CBS news is making a concerted effort to be accessible via a number of ways and devices, now including as KML. While georeferencing news isn’t a new idea, it’s the first proper implementation by mainstream media I’ve seen. (I’m assuming the georeferencing is done properly, rather than via hit-or-miss after-the-fact geocoding, and so far it looks like it is.)
But why-oh-why stop in the home stretch — the purveyed KML file is not a network link (instead we are asked to “just add the link below” to Google Earth) and if you do click on the file, the server isn’t configured properly, so you get KML code displayed in the browser, rather than a file that the browser knows to download. This mantra about network links has been repeated far too often here and elsewhere for pro sites to still strike out like that. That’s enough sports analogies though.
Hey Stefan, CBS has had that thing up for a couple of months. I sent them messages telling them to make it into a network link, but they have never responded.
I made it into a network link – CBS News – which I’ve been using for a while. The news content, and locations, aren’t bad. But, since they never fixed it I haven’t written about it.
So lets see if shaming them works:-)
KML production by media might be new, but Google Earth usage is currently quite common in TV networks in the US. CNN or local channels as well show Google Earth Videos to locate this or that, particularly when it’s breaking news and they haven’t footage from the area.
True, first time I saw Keyhole Earth in operation was during the Iraq war in 2003.
Very poor implementation of KML abilities.