Google Earth Blog

For a fast look at the main new features of Google Earth 4.3, here's a 6 minute video demonstration. Shown in the video are the new day/night lighting effects, new 3D buildings, new 3D navigation gadgets, and, of course, the new Street View imagery inside Google Earth. You need to download the new Google Earth 4.3 to see these new features (see tips on getting the brand new download). Read my mini-review of GE 4.3 for more details on the new features. Here's the video:

[UPDATE 2145 ET: I've created a quick video demo of 4.3 and put it on YouTube .... And, here is a YouTube demo by Google of 4.3].

Google Earth 4.3 (beta) is now available. You can download it from the Google Earth download page. The Google Earth web site has been updated, and the User Guide now reflects 4.3 tips.

This is Google Earth 4.3 (beta) - an incremental update with new features and some pretty cool new data as well. Based on the last release, we'll probably see an update to this version, fixing any problems that surface for the beta, and an official 4.3 will be released in a few weeks. Also, this is NOT a major new version (which presumably would be called GE 5.0 - and would contain a whole suite of new capabilities, data and interfaces). However, as mentioned in my earlier post, there are some significant new features.

First off, we have new day/night lighting effects. You can turn on a real-time sunlight which shines on the new atmospheric lighting Google has added. Look for the new sun icon in the upper middle (next to the new Sky button). Once it loads, you will see the current position of the sun. You can grab the time slider to change the sun over the course of a whole day so you can see the sun from sunrise to sunrise. Note that the lighting effects the atmosphere, so you actually get color changes near the horizon, and on clouds (if you turn on the Weather->Clouds layer). Here are some sample screenshots showing the lighting effects:

I expect there will be some pretty screenshots showing some cool lighting effects in the coming days...

Keep reading this post for more details and screenshots.

Just now downloaded Google Earth Version 4.3 off the Google servers! In order to get it, I had to go to the old way of downloading Google Earth. Please note: the following method will bypass the Google Updater method, but will enable you to get an early look if you can't wait to see the new version. Further note: Not all the servers will have the new version. You may not get 4.3 when you try this! So, if you're in a hurry, click here to download old method. If you're more patient, the better way is to visit the official Google Earth download page after waiting a few hours for the servers to completely deploy.

Real quick, here is a couple of screenshots to whet your appetite. I will begin writing a mini-review of the main new features next and developing some videos. So...here is what Google Earth 4.3 looks like:

Notice in the second shot this is a close-up view of Street Views (normally you see gold camera icons). You click on a sphere and you enter inside and can look around (or double-click a camera icon). You can then double-click on camera icons to be flown to other views (from within the sphere). This is done through the GE Photo Viewer interface, and works pretty well. Turn on the Street View layer to see the icons, and then fly to a city with the icons to see them up close.

[UPDATE - First mini review with more screenshots here]

[UPDATED: 0815 ET - Added features: Flash on the Mac, and faster switching to Sky]

Today Google will be releasing a new version of Google Earth: Version 4.3. The download isn't available yet, but will be sometime later today. Based on past experience, the download will be available in some areas of the world sooner than others (many servers are needed to distribute to the millions of world-wide GE users). GEB will release full details and screen shots as soon as possible. Here are some of the more notable new features expected in GE 4.3:

• Street View inside Google Earth - As rumored weeks ago, Street View will be here soon. And, yes - the images will be viewed with the Photo Viewer. That answers that question.

• Imagery Dates - You will now be able to easily see the dates when imagery was taken for most imagery (but, not all - simply because the date data isn't always available from the many imagery providers delivering to Google).

• New navigational controls - New features enabling better ways to look around at 3D buildings and 3D terrain using new navigation gadgets and your mouse or keyboard.

• More 3D buildings, faster loading - Faster loading 3D building models, and faster rendering as well. New photo-textured cities (it will be interesting to find out how they were made, where they came from, and how many new cities are included).

• Day/Night Lighting - Real-time sunlight lighting option. Time slider control of the sun position. Expect a more realistic looking view of Earth from space. This has been done before by others, but now will be available built-in and supported by Google.

• Flash Support for Mac - That's right, you'll now be able to play YouTube videos and put other flash apps inside Google Earth placemarks just like on Windows. There may be a couple of caveats though from reports I have. More on this later.

• Switching to Sky Faster - Switching between Sky and Earth modes will be much faster.

The file format developed initially for Google Earth to exchange geographic information and mapping presentations is now an international standard. The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) will now take control over the KML standard. Here's Google's comments on the KML file format:

I know the Google team have been working hard to develop KML features and documentation, and working with the OGC over the course of the past few years to make this a standard. It's a testament to their hard work, the support of millions of users of KML, and the support of many companies participating in the OGC that this standard has been accepted.

via Google Lat Long. Also, see CNET news article.

The other day GEB mentioned a research project called Viewfinder which is attempting to greatly simplify the process for placing photos in the precise orientation the photos were taken for viewing with Google Earth. When version 4.2 was released last August, Google added new KML features and a Photo Viewer mode which lets you share and see photos the way they were taken - in 3D position. The photos can be normal snapshots, panoramas or complete 360 spheres as well (see this helicopter example). Not only that, but you can also have super-high resolution photos where more details are brought in as you zoom (see the Gigapxl photos for example, found under the Gallery layer folder).

If your photo shows terrain or 3D buildings which happen to be modeled in Google Earth, you can match your photo to the background for comparing your photo to the Google Earth world. The Viewfinder video demonstrates the results of this really well.

You can actually enter your photos using the built in Google Earth interface for adding a photo (see user guide tips). However, it can be a bit tricky to place the photos correctly. I've created a short video on how to do it. First, I found some photos by turning on the Geographic Web layer. Good candidates are photos with 3D terrain - so, I chose one at Yosemite National Park. Watch this short video for a quick tutorial on adding a photo aligned with background terrain:

Keep reading for more details and advanced photo techniques for Google Earth.

• Google Earth and SketchUp Classes Available - Alex Oliver of school (which does great SketchUp Training DVDs and samples on their site - see GEB review), has written to let me know they are the first Google Authorized Training Center (ATC) in the US. They now offer live training classes for SketchUp and Google Earth! The Google Earth class is currently being taught in 17 locations around the country and more being added each week. Here is the schedule of classes available. More details on the classes are on this page.

• Sea Ice Update - The folks at the Snow and Ice Data Center have updated their Sea Ice Extent KML file. This file shows a time animation of the extent of ice at both poles. There is a magenta colored line which shows the average ice extent for comparisons. The new file not only includes the new March data, but also has a new option to turn off the layer when not in use. This makes it easier to keep the network link in your Place pane. See the GEB review of the Sea Ice Extent file. NOTE: there's also a new "Greenland Annual Surface Ice Melt" file at their GE page.

• Bergen Terrain - Here's an interesting tip. A GEB reader from Norway named Ove Daae Lampe wrote to let me know the recent upgrade to the data layers included a high resolution terrain map for Bergen, Norway. This is very high resolution terrain - possibly from LIDAR? So high that buildings were captured and show up as bumps in the terrain. However, overall, the terrain looks very good, and makes me want to visit Bergen someday! The bumps in the terrain from the buildings will make it interesting when they go to put 3D models of the buildings. According to Mr. Lampe, they will soon have 3D buildings for the entire city as well.

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  Waldo - An artist in Vancouver, Melanie Coles, wrote me an E-mail last week about her efforts (along with other art students) to place a huge 55' tall "Where is Waldo" character on the top of a building (see the blog). The idea being it would be caught by a satellite (or aerial photo) and placed in Google Earth someday. To help things along, they took their own aerial photo of it. I was able to find the location where they did it based on the photo, and I've added their photo as an image overlay in Google Earth . Their photo was taken at an angle (not straight down), so it isn't stretched properly over the scenery. But, you get the idea. Turns out her project has grabbed the attention of the media. Unfortunately, Google recently updated the imagery for Vancouver (although I've had reports they used four or more year old imagery). So, I have no idea how long it will be before they get new imagery. Hopefully someone will get a decent straight-down shot for Google to include. This isn't the first time Waldo has appeared in Google Earth.

Well, Microsoft has been working hard. Last night they released a major upgrade to Virtual Earth that includes some impressive new features. Here's an excellent summary of the new features by Microsoft Steve Lombardi. NOTE: you will have to install the new version when you go to visit the Virtual Earth site - virtualearth.com and click on the 3D option. Let me summarize the key new features I see from a Google Earth perspective:

1. 

   Improved 3D buildings - Virtual Earth 3D already had more buildings with consistent quality textures (compared to GE). But, the texture resolution was low. They've now upgraded the texture resolution, increased the range of coverage to suburb areas, AND are now rendering trees as well! So far, only Las Vegas, Dallas, Denver and Phoenix have this new "version 2" upgrade. But, they promise hundreds of cities by the end of the year. Here's my initial impression: Models for the first city I tried took a while to load, but not terribly slow. Textures definitely look better, although not a huge increase in resolution. For some reason anti-aliasing is not working on my computer so edges on models look jaggy. The trees look really good - at least in Las Vegas. If they are automatically rendering trees from photogrammetry, I'm really impressed! [UPDATE 1030 ET: Steve pointed me to a new blog post, by Jerry Skaw of Microsoft, sharing more details about the 3D rendering. And the trees are automatically generated - and it matches my guess at how they would do it. See the post for more details and screenshots.]

2. Export to KML - Microsoft has added the ability to export collections (their equivalent of placemarks) to KML, GPX, and GeoRSS. This means you can now save collections to files and use them in other things like Google Earth, or put placemarks on your GPS. Another step in improving functionality for practical use.

3. 3D Modeling Improved Also - Steve also mentions that their 3D modeling tool, 3DVidia, was also upgraded. I'll have to look at it, but the earlier version didn't seem as good as SketchUp.

4. Bird's Eye Enhanced - You can now see street/map labels inside Bird's Eye views. This is a cool trick in projection since the photos are taken at different angles. It makes Bird's Eye much more useful as well. Cool feature!

5. MapCruncher integration - MapCruncher is Microsoft's application that lets you place maps and photos over a location very accurately. They've now integrated this with Virtual Earth 3D. I haven't tested this yet. But, since VE3D was missing a way to put image overlays into their world, this is a step in the right direction. I just wonder how hard it will be to use. GE has a very easy and intuitive interface for adding image overlays. But, it doesn't have the ability to accurately project them into other than rectangular overlays.

6. Explore Collections - Steve called this GeoWeb Explorations. It's kind of like dynamically searching for user content as you move your view. Something I think Google Earth should be doing as well. You find the option in VE3D under the "Collections->Explore" option in the upper right. They have added the ability to filter your searches by KML, or other tags that appear in your scene. And, you can filter based on photos, OR 3D models. I'm guessing Microsoft has developed their own equivalent of 3D Warehouse with a few models. I haven't found a lot of models available in this mode yet.

7. Movie Capture - Microsoft has a new capability to make movies and even claim the ability to capture up to HD quality movies. Google Earth Pro does not do a good job of capturing movies at higher frame rates (probably due to using the built-in Microsoft video codec). But, I use Fraps and can capture HD for GE anyway.

8. Real-time Traffic - Microsoft has a new traffic application called ClearFlow that allows it to predict traffic patterns based on other traffic data. This sounds like impressive stuff. See the NY Times article, and Mickey says some good stuff about it at Digital Earth Blog. Mickey also notes what they really need is a mobile version - which I'm sure will come eventually.

9. Improved KML Support - Steve says they can support KML files with a new "&mapurl=" parameter - meaning you can add the URL of a KML file without having to load it inside the app. He notes this means you can view a Google Mays MyMap inside Virtual Earth. Interesting! I tried this, but it is a little tricky. Steve gives example URLs for how to use the new parameter. You then look for the "View in Google Earth" inside your Google MyMaps and copy that link as your URL.

Overall - I would say this is a significant upgrade to Virtual Earth. The new features have some impressive capabilities. I'm obviously a big fan of Google Earth, so my opinion may be slanted. But, I still feel the Virtual Earth 3D interface is not as friendly or smooth as Google Earth. It will be interesting to see whether the inclusion of MapCruncher makes it easier for people to add content like image overlays. The enhancement to the 3D buildings is welcome, as is the slick addition of labels for Bird's Eye imagery. The 3D buildings (and trees!) and Bird's Eye imagery are still the main two attractions for me to use Virtual Earth 3D. But, not enough for me to use it every day.

• ViewFinder - A project at the University of Southern California (USC) has been published which describes research into ways to improve the way photos can be placed in Google Earth. Last August Google added a new photo capability that lets you place photos as they are taken (completely in 3D including zoom, height, angle, etc.). Once a photo is aligned, you can compare it to the 3D data in Google Earth. They put together a great video showing what this looks like in Google Earth You can read the results of their project at the site. Lucky for them, the New York Times wrote about it, and yesterday Boing Boing as well. Here's the video:

• KML in the North - John Bailey wrote me to say they are having a Google Earth presentation in Fairbanks on April 23rd. They even have one of the GE team members up to give a talk.
  

• GE Pro Address Trick - I didn't know it could do that!
  

• Boy Finds Home - The Times of India writes about a young man who was displaced from his home as a young boy, but searches Google Earth to rediscover where he lived.
  

Last year, when the Google Earth Outreach program was announced, I predicted there would be a wave of new content once Google began working closely with all the non-profit organizations to develop Google Earth content. Well, during the last week, we have definitely see the first wave of new content. There are another two new layers added to the Global Awareness layer folder (read about the new process when layers are added):

• ARKive - ARKive is a "unique collection of thousands of videos, images and fact-files illustrating the world's species." Clever name! They have chosen to share a subset of their collection in Google Earth focused on endangered species. You can find the layer under the Global Awareness folder at: ARKive: Endangered Species. Each placemark contains a photo of the species, description of the species, and what is threatinging them. There are also links to the ARKive site for images and movies of the species.
  
  
  

• WaterAid - WaterAid is an international charity whose mission is "to overcome poverty by enabling the world's poorest people to gain access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene education." This layer shows water drop placemarks in places where the organization is working to help with these water problems. Each placemark has a photo, description of the project, and link back to the main site for more details. This layer can be found under the Global Awareness layer folder under WaterAid

Stefan Geens at OgleEarth points out that the Tracks4Africa layer, which shows GPS tracks and points of interest for areas not well mapped in Africa, has been substantially updated and now also includes photos from people contributing. This layer can be found under the Gallery layer folder under Tracks4Africa.

[UPDATE 1310 ET: Richard Treves blogs that he attended the Outreach event at the Google London offices where these new layers were announced.]

Other layers introduced in the last week:

• Greenpeace
• US Holocaust Memorial Museum - World is Witness
• Unicef: Water and Sanitation
• United Nations Refugees

The Google 3D Warehouse has recently added a new feature. If you are viewing a 3D model of a building where Street View pictures are available, you get a "tab" at the top which shows the Street View mode for that location. You can move around as with other Street View API applications. There was already a tab for Google Maps views for 3D models which have been tagged on the map. But, this new tab is an excellent example of Google using their own tools in a smart way!

Below is an example of a 3D Warehouse model of shopping center in Boulder, Colorado. If - after you visit the page - you click on the tab at the top called "Street View" you get an interactive panoramic view of the location for that model that looks like this:

Unfortunately, in some cities the Street View photos are limited in their ability to look up and down. So, if it's a tall building you sometimes can't see the upper stories, only the street-level view. For example, look at the John Hancock Center in Chicago, Illinois.

Anyway, kudos to the Google Earth team for "eating their own lunch" and using Street Views for 3D Warehouse!

During the last week, Google has slowly rolled out several new layers for Google Earth. One notable thing about this is that they have changed the way they introduce layers to Google Earth. It used to be they would roll out several new layers all at once during a bi-monthly layer update process. Now, Google seems to have changed the process so they can add new layers on a daily basis if needed. This makes it possible to spread out the news on important new layers and keep new content coming to Google Earth on a regular basis.

When a new layer is added, if you re-load Google Earth, the new layers are automatically turned on. Either through the Preview layer under the Geographic Web layer folder, and/or directly in the layer folder the new layer belongs. Also, they have re-organized some of the layers during these deployments. The Terrain layer is now at the bottom of the list, and some of the other layers changed position slightly. Now, I just wish Google would improve the interface for the layers in Google Earth. A new version of GE with the ability to search layers is needed.

In addition to the other layers already mentioned, Google also rolled out a new layer for the "Every Human Has Rights" campaign. This layer is designed to highlight human rights and is another Google Earth Outreach effort which now has a default layer under the Global Awareness layer folder called The Elders: Every Human Has Rights. Stefan Geens of OgleEarth helped with the creation of this layer, and has more details.

Other layers introduced in the last week:

• Greenpeace
• US Holocaust Memorial Museum - World is Witness
• Unicef: Water and Sanitation
• United Nations Refugees

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has released, with help from Google Earth Outreach, new Google Earth content which documents UN projects involving Refugee camps. The announcement was made today in Geneva where the UN world headquarters are located. Google Earth Outreach Director Rebecca Moore was on hand for the announcement as were several notables of the United Nations.

The new content for Google Earth can be found at a special web page for the UNHCR here. Or, you can simply follow this link to download the file for Google Earth. Once loaded you zoom in to different areas of the world to get placemarks with information on UN Refugee projects. The placemarks are categorized with different icons representing different types of information (as shown in the legend on the left). Some of the placemarks contain YouTube videos showing the camps, or interviews with refugees. And, there are photos and stories, with links back to their web site. There is also support for other languages.

Presumably the layer will be updated periodically with new information, and possibly it will be added to the Google Earth Global Awareness layer. This is one of several new layers introduced recently by the Google Earth Outreach team. Last week we had the Greenpeace layer introduced in Hamburg, Germany; two more layers from UNICEF and US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of the 3D Mouse from 3DConnexion called the SpaceNavigator. It is my favorite way to move around in Google Earth. You use it in combination with your regular mouse, but it gives you control over your 3D scene like no other device (see video). But, until today, the new lighter version called the SpaceNavigator for Notebooks was under wraps. I was fortunate enough to be given one for testing a few weeks ago, and I've been enjoying carrying this new version in my laptop case (see below for my comments). The new version comes with a stylish black-leather carrying case, perfect for storing in your laptop case. Here's a comparison shot of the new smaller version to the standard size model most of you have been using (or wanted):

As you can see, the new version is almost half the weight, but is only a little smaller in size. Both units have a steel bottom to help keep it still when you are pushing and pulling to get the desired 3D movement. Since the new version is lighter, you will sometimes find yourself lifting it off the table top (especially if you use the regular model). But, I find it gives me the desired motion and doesn't bother me at all when I sometimes lift it off the table. You can also hold it in your other hand for more intense movement requirements, but I rarely find that necessary. For precise work, I just hold the base with thumb and pinky finger and move the knob with the other fingers - the size and shape of the new version is perfect for this. At least for my hand size.

The original Space Navigator only costs US $59 for the Personal Edition (for educators and personal use), and $99 for the Standard Edition for professionals (same unit just a different license). The new portable Space Navigator for Notebooks has a suggested retail price of $129. If you are a serious user of 3D applications like Google Earth, Second Life, SketchUp, etc. - and you do a lot of travel - the higher cost will definitely be worth the lighter weight.

If you haven't used a SpaceNavigator, you really should try one out. They plug into your USB port, but the unique capability is its ability to simultaneously control multiple axes of motion. You feel like you are a cinematic camera operator while driving Google Earth (or other 3D applications). Or, when you're flying over ground, you feel like an expert helicopter pilot. Most of the videos I've made demonstrating Google Earth features were made using a SpaceNavigator.

Keep your eyes open (or your news feed tuned) to Google Earth Blog for a future giveaway of one or more of these beauties. If you already have a Space Navigator, you'll love the new Space Navigator for Notebooks! (Note: 3DConnexion advertises on my blog - but, that isn't the reason I use mine every day, nor why I encourage people to get them).

Google and the New York Times have worked together to release a real-time news feed for Google Earth (see the announcement). Although several news organizations have experimented with KML feeds of news for Google Earth (the best current example being CBS news), this is the first time Google has supported a news layer in the built-in layers of Google Earth.

The New York Times layer (or NY Times for short) is a network link which automatically updates with the latest geographically tagged stories. Click on an icon to get a summary of articles available for that location. Click on an article to get a short summary of the story, Click on "Read more at NY Times" for the full article on your web browser.

As expected, the system is set up to be as automated as possible. It appears stories not tagged by the author are scanned for location information (towns, cities, countries) and it takes a guess for the location. In addition to different cities getting a summary, each country with news also has a summary icon which holds all the news for that summary location. Most of the stories look properly located. However, I saw a story about a French yacht stolen by pirates in Somalia, but the placemark for it is "France". I would have preferred to know the location where the yacht was stolen. At this point, I'm just conjecturing, but I hope news writers will be allowed to submit more exact location coordinates for their stories so we can get the reporter's best information. If the whole system is automated, the value of this layer will be reduced in my opinion.

There are two ways to find the New York Times layer:

1. Turn on the Geographic Web layer - which contains previews of many of the built-in layers. Zoom in until you see one of the NY Times icons (with the gothic "T") and click on one. Then, in the upper left, click on "Show this layer" to turn on all the currently available news placemarks. You can turn off the Geographic Web layer if you want to reduce the number of icons. But, the photos, Wikipedia placemarks, and GEC placmarks in the Geographic Web layer could be useful for getting a better perspective on each location.

2. Or, you can go to the Gallery layer folder, open it up, and look for the New York Times layer to turn it on/off. As seen here:
   

The month of April has started off with a Big Bang of Google Earth and related news. Already GEB has covered: huge April imagery update; Google Earth April Fools Joke (see the video) by Google and by others; New Layers (here and here); 2008 Olympic Torch Relay; new contour lines in Google Maps terrain; and the cool new Seero live video mapping site. But, that's not all - read on for a number of other interesting Google Earth-related news stories:

• Spacenavigator in Second Life - My favorite 3D mouse device for Google Earth - the 3D Connexion Space Navigator - is now going to be supported by popular 3D virtual world Second Life. Space Navigator has already been supported by many other 3D applications like Virtual Earth, SketchUp, etc. (see the official list of supported applications). The support by Second Life has been a much anticipated capability, and I'm anxious to try it out. Stefan Geens has already blogged a mini-review and has also tried the beta release of the driver for Second Life. He also shared a video showing Space Navigator being demoed with Second Life.

• StreetView in Google Earth - Rafe Neeleman of Webware posted an unsubstantiated report from an unnamed source that Street View is coming to Google Earth. This wouldn't surprise me at all, as this is an obvious direction to go with the great Street View content. See a post by GEB in February where I discuss the possible ways this could be done. It could be done either in a flash application inside a placemark, or as a Photo Overlay placemark inside Google Earth, or both. via DigitalEarthBlog.

• Google Earth Community over 1 Million - The Google Earth Community recently crossed over 1 million registered subscribers. Given that there's typically 20 times as many anonymous readers as there are registered readers at any given moment in the forums, this barely describes the number of people who read it. But, it is a very significant milestone. If you look at the main forum list page at the GEC, at the bottom of the page are the statistics.

• LoadMyTracks 1.1 - This free Mac OS X application has been upgraded and includes even more features for uploading and downloading GPS tracks between your device and the Mac. And it includes good Google Earth support. Stefan at OgleEarth says it's his GPS utility of choice for the Mac.

• Google Earth 3D Chip Design - TechOn has an interesting article describing how a company called Gem Design Technologies is using Google Earth to visualize chip designs in 3D. I suggest they not only do that, but also make their models SketchUp compatible and they can choose GE or SketchUp and use a Space Navigator to really view their models.

• NOAA Marine Charts - Peio contacted me by E-mail to let me know about his demonstration of taking NOAA marine raster charts (image scans of charts) and creating a Google Maps mashup to view the charts. As you zoom in you get increasingly detailed charts for all the US coastlines and other areas covered by NOAA. The mashup also lets you adjust the transparency levels for the maps and labels. Peio also is working on a KML/Google Earth version - he shared a video demonstration of this. GEB previously wrote about the really great vector marine charts created specifically for Google Earth by EarthNC. Having the raster versions could prove useful as another way visualize the data, but I think the vector data is more powerful since you can choose what data you want to view. Plus, EarthNC continues to grow a vast amount of capabilities for live chart tracking with GPS, current weather overlays, buoy data reports, live vessel tracking, and more. But, the more information the better!

• 3D Warehouse Additions - the Google 3D Warehouse has received some recent refinements. You can now do Advanced Searching for models; you can now share collections (look at a collection you own and there is a new "Share" link); and you may get a "You might also like" recommendations for models you're looking at.

Seero - the new live geo-located video broadcasting site, which GEB mentioned two weeks ago went out of beta, has now released some KML content for their site that has interesting implications. First, they have KML files for each broadcaster which show placemarks for locations of each video they have at Seero. See for example, Craig Stanton's video content in a KML who has lots of videos from a hike on the Pacific Crest Trail, and is currently starting a hike across Japan. Craig is using Seero to show live videos which are GPS tracked as well. With Seero this means you can follow along the position as a video is being taken on a mobile journey. See the Seero demo of this in Google Maps here. What is really neat is that with Seero you can either view these live video broadcasts in Google Maps at their site, or now view them in Google Earth. Here is a link to the Seero Live KML network link showing all live broadcasters through Seero. If you manage to catch a live one where the person is using a GPS, the placemarks will move along as the person is moving, and you can watch the Video in the placemark description. David Rothchild, Chief Creative Officer of Seero, shared with me that Dan Rummel, technical lead at Seero, just gave a tech talk at Google explaining how this was done (see the Google Tech Talk video here). I haven't watched it yet, but Dan told me last week he planned to share some of the technical challenges and solutions they addressed in getting their placemarks to stay visible while live updating the placemark positions.

Since Seero is so new, there aren't a lot of live broadcasts yet. But, as more people become aware of this new capability - and more phones get built-in GPSes, video capability, and unlimited Internet connectivity - you can expect a lot more live video geoblogging to occur through Seero. This has exciting implications for all kinds of social networking applications. You will be able to watch live broadcasting of events and get that geospatial context that can be so important. I expect this to add to the impetus of news broadcasters providing maps with locations or even geo-tagging their news content.

The imagery update which was released this Tuesday was pretty big. In fact, the official list just released is quite lengthy. Google has just posted the answers to their little riddle post, and the details which I'll repeat here for your enjoyment. Oh, and it's not only imagery, but also new higher resolution 3D terrain in Montbeliard, France; Antarctica; Portugal; and Fort Saskatchewan, Canada. Thanks to all the GEB readers who contributed to the list I was updating this week to help people find new imagery! Also, note that there are several new countries with Spot Image 2.5 meter (medium resolution) data - Like North Korea and near its border in China. You're going to love exploring all this new imagery.

Here's the official - and lengthy - list of new coverage and updates for this release:

Google introduced two other layers yesterday, in addition to the Greenpeace layer, to the Global Awareness layer folder as a result of the Google Earth Outreach program. I'm guessing Google will have posts about these today.

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  USHMM: World is Witness - The US Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) has a new layer under the Global Awareness layer folder called "USHMM: World is Witness". This layer, like the very well known "Crisis in Darfur" layer (introduced last year), contains disturbing stories of human abuse and genocide. The new layer is designed around a geoblog (a blog which describes information tied to a location with a mapping application - read about the first geoblog here). USHMM has taken great care to present quality placemark information with excellent photos, links to podcasts, videos, other KML layers, and other content on the web site and at Facebook. The initial posts to the Geoblog are of a trip through Rowanda and nearby Congo areas where refugees have escaped. You can see the World is Witness geoblog itself here which also uses a Google Maps interface to show the location. There you can get the RSS feed to follow this blog as more information is posted. Michael Graham, who was a leader in developing Crisis in Darfur, is also a leader in the World is Witness program. You'll see his name in the posts to the new geoblog.

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  UNICEF - This layer, also found under the layer folder called Global Awareness is called "Unicef: Water and Sanitation. The layer shows placemarks mostly in third world countries describing projects where Unicef is working on water and sanitation problems. Unicef works around the world supporting child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. The placemark descriptions contain information and pictures describing each picture. There is also an innovative "tab"-like feature showing more information in what appears to be the same placemark. Stefan Geens at OgleEarth noticed this first.

Google has announced the 2008 Global Torch Relay maps they have developed to help everyone follow the Olympic Torch as it makes its way around the world on its way to Beijing, China for the opening of the Olympics in August. You can visit their web site at http://maps.google.com/torchrelay where you get a special Google Maps mashup which shows the current position of the torch, and "slider" buttons that let you go to each city/location the torch visits. Or, better yet, you can load the 2008 Torch Relay network link in Google Earth and get a much more dynamic view of the location (including 3D terrain, 3D buildings, Panoramio photos of the cities, etc., etc.). Double click on the "2008 Torch Relay" network link to be flown to the current city (today it is Istanbul). Open the city placemark to see information on the city. Click on the Previous City or Next City links to see where the torch goes. The date the torch is in each city is shown in the title of the placemark.