Google Earth Blog

Sketchup 7.1 bug fixes and lifelike facades

Google Earth Blog — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:45:50 -0500

To go along with the nice imagery update yesterday, Google has done a few things to help improve the 3D models found in Google Earth

Update to SketchUp 7.1: This update consists entirely of bug fixes, with no new features present. It fixes some measurement and precision errors, among other things. Here are the full release notes if you're interested. SketchUp 7.1 added a lot of great features, so this update should make modelers very happy.

3D models with detailed facades: Using StreetView imagery, in a way similar to what you can do in SketchUp 7.1, Google has added high-res facades to buildings in five California cities: Los Angeles, San Diego, San Franciso, Berkeley and Stockton. By using StreetView imagery to detail the 3D models, zoomed in areas of the downtown streets look stunning. Here's a quick video showing some of these new buildings:.

I'd expect we'll see this technology find its way over to Building Maker eventually. Having that kind of imagery available in Building Maker would allow them to expand the available area for it much more rapidly.

In the meantime, enjoy the sharp looking cities in California. They're quite stunning and becoming more realistic all the time.

More new imagery in Google Earth

Google Earth Blog — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:26:07 -0500

It's only been a couple of weeks since their last update, but Google has just pushed out more new imagery for Google Earth.

Some of the areas that have been updated are various locations in the United States (including Florida and California), a few locations in Brazil, northern India, northern New Zealand and a variety of other locations around the world.

You can see the new locations using this KML file, or view them here in Google Maps.

Share your finds: As with previous updates, they're encouraging you to Tweet about interesting things that you find in the new imagery using the #GEarthIMG hashtag. You could also drop a link to your interesting discoveries in our comments, or submit them to the database over at Google Earth Hacks.

Google Earth 5.1 released; no longer considered beta

Google Earth Blog — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:18:05 -0500

Google Earth 5.1 has been out for a few months now, and it's been very well-received. It had a slew of bug fixes, some small new features, and some exceptional speed improvements. That's not to say it was perfect.

Over the past few months, Google has been refining it and now they've released an updated version of Google Earth 5.1 and they've removed the "beta" label from it. This update will take you from version 5.1.3509.4636 to 5.1.3533.1731. The Google update tools aren't showing this release yet, so you'll need to download it directly from the Google Earth site.

Google hasn't said a whole lot about the update, other than it has "a few more tweaks and bug fixes". However, for Mac users this update includes the Google Earth plug-in when you install it, much like the Windows version has in recent releases.

The only known bug fix that I'm aware of was from this critter that's been around for a little while. If you were running Windows Vista or 7 with more than four gigs of RAM, 3D buildings would often fail to fully load. I experienced this issue on my new computer, and I'm very happy to report that this update fixes the problem!

Beyond that, I'm sure there were quite a few other small fixes -- have you noticed any in particular?

Google adds new cities and features to Building Maker

Google Earth Blog — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:24:52 -0500

Ever since Google released Building Maker last month, we've been big fans of it. 3D models are a very neat aspect of Google Earth, and Building Maker is helping to get a lot more buildings modeled for Earth in a very short period of time.

Despite our enjoyment of Building Maker, it has some shortcomings. Google has come to the rescue and addressed some of them. If you look in Building Maker now you'll find:

More Cities: They've added eight more cities for you to model: Brussels, Belgium; Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Cologne, Germany; Dortmund, Germany; Boston, MA; Las Vegas, NV; Los Angeles, CA; San Jose, CA. While none of the existing areas have been expanded, San Jose covers the largest area of any of the available cities.

Google Earth view in Location Picker: When choosing a location to model, you can switch your view to "Earth" to see which buildings are already in Google Earth. This doesn't show you which buildings already have models that are awaiting approval, but it's certainly a very useful tool.

Save Drafts: Now when you're working on a building, you have the option to save it as a draft and work on it later. When you click the "Save" button, choose "Additional Options" and you can uncheck the box for "This building is complete and ready for review". This allows you to go back later to work more on the building before submitting it for approval.

Freeform Polygon: A new primitive type of object is available, known as the "Freeform Polygon". It's a bit tricky to use, but can be quite powerful. If you want to try out this new tool, Google's advice is to first toggle off the snapping tool, drag and constrain the points of the polygon in multiple images, and then toggle on the snapping tool to glue the points to existing blocks.

Here is a very simple video that Google created to show off some of the new features:

Google Earth 2.0 for iPhone released

Google Earth Blog — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:27:10 -0500

Google has just pushed out version 2.0 of their iPhone app. The big enhancement in this version is the new synchronization with your "My Maps" that you've saved in Google Maps. You can see the maps, lines, etc and even layer them together.

They've also added visual feedback when you select photos, businesses and other icons to make it easier to browse. When you select an icon, it will glow so you know which one you've selected.

In addition, they've improved the overall performance and added 13 new languages for a total of 31 in all.

You can download the updated app here. You can also check out this ReadWriteWeb article that explains more about converting your trips to KML to load into My Maps (and thus to the iPhone).

Egiate is a neat way to look for colleges

Google Earth Blog — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:25:16 -0500

As you (or your children, as the case may be) start hunting for colleges, there's a slick new tool to help you out. Egiate (as in coll-egiate) is a database of colleges in the US, with lots of slick Google Earth Plug-in use on the site.

They offer some nice tools to help you filter down to the school you want based on the type of degree offered, minimum test scores to get in, and a variety of other filters. They have data for 4800 schools, and will fly you there via the Google Earth Plug-in when you find one (it automatically defaults to Google Maps if you don't have the plug-in).

For some campuses (such as Dartmouth, shown above), they use the plug-in to give a tour of the entire campus. When viewing a campus, try out the "Yelp" search box on the right. If you search for something like "coffee" or "wifi", the results populate on the map instantly! When making a decision about a school, little things like that can sometimes make a difference and it's a very slick implementation of it.

In addition, they have an iPhone app (with Google Map support) and an Android app due out next year. They're even looking at support for Google Wave in the near future.

It's got a few shortcomings -- you can't link directly to a school, you can't search for abbreviations ("USC", "UGA", etc), and some minor things like that. I know the development team is working hard to iron those out, and it's shaping up to be a neat project. It's a great example of how you can use the Google Earth Plug-in to showcase this kind of data.

If you need to do some college shopping, check out Egiate.

New 3D cities released: Valencia, Spain and Oklahoma City

Google Earth Blog — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:02:08 -0500

Google has just pushed out their weekly 3D building release, and the two new cities this week are Valencia, Spain and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Google has released a nice video fly-through of Valencia, which you can see here:

In addition, they've offered up some neat sights to see in the city:

City of Arts and Sciences (KMZ)
Plaza de Toros (KMZ)
Saint Mary of Valencia Cathedral (KMZ)

Find any other cool sights in either city? Tell us in the comments!

Tahina Expedition Departing Soon

Google Earth Blog — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:09:24 -0500

In a matter of hours - as early as tomorrow evening - my wife and I will be departing on a five year sailing circumnavigation called the Tahina Expedition. I've mentioned the trip on Google Earth Blog several times (for example: here and here) because we are using my favorite application a great deal on the trip. For planning the trip, documenting our route, displaying our track as we travel, displaying our photos, and even contributing content which Google will share with everyone. Not only that, but we just announced today that National Geographic will be following our trip and using our content on their ocean-related sites.

Here's a couple of interesting Google Earth related projects we will be conducting on the Tahina Expedition:

Kite Aerial Photography - I've got a camera rig that flies from a kite so we can take very high resolution aerial photos. The photos will be processed and sent back to Google so they can include them in the base imagery of Google Earth. See the first example in the post linked here.
360 Panoramas - We will also be taking 360 degree panoramas which will be put into Google Earth through the 360Cities.net layer. See the first test example of a photo taken a couple of days ago of Tahina.
3D Tahina - for fun, look at a 3D tour of our boat Tahina with the Google Earth plugin.

Make sure you book mark the Tahina Expedition site, and include our blog in your RSS reader. You'll be able to follow along on our five year trip and see all kinds of interesting photos, videos, and Google Earth content. There will also be a layer in Google Earth showing our travels (that will be announced soon).

How to use StreetView in Google Earth

Google Earth Blog — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:03:10 -0500

It's a subject we've discussed before, but it's worth taking another look. With all of the great new StreetView imagery arriving the last week, many people don't realize how easy it is to view that imagery in Google Earth. If you find yourself in Google Earth using one of the many layers they've built in or exploring a KML file you recently downloaded, it can be handy to dive into StreetView mode without having to load your browser and use Google Maps.

This brief video gives you an overview of how it's done:

If you prefer text-based instructions, here is a short explanation of how it's done:

The first thing you'll need to do is look for the Street View layer on the lower left of Google Earth and turn it on by clicking the little box to the left. Then look for the gold camera icons as you zoom into a street location of interest. If you single-click the left mouse button on a Street View camera icon, you get a placemark that shows the photo. Click the link there to enter the Street View image. Or, double-click to fly straight in.

Street View in Google Earth uses the special Photo Viewer tool which lets you pan around the inside of a 3D projected photo. Street View images are spherical panoramas allowing you to look around 360 degrees side-to-side and up-down. You can even see the spherical Street View photos as you zoom in close over a street. With Google Earth, you can adjust the transparency of the images and compare the background 3D terrain or 3D buildings (if available) and see that the Street View photos match the surrounding area. You can also turn on other layers such as the Geographic Web (including photos), Roads, Dining, Lodging, etc. to get more information on an area.

There are literally millions of StreetView images in Google Earth, with more being added all the time. Have fun browsing around and see what you can find. If you'd like some fun StreetView items to browse, check out StreetViewFun.com or the Google Earth Hacks StreetView section. If you use the GEH collection, look for the "View in Google Earth" button to be flown directly to that item in Google Earth, as seen in the screenshot below.

If you know of other interesting collections of StreetView sights, leave a comment and let us know.

Links: Full list of StreetView updates, TeachMideast.org, CyberCity 3D partners with HomeGain

Google Earth Blog — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:02:17 -0500

Full list of StreetView updates We told you a few days ago about some large amounts of new data for StreetView. As time passed, Google slowly revealed more and more coverage. Along with the already covered Mexico, Netherlands and Hawaii, Google has released details about the new imagery in Spain, and it's been confirmed that new imagery has been added to various locations in the United States and has finally come to the Canary Islands.

Google Maps Mania showcases some of the best views in each area: Spain | Hawaii | Netherlands | Mexico

TeachMideast.org Launches Teach Mideast has just launched, and it provides a ton of free K-12 resources that cover the Middle East, Islam and Muslim societies. It uses an embedded map on the site to showcase their data, and gives a quick "View in Google Earth" link to allow you to go deeper. For teachers that cover that part of the world (history, geography, etc), this could be an excellent resource.

CyberCity 3D parters with HomeGain While I still think that ultimately we'll all be able to easily model our own homes using something like Building Maker, it'll be quite a while before that's available in a wide enough area. Until then, it's neat to see the growing competition between various "home modeling" companies as they fight for real estate business. The big winner in all of this is us, in the form of a more informative (and fun!) house-hunting search.

CC3D launched their "Virtual Viewing" product a few months ago, and now they've teamed up with HomeGain.com to showcase some of those renderings on their site. I'm disappointed it's not an embedded model, but it's still nice to see at least some level of integration. Here's a sample page where you can click on some of the "View in 3D" buttons.

Concept3D does some similar work (as we discussed last month), but they don't have any direct ties to real estate companies that we're aware of.

Here's a screenshot of how the CyberCity3D/HomeGain integration works.

New StreetView imagery in Mexico, Netherlands, Hawaii

Google Earth Blog — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:30:56 -0500

Google has just released StreetView imagery for a variety of locations in Mexico, the Netherlands and Hawaii, and has vastly increased the amount of imagery available in Spain.

The new cities in Mexico include Monterrey, Guadalajara, Mexico City, Puerto Vallarta , Playa del Carmen, Cozumel and Cancun.

Near Cancun, Mexico

The new cities in the Netherlands include Utrecht, Den Haag, Eindhoven, Den Bosch, Tilburg and Leeuwarden.

Utrecht, Netherlands

Hawaii now has StreetView imagery for the first time, according to the Official Google Blog. It appears that other states have seen some expanded and/or refreshed imagery as well, but we can't verify that yet.

Waialua, Hawaii

It also appears that some Spain has received a lot more imagery.

If you see anything else that's been updated, please let us know in the comments below. If you find anything cool, be sure to add it to the Google Earth Hacks Streetview section.

Track Hurricane Ida in Google Earth

Google Earth Blog — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:55:52 -0500

Hurricane Ida is on a path for the central Gulf Coast, expected to make landfall tonight somewhere between New Orleans and Pensacola. While the storm is expected to weaken before it hits land, it will still arrive as a strong tropical storm and could cause quite a lot of damage.

As you know, Google Earth has some excellent tools for tracking storms like this. You can overlay weather satellite photos, radar, storm tracks, real-time lightning strikes, pressure maps, wind maps, sea surface temperatures, and more. We've written about many of the tools available in the past. Here is a set of weather tools in a single network link that lets you get access to great weather data in one convenient package. Check out the many datasets starting with two different storm tracking tools. You can also read more details about the collection.

To help you understand what's possible with these weather tools, here is a video demonstration that Frank created a few years ago:

There's also an excellent new tool available for Google Earth which lets you follow the hurricane hunters as they fly into the storms and collect data. Check out the story about live hurricane hunter mission data.

MS Oasis of the Seas heading for Florida

Google Earth Blog — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:37:21 -0500

The largest cruise ship in the world, the MS Oasis of the Seas, is on a journey from Finland to Fort Lauderdale, FL. She's expected to arrive in Florida this week, with her maiden voyage from Miami scheduled for December 1.

A user named 'sladys' over at Google Earth Hacks has posted a KML file to see the journey of the ship. In addition, 'Naruto_fan' has modeled the Oasis of the Seas, along with her soon-to-be sister Allure of the Seas, in the Google 3D Warehouse.

The ship has already had quite an adventure. On November 1, she had to pass under the Great Belt Fixed Link bridge in Denmark. The bridge has a clearance of 213ft above the water, but the ship has a height of 236ft. This obviously posed a problem. By lowering it's telescoping smokestacks, waiting until low tide, and using a full thrust, the ship was able to squeeze under the bridge with about two feet to spare! Check out the video below to see it happen:

Links: Milwaukee and Indianpolis 3D buildings, Fraps 3.0 released

Google Earth Blog — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:13:44 -0500

New 3D Buildings in Milwaukee and Indianapolis: Google continues to add more 3D buildings to Google, having just released Milwaukee, WI and Indianapolis, IN, along with thousands of user-generated buildings. As with past releases, I would expect that most of the user-generated buildings were from people using the Building Maker tool. (via @3DWH)

Fraps Version 3.0 Released: Fraps is a Windows-only program that allows you to easily grab video from almost any program that uses DirectX or OpenGL, including Google Earth. We've used it before to show off things like Disney in 3D and it does a great job.

Today they've released version 3.0 with a few significant improvements. In particular, it now supports DirectX 11 and Windows 7, two essential technologies that this kind of software needs to support. I've tried out the new version and it runs as well as the previous ones. For $37, it's a steal. Even better, you can try it out for free (with a watermark added to the video) to see how well it'll work for you.

I personally use Jing for a lot of screen capture sessions, but for getting video imagery directly from Google Earth, Fraps can capture at a much better frame rate.

New Historical Imagery Added

Google Earth Blog — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:54:48 -0500

One of the really neat features introduced in Google Earth 5 is the historical imagery slider. Using this tool, you can view old imagery and compare it to more recent imagery for a particular location.

Over the past year, we've seen some neat examples of that. Below is a video that Frank made back in February that shows how the feature works and gives a quick tour of the "Bird's Nest" stadium from the 2008 Olympics.

In March, Google added a lot more imagery to this section, which offered some neat perspective on things like Amazon deforestation. It's also allowed us to revisit neat old discoveries that were lost after subsequent imagery updates, such as this KC-135 refueling in mid-air, or over 1700 items on Google Earth Hacks that are "outdated" but can still be seen using this tool.

Today, Google has added more historical imagery including some for Berlin, Germany beween 1945 and 1953. It's neat to be able to go back and see how a city has changed over the years, especially when you can span more than half a century between two images.

Check it out, and be sure to let us know if you find any other interesting historical imagery out there.