My Google Map Blog

Clement Valla is known for digging into Google Earth to find and document anomalies, as we first showed you back in January. He's back with a site called Postcards from Google Earth that highlights snapshots from Google Earth in odd-looking situations.

Interestingly, of the 100 or so images on the site literally every single one of them involves a road, most of which are crossing a body of water. While this has been a known issue in Google Earth for years, 3D models/imagery are beginning to fix the issue. For example, take this image of the Hoover Dam from his site:

Then turn on the 3D Models layer:

Quite a difference! The only downside with the 3D model is that you can still see the old imagery (and the road) running beneath it. This is largely alleviated with the new 3D Imagery, such as this before/after of the Golden Gate Bridge:

It's not perfect, but it's far better than the article would lead you to believe. That said, it's fun to dig around and find these kinds of oddities, and the new 3D Imagery certainly creates some interesting artifacts when you zoom in close.

Check out the full gallery on the Postcards from Google Earth site.

(via Co.DESIGN)

Clement Valla is known for digging into Google Earth to find and document anomalies, as we first showed you back in January. He’s back with a site called Postcards from Google Earth that highlights snapshots from Google Earth in odd-looking situations.
Interestingly, of the 100 or so images on the site literally every single one of them involves a road, most of which are crossing a body of water. While this has been a known issue in Google Earth for years, 3D models/imagery are beginning to fix the issue. For example, take this image of the Hoover Dam from his site:

Then turn on the 3D Models layer:

Quite a difference! The only downside with the 3D model is that you can still see the old imagery (and the road) running beneath it. This is largely alleviated with the new 3D Imagery, such as this before/after of the Golden Gate Bridge:


It’s not perfect, but it’s far better than the article would lead you to believe. That said, it’s fun to dig around and find these kinds of oddities, and the new 3D Imagery certainly creates some interesting artifacts when you zoom in close.
Check out the full gallery on the Postcards from Google Earth site.
(via Co.DESIGN)

The post Surreal postcards from Google Earth appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

A few days ago the 2013 Taiwan Ultra Marathon kicked off, a 14 day race that covers an astonishing 1100km. The runners are all carrying a Leadtek GPS device, and the organizers have put together this simple map to help track them.

However, Steven Ho (who has created tours such as this mountaineering trip and a neat tribute to Steve Jobs) wanted to be able to follow the race in Google Earth. Steven tried to get the organizers to produce a KML file of the runner's data, but was unsuccessful. Instead, he built a handful of tours to help show off the race and included "rabbit" data to show the approximate location of the runners.

You can read more about Steven's work on his blog and try it for yourself by clicking the image at the top of that page.

Along with that Google Earth Plugin integration, Steven has built a handful of KMZ files to help keep up with the event. You can use this KMZ to see a map of the course, this KMZ for a guided tour of the course, or this KMZ to see the current location of the rabbit.

Great work Steven!