If you speak Korean, then there is a new Google Earth blog for you to peruse, Google Earth BLOG, not to be confused with Frank Taylor’s Google Earth Blog. The Korean one also comes with a bulletin board at wowearth.com. Unfortunately, I don’t speak Korean, so you’re on your own:-)
Tag Archives: blog
Google Earth and Israel, cont.
If you want proof of the harm irresponsible reporting can do, look no further than how the factual errors in the article in Globes about Israel and Google Earth (blogged two days ago) have metastatized into the belief that “Google Earth caves in to Israel”. Yes, the blog Battleangel takes [(updated) the mangled IsraelNN version of the article] at face value, adds a pinch of presuppositions, and arrives at that conclusion.
So, for the record, Israel isn’t strongarming Google, from the available evidence. Yes, it is indeed remarkable that a US law constrains US satellite operators on images of a sovereign state other than the US (and not for all US allies, but just one state), but if you want to complain, the proper target is the US congress and the executive, not Google.
If you want to accuse Google of being strongarmed by a state when it comes to satellite imagery (be it China, India, South Korea, or Israel), kindly provide some evidence first.
[Update 12:45 UTC: Another example of this meme spreading.]
[Update 12:49 UTC: IsraelNN manages to mangle the original news story even more. This version is truly remarkable.]
Bird counting with Google Earth
Bootstrap Analysis, “chronicles and musings of an urban field ecologist,” posts a tutorial on using Google Earth to make accurate bird count circles for Audubon’s annual Christmas Bird Count in North America.
Google Earth + Blogwise
Blogwise lists over 50,000 blogs in its directories for you to browse. Those blogs that have position metatags in their headers can now be browsed in Google Earth via a dynamically generated KML file that lists the 50 blogs closest to the center of your view.
If you don’t yet have Google Earth (i.e. you are a Mac user) then you can still do this via Blogwise’s Blog Maps. The advantage in using Google Earth, however, is that you can see more than one layer of data at a time. In Google Earth, you can now simultaneously see the closest Blogwise blogs, del.icio.us links and Flickr photos if you want (and a lot more). We’re beginning to have some serious functionality here.
So, if your blog hasn’t been submitted yet to Blogwise, perhaps now is a good time. And if your blog does not yet have positioning metadata, here is what you do: Use this souped up version of Google Maps (in Satellite mode outside the USA) to center yourself on the map, find your latitude and longitude (displayed below the map) and then use these instructions to add a position meta tag to the header of your blog.
GoogleEarthing
“A game in which players identify unidentified locations in satellite photographs.”