Google Earth Blog

New Google Earth Imagery - May 16

Google Earth Blog — Wed, 16 May 2012 06:34:52 -0500

Less than two weeks after their previous update, it appears that Google has just pushed out some more fresh imagery to Google Earth. Thanks to 'Munden' for letting us know about it!

As is almost always the case, you can use Google Maps to determine for sure whether or not a specific area is fresh. This new imagery isn't in Google Maps yet, so you can compare Earth vs. Maps to see what's new; the fresh imagery is already in Google Earth, but the old imagery is still in Google Maps. If you compare the two side-by-side and they're not identical, that means that you've found a freshly updated area in Google Earth!

United States: Illinois (Neoga, Quincy), Michigan (Traverse City), Minnesota (Minneapolis, St. Paul), Ohio (Akron, Cleveland, Youngstown), Pennsylvania (State College)

If you find any other updated areas, please leave a comment and let us know!

Gipuzkoa, Spain wins the 2012 Model Your Town Competition

Google Earth Blog — Wed, 16 May 2012 06:25:49 -0500

We've talked about Pedro Domecq Aguirre, better known as "PeterG", quite a few times on here. Most recently we showed you his amazing 3D model of Saint Basil's Cathedral. He recently got some big news, and him and his teammate Josetxo Perez Fernandez were announced as the winners of Google's 2012 Model Your Town Competition!

Of the six finalists in the running, their models of Getaria, Gipuzkoa, Spain were voted as being the best. As you can see from the image below, they certainly did an awesome job:

Their awesome work will help to show the world how great Getaria is, and it also earned a $25,000 prize to a local school!

To see more about the work that they did, check out this short video flyover of the city:

To read more about the competition and their victory, check out the full blog entry over on the Google Lat Long Blog.

Russian satellite brings us one step closer to real-time Google Earth

Google Earth Blog — Tue, 15 May 2012 07:04:58 -0500

We often get questions from users wondering how to access the "real-time Google Earth imagery". As you probably know, that doesn't yet exist. In fact, if you understand how Google Earth imagery works, you'll realize that we're a long way from a real-time version of Google Earth.

However, we're a small step closer to that goal with the release of a 121-megapixel image from a Russian satellite, the highest-resolution non-stitched image of the earth that has ever been captured:

It seems likely that the only way to achieve a real-time Google Earth will be to have satellites capturing incredibly high-resolution images and transferring them back down to earth. While this image is certainly remarkable, it's roughly 1000 meters per pixel. Decent imagery in Google Earth is 1 meter per pixel (or better), so cameras will need to capture imagery at much higher resolution to make it work.

In addition to that, there's the issue of transferring the imagery to earth, properly aligning it, dealing with clouds, etc. We're still years away from a real-time Google Earth, but this has brought us one small step closer to it!

(via CNET)

Viewing Fusion Table data on mobile devices

Google Earth Blog — Mon, 14 May 2012 08:15:03 -0500

We've talked a bit about Google's Fusion Tables product before -- a great way to turn a table full of data (such as an Excel spreadsheet) into a fully functional map!

The maps can easily be shared through a Google Maps interface or even in Google Earth, but the mobile support for Fusion Table projects has been pretty weak. That's where the folks from Build-A-Map have stepped in, with a new product called My Fusion Tables.

My Fusion Tables a mobile application that allows you to browse, view, and map data from Google Fusion Tables on both mobile phones and tablets. You can find it in the iOS App Store or on Google Play.

Have you built any interesting applications with Fusion Tables? How well do they work in My Fusion Tables?

How to correct map errors in Google Earth

Google Earth Blog — Fri, 11 May 2012 07:08:31 -0500

We get a lot of emails from users asking us to correct data errors in Google Earth -- incorrect road names, mis-marked addresses, etc. We can't do that directly, but fortunately Google has a great solution to help you out.

To start, you don't actually fix the errors in Google Earth; you fix them in Google Maps, and those corrections are synced into Google Earth over the course of a few weeks.

To suggest a correction, simply right-click on an area inside of Google Maps and choose "Report a problem". The following screen will pop-up and will walk you through the process:

I've suggested quite a few edits to my local area, and all have been accepted into Google Earth/Maps and helped make my town more accurate. It's a great tool to help make Google products more accurate for everyone. To learn more about how this process works, you can visit this page in the Google Maps support system.

Non-spherical panoramas on 360cities

Google Earth Blog — Thu, 10 May 2012 08:41:03 -0500

Over the years we've mentioned 360cities.net quite a few times. They have a great product that is easy to use, and even have their own layer inside of of Google Earth. The panoramas that they allow people to create can be quite stunning:

They've recently added some new features such as being a part of Flipboard on iOS as well as the improved Google Currents. However, I think their best new feature is support for non-spherical panoramas.

Historically, 360cities has only supported fully spherical images for use in panoramas. This means that the image must not only have a 360 degree view, but must include imagery when looking straight up or down. The result is amazing panoramas such as the one below:

The problem is that people often have 360 degree imagery, but it doesn't have the complete image directly above and below the camera. In the past, you needed to pad the image with black strips along the top and bottom in order for their site to accept it, but that's no longer necessary.

To try it for yourself, simply head over to your upload page and upload a new panorama. To explore more of the works on their site, dig into their layer on Google Earth (found inside of the [Gallery] folder) or check out some of the editor's picks on their site.

PeterG's great new model of Saint Basil's Cathedral

Google Earth Blog — Wed, 09 May 2012 07:08:22 -0500

We've shown you work from 3D modeler 'PeterG' quite a few times here on Google Earth Blog. He built one of the first great 3D interiors that we saw, some nice 3D tours of Mount Urgull, and quite a few other models.

His latest work is the remodeling of Saint Basil's Cathedral in Red Square, Moscow, Russia. It's a stunning model that you need to see to believe.

To go check it out for yourself, you can fly there by using this KML file. Be sure to have the [3D Buildings] layer turned on to view the building.

He has also built a nice video to show off the model, so if you're not able to access Google Earth right now, this video will give you a good look at what he's done:

Great work, PeterG!

Explore Terbuka University in 3D

Google Earth Blog — Tue, 08 May 2012 06:27:24 -0500

Over the past few years we've seen a variety of 3D University maps in different formats, including Harrisburg, Cantabria, Central Florida, Duke, Northeastern, Bowling Green and many others. The latest is a slick 3D map developed by Exist.inc from a variety of Universities in Indonesia, including Tebuka University.

Along with the excellent interface using the Google Earth Plug-in, Exist is also the company behind all of the excellent 3D models for the campus. All of the models are in the main 3D Buildings layer in Google Earth, and they look great!

You can explore them for yourself by using this KML file. Be sure to check out Google Earth Plugin-powered version at www.ut.ac.id/unit/3d.

View historical shoreline surveys going back to 1841

Google Earth Blog — Mon, 07 May 2012 07:04:14 -0500

The NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) has been mentioned on Google Earth Blog quite a few times. They make excellent use of Google Earth as a way to visualize the vast amounts of data that they process.

They've recently released a collection of nearly 8,000 shoreline surveys that have been collected over the past 171 years. Using Google Earth, you can preview and overlay any of the surveys in a very intuitive manner. Thanks to the way that Google Earth handles image overlays, wrapping the imagery over the terrain, the results can be pretty interesting:

To view the data in Google Earth, you can load this KMZ file, which will show the outlines of all available areas. Use the timeslider at the top to choose a range of years, then click on the outline of an area for details. The "Preview" option for each item will load the data directly into Google Earth, filling the space that was outlined.

For more, you can visit the NOAA Historical Shoreline Survey Viewer site.

New Google Earth Imagery - May 4

Google Earth Blog — Fri, 04 May 2012 14:17:36 -0500

Thanks to sharp-eyed GEB reader 'Andre', it appears that Google has just pushed out a fresh imagery update.

Austria: Vienna
Gambia: Near the coast
Germany: Flensburg, GieBen
Italy: Mugello
Mongolia: Nalayh
United States: New Mexico (Albuquerque), North Carolina (Greensboro, High Point, Winston-Salem), Texas (Camp Wood, Leakey, Utopia, Uvalde)

If you find any other updated areas, please leave a comment and let us know!

Meograph's "four-dimension storytelling" demo goes live

Google Earth Blog — Fri, 04 May 2012 06:59:26 -0500

While I was at Where 2012 last month, I sat down with Misha Leybovich to discuss a new product he was working on called Meograph. At the time there wasn't anything to show, but they've just launched their first demo and it's looking quite impressive.

They call it "Four-dimensional storytelling", adding geospatial information to go along with photos, audio, video and text. The result is a very compelling way to share a story, as seen here in this screenshot from the Whitney Houston demo.

While you can't yet create your own meographs on the system, that ability is coming soon. They're hoping to open it up for registration sometime this summer, though journalists can request alpha access right now by emailing journalism@meograph.com. Ultimately it will be a great tool for telling stories about the news, which can be embedded on your own site. It reminds me a bit of the Google Earth Diorama, in that it gives you an easy way to embed other media into the Google Earth Plug-in.

At this point it appears that Meograph will be a bit easier to use, while Diorama will be more powerful. However, both products are still being developed and it'll be interesting to see how they progress.

You can explore the Meograph demo site at meograph.com/demo.

The 3D models of Artur Mazur

Google Earth Blog — Thu, 03 May 2012 06:56:07 -0500

I was cruising around on Google+ when I came across these great pictures from Artur Mazur, comparing a 3D model of his in Google Earth to the real-life location:

While Artur hasn't created a ton of models, he's had 39 models accepted into Google Earth and the quality of his work is quite impressive. Another great example is this model, found in southern Poland:

Most of his work can be found in remote areas, so I encourage you to view his collection of models in the 3D Warehouse and see them for yourself in Google Earth.

Nice work, Artur!

The 2012 Giro d'Italia in Google Earth

Google Earth Blog — Wed, 02 May 2012 06:26:47 -0500

This Saturday is the start of the 2012 Giro d'Italia bicycle race in Italy. It'll be the 95th edition of the race and should be an exciting event.

The folks at CyclingTheAlps.com, who have created excellent tours that we've shown you before, have created some great resources to help to follow the race.

First, they've created an overview of all the new stages where you can select each stage:

Once a stage is loaded you will now get a video fly over generated using Google Earth to give you a quick look at the complete stage:

They have another page that provides an overview of the race for each stage including 3D Tours, Profiles, Street View Tours and more. Plus, they've created an Android App that allows you to watch fly overs of all the stages and climbs in high detail and explore the routes on a map.

Here is one more video to show what they've done with Google Earth. This is the final stage of the race, which is an individual time trial in Milan:

If you have any interest in the 2012 Giro d'Italia, the features provided by the team at Cycling The Alps should be of great value to you.

New York's newest "Tallest Building"

Google Earth Blog — Tue, 01 May 2012 06:26:17 -0500

The Empire State Building was the tallest building in the world following its completion in 1931. It lost the title in 1972 to the World Trade Center, but regained its status as the tallest in New York following the horrible terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Yesterday it was again demoted to being the second tallest in the city when the new One World Trade Center building surpassed its height of 1,250 feet tall.

The model of the new building inside of Google Earth is updated regularly, but SketchUp artist Athinaios in the 3D Warehouse regularly updates his model and is a much better source to use.

You can pull the model directly into Google Earth by using this KML file. To avoid having both buildings overlapping, you can right-click on the existing model and choose "Hide Building". Any buildings hidden using this method will automatically be restored the next time you start Google Earth.

Nice work, Athinaios!

(via SketchUp Island)

UFO Sightings in Google Earth

Google Earth Blog — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 07:16:03 -0500

For centuries, humans have been witnessing UFOs in the sky. What those objects actually were may never be known, but the vast quantity of reported sightings in the last 150 years is quite amazing.

Created back in 2005, this UFO Sightings KMZ file still seems to be the most comprehensive of its kind. The map was created by Poly9, who was acquired by Apple a few years ago and no one seems to have updated the file since then. However, the file contains thousands of sightings each with details on what was seen:

UFOmaps.com contains somewhat more recent information and uses a nice Google Maps interface to display it, but nothing past 2010 is in there.

The National UFO Reporting Center is very up to date, and their data was used in the original KMZ file, but they don't seem to have any kind of geospatial solution in place to view the data.

There have also been a number of UFO sightings in Google Street View. Some are listed on UFOsearchonline.com and you can find a few others by searching for "UFO" in the Google Earth Hacks Street View database.

Whether you believe in true UFO sightings or not, Google Earth is a great platform from which to view the patterns of sightings and explore what people may or may not have seen.