Links: Using Google Earth in Iraq, Saturn ads

The BBC today: Iraqis use internet to survive war

Google is playing an unlikely role in the Iraq war. Its online satellite map of the world, Google Earth, is being used to help people survive sectarian violence in Baghdad.

As the communal bloodshed has worsened, some Iraqis have set up advice websites to help others avoid the death squads.

One tip – on the Iraq League site, one of the best known – is for people to draw up maps of their local area using Google Earth’s detailed imagery of Baghdad so they can work out escape routes and routes to block.

Just don’t try that in Basra. Google Earth isn’t much help there anymore.
Google Earth Hacks has a new URL: gearthhacks.com
Business 2.0 reports that the online video ads tested last year for Saturn — which showed a video of Google Earth zooming in to a Saturn dealer near the user based on a geocoded IP address — have been deemed a success. You can expect the ads to be shown across the US this spring.
Google Karten is a weblog “similar to google maps mania but in german”.
The context is in Dutch, but this page lists plenty of good English language links to best-of-breed KML files, most of them direct links to the Google Earth Community download.
Another map overlay of Stockholm, circa 1885. Courtesy of the geodata unit at Department of Human Geography at KTH, the Royal Institute of Technology.

Ogle Earth