Google Earth gets Seamless Terrain

If you're like me - that regularly gets drawn into peeking into Google Earth just for a few moments, and end up spending hours there, mesmerized by the beauty of our planet - then you should get worried. That's because Google has just launched Google Earth 6.2 which offers much improved visual quality. You can say goodbye to the traditional quilt text terrain textures where you could see where each section was stitched, has Google Earth now offers a apparently seamless worldwide texture!

As you can see in the images above, the "before" and "after" images speak for themselves.

Google didn't tell us (yet) how they were able to make all those different captures look so similar - but the truth is that Microsoft was already doing it as well in their Bing Maps.

As for other improvements, you can expect enhanced search features and Google+ sharing.

If your Google Earth didn't update automatically, you can get the new Google Earth 6.2 here.

Google Earth 6 with 3D Trees

Time to say goodbye to your old Google Earth, and embrace the new improved Google Earth 6 version, which will certainly make you "waste" even more hours wandering around the globe.

This first thing that you'll notice is how things will look a lot more lifelike, with the brand new 3D trees! It's hard to imagine just how different things look with it, a lot more lifelike.

We also get integrated streetview - at last - instead of simply going from "bubble to bubble".

The historical maps are now a lot easier to access (as Google found out a lot of people didn't even know it was there).

All this and more, already available in the new Google Earth 6.

Google Maps Earth View

Taking it one step closer to Google's own Google Earth,  the 3D Earth view is now available in Google Maps.

It's a pity you still the Google Earth plugin (I'd love to see Google using this as another step to push WebGL and HTML5 forward) but, I'll settle with being able to do most of the stuff we do in Google Earth without leaving the browser window.

Google News

France wants to create "Google Tax"


What do you do whenever some new media format makes the previous one obsolete? It's simple, just tax it!
After radio and TV taxes, after taxing recordable blank media as CDs and DVDs, now we're approaching... the Google Tax. At least, that's what France wants to do. When will they learn to embrace the new technologies instead of desperately hanging on to the old ones?


Earthquakes on Google Earth

In case you haven't noticed it yet, you can noe check for seismic activity as a layer in Google Earth.

Makes us remember just how awesome all the tools at out disposal are!

Google Near You Now


Google Mobile now offers a very interesting search feature: "Near me Now." It allows you to quickly and easily find what's near you and it's currently available for the iPhone and Android devices. Check the following video for a better understanding of what it does.

Valencia in 3D in Google Earth

If you never had the chance to visit Valencia before, now you can see what you're missing thanks to Google Earth and its 3D buildings:



Care to take a chance and figure out when the entire world will be mapped in 3D? :)

Google Building Maker

How do you model every building in the world in 3D? It's actually quite easy... You get everyone to help.
But if you want that to happen, you need to provide easy to use tools that anyone can use... and that's what Google just did.

With Google Building Maker anyone can now easily model 3D buildings in seconds without ever leaving their browsers.

Just watch the video to see it happen:

How to visit Disneyland Paris for Free

Want to visit Disneyland Paris, but can't find the time (nor money) to do it?
Well, this is your lucky day... because now, as president Obama would say: Yes you can!

You just need to launch Google Earth and fly to Disneyland Paris. There you'll be able to see all the tiny details they put into recreating Disney's castle, the park, and many other stuff like Indiana Jones' ride. It's a nice addition to complement Orlando's Disneyworld.

A must for everyone wanting to plan their real trip there - or just wanting to remember the good times they've spent there. :)

See All Satellites Orbiting the Earth in Real Time in Google Earth

Impressive!
It's no secret that the space around our planet is no longer a vast empty space.There are lots of satellites and rocket bodies - and worst of all - lots and lots of debris.

But... as they say, seeing is believing. And now you can see it all in real time, in Google Earth:

AGI has created a KML file for Google Earth allowing you to see all the space objects around our planet, in real time as tracked by USSTRATCOM.
It's over 13,000 objects including active and inactive satellites, rocket bodies, and - for the most part - debris.

A must-have KML for every Google Earth (or space) enthusiast.

The World in 3D

Google has been pushing to have the entire world mapped in 3D, using Google Earth and SketchUp.

They're now showing you just how easily it can be done, creating your own house in 3D and sharing it with others.

Google Earth New York 3D

It's amazing to see how much we've accomplished in such a short amount of time...

Do you remember seeing Google Earth for the first time? How much time did you waste just roaming around the globe?


And when they introduced 3D buildings... it got even better.

In 2007 this is what New York looked like in Google Earth:

Today... this is what you get:

No, it's no photo, it really is how it looks in Google Earth...

Amazing!

... and to imagine just a few decades ago, all I had to play were a few heavy atlas books and some plastic globe earth maps.

Holographic Google Earth

No matter how good your LCD screen is, it will never be able to match an holographic display when it comes to "Wow" factor. Check how Google Earth truly shines when seen in "almost" real 3D.


Holographic Google Earth from Nicolas Loeillot on Vimeo.

UbiqWindow via Google Earth Design.

Viewfinder - Photosynth on Google Earth?

Viewfinder offers a new and very interesting way to connect Flicker to Google Earth, but it's impossible to see the following video and not think about Microsoft Lab's own Photosynth.



Similar, but not quite the same. With viewfinder you can perfectly align your photos over a 3D environment like Google Earth.

• Google Earth has posed several hundred photos in Google Earth and has 4.5 million geo-located more photos to go;
• Microsoft PhotoSynth has an impressive way of automatically combining sets of photos from the same area but with no underlying 3D model and cannot handle most photos taken under arbitrary conditions;
• Yahoo Flickr taps the power of the community to create and organize an enormous free-for-all database but has no 3D world models.

If you want to properly place your photos over Google Earth, you can use a 2D mode:


As well as a 3D mode:


Projecto interessante. :)

Create Your Own Google Maps PlaceMarks

You've probably already seen those placemarks popping up on Google Earth and Google Maps, showing detailed inforamtion about a particular place.

However, not many people know how to create their own placemarks. Well, that's about to change, as it is now a lot easier to create them without little knowledge about KML.

You just to enter some date into a spreadsheet.

The process is easier understood if seen, as you can attest by watching the following 5 minute video:


[Youtube video]

Or you can read the instuction in the link below.

via [Google Earth Spreadsheet Mapper]