I wanted to try the new timeline functionality in Google Earth, so fortunately I had a tracklog lying around of a SAS flight I took between Brussels and Stockholm recently:

I massaged the data into KML (using grep in BBEdit), borrowing graphics from the whale shark example, to produce this KMZ file [Update: Fixed!]:

It’s a rudimentary first step, but it does work, as long as you’re not using the Mac version of the beta:-) (where a bug prevents time-tagged placemarks from showing up as intended.)

• That was fast: Valery Hronusov’s KMLer, an ArcGIS extension for converting to and from KML, adds support for KML’s time tags in the latest version, 1.4. It also covers other KML 2.1 innovations.
• For those of you who want a blow-by-blow account of Michael Jones’s keynote at eMerce eDay in Amsterdam two days ago, coolz0r is happy to oblige.
• Mikel Maron is back from the DR, just in time for a talk on time in GIS at FOSS4G2006 — and he’ll now have a client to do demos with: Google Earth. In fact, he already has a sample file up, posted to his blog.
• All Points Blog notes GeoRSS hits the 1.0 milestone. Happy Birthday.

Where is that WMS capability? (What is WMS?) Zoom in on an area you’d like to see a WMS overlay for — say, a chunk of Canada. Then go to Add > Image Overlay. Select the Refresh tab, then click on WMS Parameters. This brings up a pop-up window that allows for some sophisticated fine-tuning of WMS content:

There are plenty of WMS servers preloaded for you to try right out of the box:

I chose a server with content for Canada, chose a few layers, and I got this:

In this particular case, every time I pause, the WMS server will be queried anew for an area approximately the size of the screen. Seamless.

[Update 10:19 UTC: Forgot to mention the coolest part: Once you have WMS-based image overlay, you can of course just right-click on it in the Places sidebar and save it or send it along to others. They in turn don’t have to know anything about WMS to be able to enjoy the same functionality you’ve just created.]

A new Google Earth beta is now available for download. Most interesting new features (free version):

• Native WMS support (!)
• Support for timelines with the <TimeStamp> and <TimeSpan> KML tags, which now work
• New API controls for the network link: Language and client version
• UTM grid support
• The PC version gets support for joysticks and 3DConnexion Space devices

There are plenty more features listed in the release notes, below the fold.

Continue reading New Google Earth beta out: Supports WMS, time tags, UTM grid →

Just announced, Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 for PC ($90). A new feature: Georeference your photos. The blurb explains:

Relive memories by viewing and sharing your photos displayed on an interactive map in the exact locations where they were taken (works with United States addresses only).

An address-based georeferencing tool? Why? And why just US addresses? Sorry, but that’s not good enough. PSE5 should also map EXIF-based coordinate data, let you georeference globally by navigating to a spot visually, and allow you to export photos as EXIF or KML (much as Picasa 2.5 beta does). Maybe PSE5 does all these things, but if so they’re not telling.

The big picture here is that Picasa has a natural advantage when it comes to georeferencing because it can call on Google’s superior geospatial dataset. I think Adobe (and Apple with iPhoto) would do better to focus on a plugin system that lets us users choose (or build) their own georeferencing tool (and also photo sharing service). Use Flickr? Picasa Web albums? Panoramio? Why not edit photos in PSE5 but share them with a tool of choice? If Adobe is serious about entering the photo georeferencing and sharing game, they need to realize that there are better free solutions out there right now than what they’re advertising for $90.

Available in Google Earth now, and just announced in a Google press release, (whatever happened to Google’s press-release-by-blog-post practice?:-): New stuff in the “Featured content” folder in the Layers sidebar. Some of it’s been there for a while, but brand new is a layer by the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), a layer by the US National Park service, and expanded global content by the Discovery Channel.

The UNEP content is vast, and wonderful. For the Three Gorges Dam, for example, you can click on links to detailed overlays showing how the dam is filling up. (Be patient with the downloads, though.) This is quality stuff. (ZDNet also has a writeup.)

[Update 14:48 UTC: As Google Earth Blog notes, the other vector layers get a reorganization. And there’s 3D buildings in Japan.]

Two noteworthy articles well worth a read, and not just because Ogle Earth is mentioned:-)

• In the San Jose Mercury News, China correspondent Tim Johnson writes up the new phenomenon of social spying — Exhibit A is the discovery of accurate miniaturized terrain on a remote Chinese base by a Google Earth user. Why is this article so great? They actually sent somebody all the way out there to investigate the base. It leads to some great quotes, though the mystery remains unsolved for now. (I’m not quite Swedish, though:-)
• Over on Forbes.com, Elizabeth Corcoran writes a Letter From Silicon Valley about last month’s O’Reilly’s Science Foo Camp. (Was that only a month ago? Time flies.) Many of the presentations that impressed her have a clear geospatial/sensor web component to them — in this she echoes Nature’s special issue about sensor webs back in February.