech guru Ed Stone, Microsoft Windows has announced they will provide location awareness interfaces under the Windows OS. He also hints that Apple may announce such location awareness in the rumored January announcement of a new Apple OS dubbed "Snow Leopard".
GeoEye - Satellite imagery provider GeoEye got some major public exposure with a big story in Friday's USA Today. Of course, the paper's angle had a negative slant telling how having these high resolution satellite images (the same ones we've been using in Google Earth for over 3 years) in the hands of the public is "worrying the government". However, the article goes on to explain many of the positive uses of the imagery and makes it plain that this kind of imagery is here to stay. The good news for GeoEye is that it gets their name in the mainstream media in a mostly positive context. via AnyGeo
Super Tour Mashup - Another mashup called Gaiagi is using the popular Google Earth plugin (Still Windows only) milk truck driving simulator, but goes way beyond a simple mod. This mashup lets you do 3D driving tours in the GE plugin in various locations and simultaneously shows your position on Google Maps, shows you Street View imagery, and shows you Microsoft Virtual Earth Bird's Eye imagery all at the same time! I like the way the developer handles the situation if you are using the Mac (or a browser that doesn't support the GE Plugin) - it shows you a screenshot of what you would be seeing and suggests you load the plugin (if you can). This mashup is a great concept, especially with the increasing availability of imagery for all these sources. The developer has already released some tours in Europe as well as in the US. via GoogleMapsMania