Planet GeoSpatial

Back in March of this year, Google made some substantial changes to the "Places of Interest" layer. While it certainly had some nice new features, the majority of you weren't very happy with the changes.

A few days later, Google responded to your criticism and a few days after that they replaced most of the original layers.

However, one layer remained missing: Golf Courses. We wrote a blog entry back in June that showcased some alternatives, but none are as easy to use as the built-in layer. As announced in the Google Earth Help Forum earlier this week, the layer has finally returned!

You can access the layer by going to the "Layers" tab on the left side of your Google Earth screen, then choosing [More] --> [Parks/Recreation Areas] --> [Golf Courses].

I'm not sure why it took so long to restore this layer, but it should certainly make golfers happy. Any other major layers still missing, or have they covered all of the layers that you care about?

A handful of nice updates have just come out for Building Maker. The first is something that should help make your buildings look much better; you can use Street View imagery to texture the sides of your buildings.

When SketchUp 7.1 was released it gave you the ability to do this, and Google has been using this technique for some of the "lifelike facades" they've been adding in some cities. Making this technique available in Building Maker was an obvious next step, and it's going to allow many people to use this sharp imagery to create even better models.

Here's a video showing how it works:

In addition to this great new tool, Building Maker is now available in six new cities:

• Edinburgh, United Kingdom
• Florence, Italy
• Vienna, Austria
• Pittsburgh, PA, United States
• Santa Cruz, CA, United States
• Riverside, CA, United States

You can read more on the Google SketchUp Blog, or go try it out for yourself on the Building Maker site.

Google Earth has just rolled out some fresh imagery for us! Thanks to GEB reader 'ChrisK' for being the first to let 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!

[UPDATED -- 24-August, 10:28pm EST]

• Argentina: Various cities -- thanks 'pertile' and '3done'
• Chile: Puerto Montt -- thanks 'Munden'
• Czech Republic: Most of the country -- thanks 'Dawid'
• Poland: Many areas -- thanks 'Dawid', 'tomcioZG' and 'Chris'
• United States:Pittsburgh, PA -- thanks 'ChrisK'
• Venezuela: Cumanacoa -- thanks 'wroman'

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

Roughly seven months after it was first introduced, Google Earth for Android has just received a major update to version 1.1.

The big update in this version is underwater bathymetry! This feature was first introduced on the desktop in Google Earth 5, but this is the first time that the bathymetry feature has become available on a mobile phone. It also includes a new "Explore the Ocean" layer that features photos and videos which share stories from the sea.

If your phone is running Android 2.2 (Froyo), there are even more goodies in this release:

• "Move to SD" is enabled, to free up some space in your internal memory.
• Some of the "Explore the Ocean" items have Flash videos in them, which can be viewed directly in the app thanks to Flash 10.1 being available on your device.
• Two-finger "look around" mode, similar to the iPhone. This has been my biggest issue with the Android version of Google Earth, as the iPhone version was much easier to use. It was apparently a firmware issue, since this only works on Froyo, but I'm glad to see it was finally added. This makes it much easier to browse around the globe. As suggested on Ogle Earth a while ago, simply turn the phone sideways and use both thumbs on the screen. It works great!

For more information about this release, please visit the Google Lat Long Blog.

If your phone is on Android 2.1 or higher, go download/update Google Earth right now. This is a superb update, and it's well worth your time to get it. While you're there, grab a copy of the free Google Earth Blog app so you can keep up with the latest GEB news on the go!

Google has just pushed out version 5.2.1.1547, replacing version 5.2.1.1329 for most people. The "check for updates" feature doesn't seem to be finding it yet, but if you download Earth from their servers (earth.google.com), you'll get the new version.

As far as I can tell, there aren't any official release notes available yet. However, you can find a few tidbits about the release in this thread in the KML Developer Support group.

Based on that information, it seems that this release fixes a variety of bugs in regards to 3D/polygon handling. Grab the update here and if you notice any other changes, please leave a comment and let us know!

Called "The ultimate geo mashup platform", Google Earth Enterprise 4.0 has been released. You may be familiar with Google Earth Enterprise, as it has been used for projects such as Louisiana Earth.

Among the new features in GEE 4.0 is one called the "Portable Earth System". In many uses of GEE, people need access to their information in places where internet connectivity is limited or simply non-existent. Here is how that feature works.

Other enhancements in GEE 4.0 include Mobile Access via the Google Earth client on Android, full support for Google Earth 5.2 and the latest version of the Google Earth Plug-in.

For more on GEE 4.0, you can check out the full write-up on the Google LatLong Blog.

Google Earth has just rolled out some fresh imagery for us! Thanks to GEB reader 'Cristobal' for being the first to let us know about it.

[UPDATE 12-August: Google's blog post about the update has been released, and the KML file has been updated]

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!

[UPDATED -- 11-August, 7:16am EST]

• Angola: Luanda and Cataumbela -- thanks 'Snakeye'
• Argentina: Buenos Aires -- thanks 'Cristobal'
• Australia: Various areas -- thanks 'Pete'
• Chile: Coquimbo and La Serena -- thanks 'Cristobal'
• China: Dalian, Nanning -- thanks 'Cristobal'
• Japan: Various cities -- thanks 'Munden'
• Poland: Dobrzyn and Wisla -- thanks 'Przekek'
• Thailand: Sattahip -- thanks 'Munden'
• United States: Chicago, IL -- thanks 'ChrisK'
• Uruguay: Various areas -- thanks 'Roberto'
• Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh City -- thanks 'Cristobal'

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

It appears that another Google Earth imagery update is underway -- thanks to GEB readers 'Eero' and 'cristi' for being the first to let us know about it.

[UPDATE: Google has updated the official KML update file, so you can see exactly which areas have been changed with this release.]

As is often 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!

[UPDATED -- 29-July, 9:41pm EST]

• Finland: Southern areas -- thanks 'Eero' and 'cristi'
• Nepal: -- thanks 'Steven'
• Netherlands: Various areas -- thanks 'Maarten'
• United States: San Jose and Sacramento, CA (thanks 'Steven'), Des Moines, IA (thanks 'cristi), Boston, MA (thanks 'Kevin') and Las Vegas, NV (thanks 'cristi')

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

One thing that I've seen a lot of emails about over the years is border issues; borders that aren't quite accurate enough, or (most often) borders that are in political dispute. People didn't like that Google was seeminly "taking sides", even though they were really just trying to make them as accurate as possible.

With some nice new changes, borders are now much more accurate and disputed borders are indicated as such. Here's a great example of a disputed border, where it is unclear who this island belongs to:

The accuracy of borders is also greatly improved. Google has some great examples on their blog that you should check out.

The new updates are live in Google Maps, and will be coming very soon to Google Earth.

Google Earth was released by Google in June of 2005. It was based on a product Google acquired when it bought the company called Keyhole in the fall of 2004. At the time GE was released, I was looking to learn about blogging and was searching for a topic. Google Earth was a perfect match for my criteria because I've worked with satellite and aerial imagery, have worked for many years in 3D computer graphics, have been a heavy GPS user since they came out, and Google Earth was my new favorite software product (and still is five years later). So, in July of 2005, I started writing this blog.

Google Earth has grown by leaps and bounds since 2005. Google has poured many milions of dollars into not only developing the software, but even more so into developing new data for Google Earth. There are many new kinds of data in Google Earth including: Street View imagery, photos from Panoramio, Wikipedia data, billions of points of interest data points on places of business, weather data, the night time sky, the Moon, Mars, and much more. Google also has 3D data now for the Earth's oceans along with many layers of information about the ocean and the life that lives in it.

When GE was first released, many countries had only low-resolution satellite imagery - with the possible exception of a few major cities. Today, nearly every city on the planet has high-resolution satellite or even aerial imagery. In fact, most countries now have most populated areas in high resolution, and the rest of the country in medium resolution satellite imagery. Many countries are completely covered in high resolution data. Only a few limited unpopulated areas still have low-resolution imagery. Now nearly everyone on the planet is able to search and find the places they've lived in Google Earth. Thanks to the historical imagery layer, you can even turn back the clock in many places and see locations at different points in time.

When I first chose to write Google Earth Blog (GEB), I didn't expect to keep it going for five years. I knew Google Earth would be an extremely popular product. Over the years, as I saw Google's continual commitment to growing the product and data, I knew it could continue to be popular for a long time. I was amazed when looking at GEB's statistics that people literally all over the world were reading my stories about Google Earth and the amazing applications people have made with the versatile product. In fact, by 2006 nearly five million unique visitors had read Google Earth Blog, and we have reached over 6 million readers since that time. I'm especially grateful that a significant number of several tens of thousands of people are regular readers of the GEB as well.

I'm glad Google Earth has continued its popularity. I had already been planning a trip around the world by sailboat, and since November of 2009 have already traveled over 10,000 miles from North Carolina to French Polynesia (read about the Tahina Expedition). Google Earth has played a huge role in my travels. For years I've been researching places to go with Google Earth and planning routes. Now, as we travel, I've been thoroughly documenting our trip by showing our GPS tracks and route plans, GPS tagging all our photography, and I've even taken my own super-high resolution kite aerial imagery which is being put into Google Earth (see BBQ island for example).

Until 2009, I wrote all the blog posts myself. But, at the start of my trip, I recruited Mickey Mellen to continue to write GEB while I concentrated on my travels. I think he's been doing an excellent job of maintaining GEB in my absence, for which I'm very thankful. I also want to give a big thank you to the support I've received from many people who are fans of Google Earth and the GEB who have continued to forward story ideas and tricks they've learned with the program. Way too many to mention individually. And I would like to give my biggest thanks to the very large team of Googlers who have worked on and continue to grow Google Earth and its related products and data! They are the best development team on Earth!

Captain Frank Taylor
Google Earth Blog - http://gearthblog.com
Tahina Expedition - http://TahinaExpedition.com