My Google Map Blog

I still remember the first time I used Google Earth and how my sense of wonder grew as I realized the amazing capabilities of the program to portray our planet Earth at new levels of detail with a huge source of data both in aerial imagery, but also in 3D. It has been a long time since I found a program which generated the same sense of wonder. Until now.

Space Engine

I recently ran across an application called Space Engine which was reported to produce amazing visualizations of space and let you tour not only our solar system and nearby stars, but also stars throughout the Milky Way. Even better, the developer uses an algorithm to create planets, moons, asteroids and comets for as many star systems as astronomers currently believe exist, throughout our galaxy. Beyond that, Space Engine generates them for galaxies throughout the universe as we know it. So, you can literally visit trillions upon trillions of stars and planets (if you had enough time!) for endless galaxies. When you visit a planet, moon or asteroid’s surface, the program procedurally creates 3D terrain and textures to make the surface appear more realistic. To put this in perspective, this program lets you have an entire Universe to explore inside your own computer. Wow! However, it does require a relatively powerful desktop computer (or gaming laptop) with a beefy video card to run well (see the minimum specs in the download link at his web site).

My feeling was just as enthusiastic viewing Space Engine as the first time I saw Google Earth. What really amazed me was seeing the beauty of our universe when portrayed using more current graphics technology, and the endless sense of exploration to discover new worlds. Space Engine allows you to experience the awe and wonder of the Universe and capture your memories to share with others.

Space Engine uses data from dozens of astronomical databases to accurately portray the physical characteristics for all the known systems. It also extrapolates the characteristics for stars and planets beyond to fill our galaxy and other galaxies based on theoretical compositions. You can easily see the physical characteristics (size, mass, gravity, atmosphere, temperature extremes, and whether a planet could support life). In a sense it is more of a sandbox simulation, or a game, than a mirror of our universe.

It’s important to note that your movement in Space Engine isn’t limited by silly physical laws like the speed of light, so you are able to travel to other systems throughout the Universe in very reasonable amounts of time. If you were limited to our current technological and scientific abilities, and our understanding of physics (not being able to travel faster than the speed of light), it would take decades or centuries to even reach the nearest star systems to Earth.

I had plans for creating my own video demonstration of this application. But, I keep getting engrossed in the program. So, I’m sharing one of several YouTube videos about Space Engine to give you a taste of the experience. If you have dreamed of space flight, like I have, then you will most likely have the same reaction of awe and wonder that I do every time I use Space Engine. Watch this video demonstration by a gamer called Obsidian Ant who is just as amazed:

To make Space Engine more like a game, the developer has chosen to allow its users to add space ships and controls so you can fly through space as if you were an explorer and visit places. You can really get a sense of dimension when you compare objects next to a spaceship. The developer has even added support for virtual reality by supporting the Oculus Rift – so you can really immerse yourself in this universe.

Spacecraft near a moon

Like with Google Earth, Space Engine lets you click at a place (a star or other object you see in the background) and see information about it. Then, you can click a button and choose to simply fly to that location and get a closer view. Using various controls (including that Space Navigator, mouse, keyboard, joystick or even flight sim controls) you can easily move around the various astronomical objects and get better views. You can even land on them. I find myself regularly taking screenshots (like photographs) of the amazing views I see in this program! I have long used space art as a desktop background on my computers, and now I have an endless supply of views that are as good or better than those I’ve used before. If you search Google Images, you can find many thousands of screenshots from this program on the Internet.

Also like Google Earth, you can save a place you are viewing like a placemark and visit again at a later time, or share it with your friends. So, in many ways, Space Engine has abilities like Google Earth, but extrapolates its range to the whole universe, not just our home planet. But, Google Earth remains the king when it comes to portraying our home planet (both in terms of realism, but also in terms of the amount of data about Earth). Google Earth’s Mars and Moon modes also have far more data than Space Engine about those bodies. Space Engine has prettier views though, because it uses more recent graphics technologies and isn’t limited to near-surface viewing like Google Earth.

What’s really amazing about Space Engine, is that it was created, and continues to be developed, by a single person. Vladimir Romanyuk is a software engineer who lives in Russia. He has not only developed this application, but also architected his own universe using his knowledge of software and astrophysics. He does get help from an active community for space ship models, feedback, and contributions towards planetary models and textures. His software is not officially released yet – latest beta version is 0.9.7.4. But, judging by his fans, and my experiences, this freely available program is getting close to ready for broader use. According to his community forums he is planning to release a version of Space Engine for the Steam game platform soon which will greatly increase its exposure.

I should mention that there are some comparable commercial space games out there which already have a more robust gaming architecture for space travel with thousands of active users. The most popular and comparable one I’ve seen is Elite: Dangerous. Space Engine exists, in part, because of the much older pioneer in this genre of a free program called Celestia which also let you explore space and even allows people to create educational tours. I used Celestia many years ago as well and mentioned it in early days of Google Earth Blog posts, but the application has not been worked on for a long time. If you don’t have a fast enough computer for Space Engine, you can probably download and run Celestia (Windows, Mac, and Linux) and enjoy its more limited capabilities.

Many thanks to Vladimir for his fantastic work with Space Engine. He has done something I always thought would be the next step after Google Earth and even discussed with Google. I wish Vladimir the best success as he introduces his universe to a wider audience and continues to astound us with future features and data. His application right now is a real joy to experience. It may be a little tricky to learn the more advanced features, but the Space Engine forums can help you figure things out. Space Engine only runs on Windows right now, but he’s asking for donations to help him add new features and versions for Mac and Linux. He has recently uploaded his latest version to 0.9.7.4 RC1 (release candidate 1). Download here (note the file size shown on the page).

All of the screenshots in this post came from Space Engine with permission from it’s developer.

Purple Nebula Backdrop

The post Space Engine – to Infinity and Beyond appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

This has been a big week for Mars with the new NASA discovery of flowing water on the red planet, and the release of a blockbuster movie “The Martian” based on the New York Times best seller of the same name by Andy Weir and starring Matt Damon. An excellent book by the way! So, this is a good time to remind everyone that Google Earth also can portray Mars just like it does for the Earth. Mars in Google Earth has a fantastic archive of data from NASA (and other sources) from orbital imaging platforms, and Mars landers including 3D terrain, global imagery, high resolution orbital imagery, lander photos, and even lander 360 panoramas. The lander locations and tracks can be viewed, as well as their last known positions. Most of the data is current showing even the latest position of Curiosity and Opportunity. Mars for Google Earth only works in the desktop application (not on Google Earth for mobile).

To get started, you simply look for the little planet icon at the top center of Google Earth and click on it for a list of options including Mars (you’ll see there are also versions for Sky and Moon). Click on Mars, and the Earth globe will turn into Mars. Mars was released in February 2009 (see original Mars review).

See below for my original video review of what Mars for Google Earth is really like:

You can spend hours exploring Mars and the layers Google created to explore the data from the various landers and orbiters. I especially enjoy the panoramas by Opportunity and Curiosity. An important tip if you want to explore the panoramas is that you might need to expand the time slider selectors that appear in the upper left so they show the full time span. Otherwise the panoramas may load up invisible until you find the time when it was taken.

And here’s a cool trick even long-time users of Google Earth might not have discovered. Fans know that Google Earth has a built-in flight simulator (read more), well you can also use the flight simulator on Mars! Kind a fun to fly around the crater at the top of Mons Olympus, or through the huge canyon of Valleris Maneris. Just look for the menu choice “View->Flight Simulator”. I recommend the F-16 for faster flying. You’ll need to learn the flight simulator a bit to fly well. Here’s a view of flying on Mars.

Flying on Mars

I’m planning to see the movie this weekend. Can’t wait to see it!

The post Explore Mars in Google Earth appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

Google Earth was first released on June 28, 2005. Now, in celebration of the 10th Anniversary of Google Earth’s release, we would like to share just a few examples of the best user applications of Google Earth over the years. As any regular reader of this blog can tell you, Google Earth is a fantastic way to share content and tell stories about the Earth (and other planets and places). The desktop versions of Google Earth (GE) include a lot of features for annotating the map including basic placemarks, GPS tracks, image overlays (for maps, weather satellite photos and more), photo placemarks, time animations, 3D models, and much more. After over a billion downloads of Google Earth, millions of people have shared a vast array of content, and continue to do so after 10 years of the world’s most accurate 3D globe. Google also added many powerful features to GE over the years to allow people to create applications via their browser-based plugin and API, time animations, and even a scripting tour mode inside Google Earth.

Millions of people have found all kinds of strange and interesting sights when viewing Google Earth imagery. A few examples include: marriage proposals on roofs, heart-shaped lakes, guitar-shaped pools, African animals, bizarre hidden military objects, and many more. Thousands of people have found planes in flight and there’s a huge collection curated by the Google Earth Community.

Unique sights

Google Earth is a great way to tell stories in a geo-spatial context. Want to read about the harrowing tale, and see the locations, of explorers in the early 1900s whose ship was trapped in ice in Antarctica and the successful rescue by their daring captain who managed to get help from thousands of miles away? Want to see and hear the places and stories from a famous book called “Sailing Alone Around the World” by Joshua Slocum?

Shackleton and Slocum

Did you know Google Earth has a built-in flight simulator? Very few people realize just how fluid you can move inside the program. You can fly while looking at the world’s most complete and current model of the Earth. In fact, back in 2007 when I produced a cool demonstration of the first detailed terrain model of the Swiss Alps, by mimicing a video of a Swiss Figher Jet through the mountains, it impressed Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt (now Chairman) so much that Google decided to produce the flight simulator mode. An even better way to fly in Google Earth is with a 3D mouse called SpaceNavigator which gives you the ultimate control.

Flying in GE

The time animation feature, which Google added a year after it was first released, empowered all sorts of dynamic content and data visualizations. For example, one guy produced an animation of the clouds of Jupiter in motion. Another classic example was a visualization of Hurricane Katrina showing just when it grew the strongest and shows satellites views as it approached and struck New Orleans.

The advent of the browser plugin version of Google Earth enabled developers to create applications using Google Earth. One of my favorite scientific applications is one that helps you visualize eclipses when the Moon and Earth dance with the Sun. Google produced a cool demonstration of the plugin with Monster Milktruck. But, my favorite is a game which lets you play like you are doing a lunar landing of the NASA Apollo 11 Eagle on Tranquility Base – complete with sound (see video).

One of the most important uses of Google Earth has been to help raise awareness of issues facing humanity and the Earth’s environment. Google formed Google Earth Outreach with a team of top Google engineers to help organizations use Google Earth to create tools and visualizations to highlight issues such as environmentally destructive coal mining, effects of massive deforestation, dangers and conditions of coral reefs, and human genocide. In 2009 Google introduced the Google Earth Ocean layers to help raise awareness and explore the Ocean and highlight issues like overfishing, climate change, and pollution.

Google Earth has been a fantastic tool used throughout the world for a multitude of purposes. It has been used in schools countless times to help teachers educate the minds of the young about the Earth. And Google Earth is the best way to explore and learn about places you may never reach otherwise, or to help you plan your own travels to those places. Google Earth has been one of the most popular applications on Earth. We hope Google will continue to develop and further advance this fantastic tool for everyone.

Google Earth 2015

The post Ten Years of Amazing Google Earth Visualizations appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

In 2004 Google bought startup Keyhole Inc. whose main product was a virtual globe known as Keyhole Earthviewer. On June 28th, 2005, ten years ago yesterday, Google released the renamed Google Earth 3.0 for free (there were still paid versions with some extra features). Since then Google Earth has become one of the best known and most used applications in the world. Today, in honour of the 10 year anniversary of Google Earth we are looking at some of the key features and innovations that make Google Earth such a great product.

Keyhole Markup Language
Keyhole Markup Language (KML) is named for Google Earth’s predecessor Keyhole Earthviewer. It is a file format designed to make it easy to share geographic information. Google helped to make it into a standard and it is now maintained by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). It remains the standard format for sharing information via Google Earth.

Network links and geotagged photos
A very useful feature of KML is the called a network link. Amongst other things it allows developers to show Placemarks unique to the location on earth that you are looking at in Google Earth, which makes very large datasets possible. In 2005 someone created a network link that showed geotagged photos from Flickr.

Panaromio
In early 2006, the above Flickr network link was temporarily not working and photo sharing site Panaromio filled the gap with their own network link. Later that year Google made the Panaromio network link into a layer. The result was that Panaromio grew quickly and in May 2007 was bought by Google. More recently, Google has been considering merging Panaromio into Google Views, but due to a petition by the Panaromio community, that plan has been put on hold.

Street View
First introduced as part of Google Maps in May 2007, Street View consists of panoramic photos like Panaromio, but systematically captured at regular intervals by driving along a street with a special camera. Street View was integrated into Google Earth 4.2 in April 2008. Street View coverage continues to expand, and in many places is recaptured at regular intervals. Find a map of current Street View coverage here. A portable Street View camera called the Trekker was developed in 2012 and has been used to capture many off-road locations. Later that year an underwater version was produced, which has since been used to capture underwater imagery in a number of locations around the globe.

Historical imagery
First introduced with version 5 in February 2009, the ‘historical imagery’ feature gives the user access to Google’s enormous archive of imagery for each location. ‘Historical imagery’ is a misnomer in that newer imagery than is found in the default layer can often be found. This extremely useful feature is unique to Google Earth and is not implemented in Google maps.

3D Buildings and other 3D models
Google Earth does not just show satellite and aerial imagery, but includes 3D terrain as well as 3D models of buildings and more. Google has tried many different techniques to try and get the whole world modelled in 3D. One early effort included buying a modelling program called SketchUp, releasing a free version of it and encouraging users to create building models. Anyone could create a model and upload it to the 3D warehouse, and if approved, it would be put into Google Earth for all to see. Google also tried another technique known as ‘Building Maker’ that allowed users to create 3D models out of 45 degree imagery. Google has also at various times purchased large sets of 3D imagery of cities and placed them in Google Earth.

Google eventually decided that the manual modelling approach was too slow and required considerable resources for quality control. In 2012 Google sold Sketchup and soon after announced a program of automatically generating 3D imagery via stereophotogrammetry from aerial imagery. A year later they stopped accepting new submissions of 3D models from the 3D warehouse and have since been rolling out 3D imagery at an ever increasing pace. Here at GEB we maintain a KML file that shows both current 3D coverage and a timeline of when the 3D was first added to Google Earth.

Sky, Mars and Moon
In 2007 Google added the Google Sky mode to Google Earth. This allows you to turn Google Earth into a basic astronomy application. Although there are probably better specialist applications out there for astronomers, Google Sky is a great way for the ordinary person to learn more about astronomy and view some great astronomical imagery in context.
In February 2009 Google Mars was released as part of Version 5. Later that year on July 9th in honor of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, Google Moon was added. The Sky, Mars and Moon modes come with a wealth of added information in the form of layers.

So far the Earth, Sky, Mars and Moon modes are the only ones available in Google Earth. However, with the appropriate imagery and a simple KML file you can easily turn the Earth into another planet or even into the Sun.

Ocean Floor
Google in general does not put satellite imagery of the oceans into Google Earth unless there is something of particular interest. Instead, a shaded relief map of the ocean floor is displayed. Initially it was just a flat image at sea level, but from Version 5 Google Earth has a 3D model of the ocean floor and you can ‘fly’ under the ocean surface and look at the underwater relief. The ocean floor map is being continually improved, with data from multiple sources being combined. There are also a number of layers dedicated to the oceans, as well as underwater Street View.

Layers and third party content
Google Earth is a lot more than just imagery and mapping information. The built in layers provide a wealth of information geographically displayed. Many of the layers are provided by third party organisations. In addition, with KML it is possible for individuals or organizations to share information which you can then save to your ‘My Places’ and have as your own personal ‘layers’ collection. Just recently Google has added a layer simply labelled ‘Coming soon’, suggesting a new layer or layers are about to be added.

Information overload. Turning on all the layers shows just how much information is available – and this is despite a clever algorithm that limits the number of icons shown by each layer.

Flight Simulator
In September 2006 Google Earth introduced ‘G-Force Mode’, which allowed a user with a joystick or other controller to navigate around Google Earth in similar fashion to a flight simulator. The next year, in August 2007, a proper ‘flight simulator mode’ was introduced. Since then, various third parties have implemented improvements or completed replacements to give a much more sophisticated flight simulator experience. The best of these is probably GEFS Online, which is based on the Google Earth plugin.

Liquid Galaxy
In 2008, Google showcased a setup with 8 screens set up in a 360 degree booth all showing Google Earth in a synchronised fashion to give an immersive experience. They have since published instructions for building a similar set-up and anyone can create their own with multiple computers and screens.

Google Earth API/plugin
In 2006 Google provided an Application Program Interface (API) based on Microsoft’s Component Object Model (COM) technology, which allowed programmers to control Google Earth from another program. On Mac OS X there was also an undocumented API for AppleScript. Later, Google release the Google Earth browser plugin, which has a JavaScript API. It also provided sample code to show how to use it, including the very popular Monster Milktruck driving simulator. However, the Google Earth plugin is based on NPAPI, which is now ageing technology and considered a security risk. As a result, browsers are dropping support for it and Google has deprecated the Google Earth API.

Imagery and database size
Google Earth features satellite imagery and aerial imagery. Most of the imagery comes from third parties, including satellite imaging companies and governments. However, Google now collects quite a lot of aerial imagery themselves.

Google has not made the size of the Google Earth database public. In 2006 we estimated it to be over 150 terabytes. The quantity of imagery has increased dramatically since then, so will be in the petabytes by now. And that is not including Street View imagery and the need to replicate over many servers to provide good performance.

The post 10 years of Google Earth innovation appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

In 2006, Google bought Panoramio – a fast growing user community with geo-tagged photos from around the world to add to Google Earth and Maps so people could better identify locations through photos people had taken. Google hired all three of its developers and they helped them scale up the system to handle a much larger load of users and photos.

The Panoramio site grew at a much more rapid pace and the resulting photos have been a fantastic resource for people throughout the world. Many of the original Panoramio members are professional or enthusiast photographers who have enjoyed the online community associated with Panoramio. Google helped add many more community features and contests were held for the best photos. Panoramio had a very happy and growing community for several years, myself included. I have contributed thousands of photos to Panoramio over the years while traveling to the far corners of the world.

As most people know, in subsequent years Google has grown a lot, and in the process they have been getting a more corporate, and less community-friendly attitude. They have been closing down (or using the most common Google word: “deprecating”) products on a frequent basis. Shutting down products sometimes is necessary with technological progress, but there are better ways to help communities surrounding the products to transition to alternatives. Google could be doing a better job.

Last September, Google announced they would migrate users off Panoramio and have them use a new Google Maps based photography site they had built called Google Views. Google said everyone would be moved off Panoramio in the next year (2015), and they assured the Panoramio community they would not lose key features. But, the new Views site did not have many of the same community features Panoramio had developed, and the community did not at all like the new site. Google’s Brian McClendon tried to address the concerns. But, a petition was created by the Panoramio community and over 10,000 users signed the petition within a few weeks. However, Google said little in response to the petition even after several months.

Suddenly, this week, Google announced: “After listening to community feedback about the future of the platform, we’re pleased to let you know that there won’t be any immediate changes to Panoramio. Instead of aligning the community with Views, we’ve gone back to the drawing board to work on a more integrated solution that supports you and your content directly within Google Maps.” So, they aren’t going to immediately kill off Panoramio after all. But, this probably doesn’t mean Google will repair features that have been broken with Panoramio for months. It’s apparent this supposed reprieve has more to do with the new Google Photos platform and the fact Google is now going to close down Google Maps Views (according to this post) and putting panoramic photos into the Street View platform. Meanwhile, Google has to continue to rely on Panoramio for its huge archive of geo-referenced photos.

So, although Google won’t be killing off Panoramio as planned this summer, there is no guarantee the stay of execution will be held off indefinitely (unlikely even). Let’s hope the additional time will give Googlers the opportunity to think of innovative ways to capture the essence of Panoramio – maybe even re-use the name – in the transition to their next photo mapping product. An even better step would be to at least address some of the problems with the current Panoramio product that has been plaguing the community in the meantime.

The post Panoramio Gets Reprieve from Google appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

It was recently announced that Michael Jones, one of the original founders of Google Earth, has left Google and is now CEO of a cool new VR glasses maker called Wearality. These glasses are unlike other VR glasses because of an ultra-wide 150 degree field of view thanks to patented fresnel lens technology. If you hurry, you can still join their Kickstarter campaign and get early access to these new VR glasses, which are reportedly awesome to behold. They are 88% of the way to their goal of raising $100K, and 8 days are left to the deadline.

I have always dreamed of seeing Google Earth done right in VR. Now we have someone at the wheel of a major new technology who has a serious interest in making that happen! You can already view Google Earth data in the Wearality glasses thanks to its interface with Google Cardboard, which shows StreetView data in stereoscopic 3D. It won’t be long I think before we see more Google Earth goodness from this company.

You can see a short (12 seconds) direct view of what its like looking through the glasses (view of a roller coaster) by someone who used their LG G3 smartphone looking through one lens (select HD mode for best viewing):

I’ve known Michael since he worked at Silicon Graphics over 20 years ago, and we have all used technology he helped create like OpenGL and Google Earth. The fact he has left Google to run this VR glasses company tells me he thinks this one will usher in yet another major computer graphics revolution.

The post Bringing Google Earth to VR appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

We recently got a query by a reader asking whether or not it is possible for a conman to put a fake address into Google Earth. The short answer is yes.

Google gets its information from a large number of sources. The Earth is a very big place, so the amount of data involved is simply staggering. Errors, of course, do exist. These come in many forms, such as an island that didn’t exist, or the time that Google lost a city in Florida. When Google once removed the name “Persian Gulf”, Iran threatened to sue because the name is a very sensitive issue in the region.

Borders are often a contentious issue. It may be simply a case of borders being in the wrong place due to errors in the data supplied to Google, or border disputes, where two countries disagree about where their shared border is. Google method for the latter is to share data based on international mapping standards data – which they illustrate by showing disputed borders in red, or showing different borders depending on which country you are using the product from. Also, when new countries are formed, it may take Google (and all other mapping companies) a little while to update their maps.

One of Google’s sources of information is the general public via three main routes: the ‘report a problem’ feature in Google maps, the more sophisticated Google Mapmaker that Google released in 2008, and Google My Business (formerly Google Places). The last one is primarily for business address listings, whereas the first two deal with more general mapping information.
The processes for changing mapping data have a number of verification systems in place. However, since it is often impossible to verify the validity of all updates. Google mapmaker works on a system of reputation whereby your edits require less verification as you gain reputation. Google My Business encourages you to verify your address or phone number. None of the systems are totally fool proof, but the same system can be used to correct inaccurate data that works its way into the system.

An example of information that really shouldn’t have been allowed into Google Maps.

This appears to be a genuine road.

So why would people want to put false information into Google Maps? Here is a story of a restaurant which closed down because, the owner claims, its listing on Google Maps showed that they were closed on what were formerly its most popular days. His lawyer thinks that a competing restaurant sabotaged the listing. Earlier this year Bryan Seely went public, saying that he used to do ‘map jacking’ for profit but decided to go public in the hopes of getting a job at Google. As a publicity stunt, he managed to intercept calls to the FBI and Secret service by placing false contact information for them on Google Maps.

It is important to keep in mind that, for example, in the vacation rentals business where scams are quite common, the information in Google Maps may be correct, but when you arrive at your destination and knock on the door, you could discover that the person you wired your down-payment to does not own the property. No one wants that kind of thing to happen.

Imaginary road really exists!

Google Maps and Google Earth mapping data should always be treated like Wikipedia: an extremely useful resource, but not guaranteed to be correct.

The post Could a conman get false information into Google Maps or Google Earth? appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

Uzi Bashan, the Fire Officer with Israel’s Fire and Rescue Commission, recently wrote an article on the Google Enterprise Blog on how they use Google Earth and Google Maps to help with their fire and rescue efforts.

From the article:

After the devastating Mt. Carmel fire in December 2010, which killed 44 people, injured dozens, and wiped out nearly 40,000 acres of forest, senior officers at the Fire and Rescue Commission realized we needed a more advanced fire alert system. This prompted our decision to deploy mapping technology from Google.

Now, using Google Earth Enterprise as our main GIS mapping platform, each call center operator has two screens – one displaying information from the national system, and the other displaying maps with Google Earth. Google Earth maps, with customized data layers, are automatically updated in real-time to show exactly where fires are and which firefighters are the closest to them. What used to take minutes now takes seconds.

It’s an excellent use of the Google Earth Enterprise platform, and I’m sure we’ll continue to see new examples like this in the coming months and years as other organizes streamline their processes in a similar manner. Be sure to read the full post at the Google Enterprise Blog.

The post Using Google Earth to assist with fire and rescue appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

We’ve talked about Meograph a variety of times over the past few years. They have an excellent tool that combines Google Earth with storytelling, and it can be a great way to supplement a story with geographic context.

The design of the site has always been solid, but their latest refresh really makes it much better. The new design is much more visual, intuitive, and mobile friendly in an effort to make consumer content creation for brands even easier.

There aren’t any new features with this release, but we felt that the refresh alone was worth mentioning since so many of you use the tool. Look for some new features from them later this year, and go try out the new interface at meograph.com.

The post Meograph redesigns their application with a fresh new look appeared first on Google Earth Blog.

A few months ago I started playing QuizUp from time to time on my phone. It’s a fast-paced trivia game that pits you against other players around the world in real-time. It has a very wide variety of categories, and you can get in and play a game in only a minute or two.

They’ve recently added a new category that many of you will find interesting: “Google Maps: Earth from Above”:

Each question will show you an aerial image and a bit of text, and you have four possible answers. As with all of the categories on QuizUp, speed is important. Go try it out and see just how good your geography skills are. You can download the app for Android or iOS.

(via Android Central)

The post Do you think you know your aerial imagery? Find out on QuizUp. appeared first on Google Earth Blog.