My Google Map Blog

Google Earth can be great for planning trips of any kind, including those by boat. More than seven years ago Frank was showing us 3D cruise ship tracking, and there have been other great cruising resources over the years. Of course, there is also the great tools that Frank is using as he sails around the world aboard the Tahina.

Doug Logan recently wrote an article on Boat Trader that shows some great ways to use Google Earth to help plan your next trip. As Doug says:

…it’s hard to beat sitting at my desk with a big monitor, loading up Google Earth, and plotting a complete cruise with the best satellite imagery in the civilian world and really simple, intuitive screen tools. For free.

The techniques that Doug uses aren’t overly complex or unique, but they’re a solid example of how you can use the native tools in Google Earth to help plan what you need to do.

Be sure to check out this full article on Boat Trader. Good work Doug!

The post Planning your cruise with Google Earth appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

Since the early days of Google Earth, people have looked for ways to use it to enhance real estate searches and information. You can go all the way back to 2005 to see an example that Frank posted, and it was just a month ago that we showed you some great tools from Jason Fox.

There is a company called CityRealty that is doing some interesting things with Google Earth that we thought we’d take a look at. By using Google Earth’s 3D imagery, then laying information and photos on top of it, you end up with a pretty slick way to view a city.

It’s not as interactive as I’d like to see (you can click around the map, but the imagery is static), but it’s a great way to show off a city.

In their press release, Daniel Levy, President of CityRealty, explained the new site as follows:

“Looking for an apartment in New York City can be daunting, and our new site is designed to turn the housing search in the most complex real estate market in the world into a simple, streamlined experience for those looking to make New York home. It’s our hope that our new and improved online resources, coupled with our tailored agent recommendations, will seamlessly guide customers from the start of the search to the moment they get their keys.”

You can dig into their map of New York’s Lower East Side for a good example of how it works, or just start at CityRealty.com and dig in.

(via Inman)

The post Using Google Earth imagery in real estate guides appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

DigitalGlobe, one of the leading providers of imagery for Google Earth, is launching their new WorldView-3 satellite in a few hours. It is scheduled to launch at 11:29am PDT today from Vandenberg Air Force Base, and you can watch a live broadcast of the launch here.

The new satellite will feature some great enhancements over previous ones, including:

• Will capture imagery at 31 cm resolution, the highest available resolution on the market. This allows you to see not only a car, but the windshield and the direction the car is going. Something as small as home plate can be seen with 31 cm resolution.
• Due to its shortwave infrared sensor, the satellite can actually image through haze, fog, dust, smoke and other air-born particulates.
• Beyond crop mapping, this satellite will actually be able to identify moisture levels, differentiate between healthy and unhealthy crops, and even classify species on the ground.
• The satellite can identify types of minerals on the earth’s surface
• It can identify not only a tree’s class and species, but its health as well

It should be a great step forward for imaging, and ultimately for Google Earth. Check out the infographic below for an overview of the satellite, visit worldview3.digitalglobe.com for more information, and watch the launch live in a few hours.

The post DigitalGlobe launching their WorldView-3 satellite today appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

We’ve shown you a lot from George at MyReadingMapped over the years, and he’s back with another one. This project is called the “Google Map of Geology”, and George describes it as follows:

My latest project is a Google Map of Geology which matches up examples of faults, eskers, monadnocks, folds, fabric, depressions, roof pendants, rift valley, kettles, hoodoos, and the like, that can be seen in Google Map and Google Earth with their geologic terminology. I was surprised to discover that much of the details like stratum, joints, lava field fissures, dykes, talus, etc. can actually be seen in a satellite image and that a specific rock the size of a tor can be plotted.

It’s an amazingly detailed map that George has clearly put a lot of time into. Check it out for yourself on his website, or you can grab this KML file to view it directly in Google Earth.

Nice work, George!

The post Geology in Google Earth appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

With the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I occurring a few weeks ago, I expect we’ll see various recreations of events from the war in Google Earth as those individual 100 year anniversaries approach.

The first example of this I’ve seen comes from Bart Busschots. A few days ago marked the 100th anniversary of the German invasion of his native Belgium, and he’s created a map to show a bit about what happened.

From Bart’s site:

The first major battle of the campaign was centred on the ancient town and prince-bishopric of Liège in the north-east of the country. The Battle of Liège lasted from the 5th to the 16th of August 1914, and centred on the ring of 12 fortifications surrounding the town. Remains of all of these fortifications remain in the landscape, and can be clearly seen on satellite images. When reading about the battle I found myself wanting to better understand the geography of the region, and where the forts fit into the landscape, so I mapped their locations on Google Earth and saved them out as a KML file.

You can download that KML file here, or head out to Bart’s site to read the full article.

The post The Forts of Liege in World War I appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

We have discussed the amazing work that Google Earth Outreach does quite a few times on here, and they continue to assist with amazing projects around the world.

They recently released a video that showcases some of the work that they’ve done with nonprofit organizations in Canada. Check it out:

The organizations involved in this include:

• “Caribou Migration,” by Golder Associates Ltd & Hugh Stimson
• “I Am Fish,” by the David Suzuki Foundation
• “Canada’s Boreal, the World’s Largest Intact Forest,” by Pew Environment Group
• “Voices on the Land,” by Okanagan Nation Alliance, Gregory Kehm Associates & Ecotrust Canada
• “Oil & Water Map,” by the Living Oceans Society
• “Natural Capital,” by the David Suzuki Foundation

For more, check out the official Google Earth Outreach website.

(via +Google for Nonprofits)

The post Using Google Earth to track environmental impact appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

In British Columbia there is a proposal to build a new dam at “Site C” to help generate affordable clean energy to the region. It sounds like a wonderful idea, but with any project of this size there are certainly downsides to consider as well. In particular, according to this report(PDF):

The District of Hudson’s Hope, a community of 1,100 people in the heart of the Peace River Valley, will be impacted more than any other municipality by the proposed Site C dam.

The video below explores the project, hears from involved parties, and makes great use of Google Earth to add context to the area and some rough looks at what the result of the dam would look like.

Details on the project can be found at hudsonshope.ca, though their short-term focus (understandably) has shifted to wildfires in the area. You can also view this PDF or this article on Common Sense Canadian to learn more.

The post Exploring the possibilities of a new dam using Google Earth appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

Ian Brown at Google Sightseeing recently posted a great blog entry that took a look at the ten tallest statues in the world. Most of the statues are of Buddha or Guanyin, many located in China.

While Ian shows great aerial and Street View imagery for each of them, most of them can be viewed in 3D. The quality of the 3D models varies wildly from statue to statue, but some look pretty nice as seen here:

It’s a fun subject to look at, and Ian makes it easy to find them yourself by providing this KML file so that you can quickly fly to each of them in Google Earth.

Be sure check out the full post to see more.

Great post, Ian!

The post The tallest statues in the world appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

A few months ago we showed you some great maps that showed the spread of Ebola and MERS, but given the continued spread of Ebola we felt it’d be a good time to dig into them again.

George at MyReadingMapped has continued to update his Ebola map, showing the increasing spread of the virus. You can view his map in Google Earth by loading this KML file.

Additional Ebola-related maps can be found via this post on Google Maps Mania. Keir has found a few interesting maps around the web, including this one from Channel4.com and this one Al Jazeera.

If you find any other useful maps, please leave a comment and let us know.

The post Mapping the Ebola outbreak in Google Earth appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

Many people are gearing up the end of summer break and the start of school. In fact, our daughters will be heading out for their first day of school in a few hours, as will thousands of others from Kindergarten to College.

Google Earth is not only a great tool for geography – it is a tool for tying all kinds of information to location. When you first load GE you have a wealth of information available at your fingertips. Thousands of aerial and satellite photos, dozens of layers of information: city names, country borders, airport locations, road maps, National Geographic content, volcanoes, and more. Since Google Earth is an intuitive and fun tool, I believe you could use it as a visualization and educational tool for almost any subject. Once students prepare their own content, GE can be used to present their work – or even share their work with the world.

You can even use Google Earth to see places quoted in Shakespeare or the path of Lewis and Clark:

For other great uses of Google Earth in the classroom, check out this post from Frank a few years ago, or the great list of ideas from Lucas Van de paer.

If you’re heading off to a new university this fall, you can check to see if Google has released Street View imagery for that school yet so you can explore the campus. The Official Google Blog has a list of other great ways to use Google products to help with your studies this year.

If you’re heading back to school soon, we wish you great success in the upcoming year!

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