My Google Map Blog

When Google Earth version 4 was released back in 2006, it added a great feature that allowed KML files to have time-based data. This allows you to animate GPS content as Frank wrote about soon after.

We've seen great examples of this over the years, such as Google's tips on sharing your ski trips or showing replays from a sailboat race.

I recently took the family to go sledding on the fake (but fun) snow at "Snow Mountain" a few weeks ago and recorded our tracks from a few runs on my MotoACTV watch.

You can play with those runs in Google Earth by grabbing the KML file or the raw GPX file (which Google Earth can also open).

While I was out there it brought to mind the excellent 3D model of the carving that Peter Olsen build a few years ago. When loading the GPS data into Google Earth, I noticed that most of the buildings in the area were now in 3D, including the cable car system.

The majority of these models were built by Bill Molony, who has done an excellent job of creating and texturing them in a very realistic way.

If you have any GPS data from a recent activity, try loading it into Google Earth and it'll give you a whole new perspective on what you just did. If you have a particularly compelling track, feel free to share it with everyone in the comment section below.