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Links: Global weather, best of GEC, Google expands in Zurich

Now that Ich have bin a Berliner for a weekend, perhaps it would be nice to update this blog again:

weatherantarctica.jpg

  • Dutch Mapping site Nederkaart points to a great global weather resource — www.weer.nl provides a network link that returns all the local weather forecasts for your view in Google Earth — even on Antarctica! Yes, it’s in Dutch, but the forecasts themselves use just symbols and numbers. This’d make a great default layer for Google Earth with just the tiniest bit of translation.
  • Absolutely Fantastic: One network link that links to all the layers deemed “best of Google Earth Community” by Topographic Map archive, sorted by forum. Think of it as blogroll or OPML file but for great KML content.
  • Interesting tidbit on Google’s plans for its Zurich office, from NZZ Online:

    Google, the world’s leading website search engine, will radically expand its existing business in Zurich by moving to larger premises at the Hürlimann industrial complex in the city.

    The company is secretive about the exact number of workers it employs in Zurich. Most estimates put the current figure at 200 and the new premises provide enough space for a total of 1,600. […]

    Google has recruited Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) spinoff technology firm Cybercity to help develop its popular interactive map service Google Earth. Cybercity is utilising its skills to put detailed facades on blank buildings on the internet program.

    We know Cybercity is doing Hamburg, but this suggests more cities are on the way. And that’s a lot of room for growth Google is getting itself there!

  • Censorship fallout, cont.: A Slashdotter finds his/her university’s nuclear research reactor blurred out. The imagery comes from MassGIS, and it is highly likely they did the censoring, not Google. But how are we supposed to tell with confidence?
  • Elevation graphing: Now available in NASA World Wind, and also in Virtual Earth 3D…
  • NASA World Wind gets preliminary support for the 3D Connexion Space Navigator. Great news — that was fast. As my Space Navigator is currently a thousand kilometers north of me, I can’t test it just this minute, however.
  • Thanks to Dan Karran, the newly released Drupal 5 (an open source content management system) gets both KML support and GeoRSS support. (Via GeoRSS Blog)
  • Looks like Rev Dan Catt, previously responsible for a great third-party Flickr? Google Maps visualization with KML network link before being snapped up by Yahoo, is toying with Google Earth again — this time to play with heatmaps of Flickr photo concentrations, which he promises will be available as a KML download soon. (If you’re wondering how he got those screenshots, check out this pic in his Flickr photos, plus more heatmaps.) (Don’t forget, Beau Gunderson also has a heatmap of Flickr Photos for Google Earth.)
  • Is Google’s contest to design the best SketchUp model of a US or Canadian university campus for Google Earth a clever and original incentive to get more content in Google Earth, or a way to assign rote assignments on the cheap? Both? It’s definitely a clever way monetize access to the Googleplex:-)
  • The Sydney Morning Herald reports on the quirkier things people did to get noticed by Google’s aerial imagery plane on Australia Day, January 26. I hope for Aaron Schwebel’s sake that Google took the pictures.
  • LookLocal is a very nifty mapping tool, with a “magnifying glass”-type tool and the ability to add your own KML placemark collection (under Explore Vacation Spots). (Via Mapperz)
  • The Natural Resources Defense Council has a new site out — BioGems, “Saving Endangered Wild Places”. Some of these places are outlined via KML on this page.
  • All Points Blog asks Michael Jones about what it takes to making “true spatual queries” in Google Earth. Short answer: The capability is there, what’s often missing is data exposed in a semantically meaningful fashion.
  • Not noticed before: FSX KML. It’s a freeware scenery design tool for Microsoft Flight Simulator X (FSX). “It converts KML (Keyhole Markup Language) files generated by Google Earth into FSX scenery.”