All posts by Stefan Geens

Opinion

G007gle Earth

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Within the space of an hour, not one but two blogworthy devices hit Ogle Earth’s radar screen: Small surreptitious GPS tracking devices whose output you can easily view in Google Earth.

worldtracker.jpgFirst up is the WorldTracker SMS. It can send news of its whereabouts as an SMS to your mobile phone, or if you make use of the company’s website tracking service (for a yearly fee), you can watch it live in Google Earth, just as you always imagined the FBI did it. Pretty hefty price, though, at $600 + subscriptions. (Via Gear Live.)

makethumb.jpgA cheaper option is the TrackStick, basically a 1GB USB memory stick with built-in GPS tracking. You can find out where it’s been just by plugging it into your computer, apparently, and you can then access the GPS data, including in Google Earth’s KML format. $300 and no additional fees, but no live tracking either. And you better hope the kids you’re trying to track don’t find it.

(Note: I haven’t used either of these, and can’t vouch for them. I am merely noting the sudden prevalence of Google Earth-friendly spying gadgets.)

Opinion

Old people love Google Earth

Hitwise Intelligence, the blog of British web marketing firm Hitwise, notices that “google earth” is rising in popularity as a search term, and goes on to provide all manner of metrics by which this is the case. Hitwise even digs up some interesting demographics:

Google Earth attracts 70% more visits from the 55+ age category than average for the internet.

Yes, old people apparently love Google Earth. (In addition to you young people, I’d hasten to add:-). And Google Earth users tend to be quite wealthy as well. Or so says Hitwise in their blog post.

One thing Hitwise doesn’t look for, however, is some good news-driven reasons for the timing of the popularity spike that they chart: An early version of Google Earth for Mac was leaked early in December, just when the term’s popularity started growing, and just two weeks ago the software came out of beta and the Mac version was officially released. All these events garnered significant coverage in web-based media, which no doubt translated into downloads.

Content

Another imagery upgrade for the UK

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The Official Google Blog announces another upgrade to the quality of the imagery available in Google Earth. Vast swathes of the UK are now at 6-inch resolution, and people are clearly visible in most cities.

Additionally, Google Local’s data is brought up to date with Google Earth’s imagery, and there are also two new zoom levels for Local.

But only for Local. The API’s imagery has not been updated, at press time. Take, for example, the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol. Visit the bridge with Tagzania, and you see the old imagery. Click on the Google Local link just below that map, and you’ll see the new imagery. Scroll to the bottom of the page, and you will see a KML button for the equivalent view in Google Earth.

We’re used to it in Google Earth, but remember that when it comes to the online mapping space, Google Local is still, after almost a year, the only offering with detailed global content. Any developer using something other than the Google Local API for a collaborative mashup automatically limits herself to a US user base. (But Google is good that way — witness the extreme language customization available in Google Search, a feature used by legions of non-native English speakers.)

[Update 2006-01-25 00.11 UTC: Word is that Google Earth did not in fact get an image upgrade, The blog post announcement is merely worded ambiguously.]

Uncategorized

QTVR & Google Earth

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One of the most visually stunning websites about Sweden is Virtual Sweden, which contains a wealth of 360-degree QuickTime VR images, and not just of Sweden.

The most recent images have a link to the actual location in Google Earth, so you can now fly to the precise location as you immerse yourself in a Swedish panorama.

One of the earliest additions of content to Google Earth involved Berkeley University’s global QTVR library, back in July 2005. The KML file is still available (KMZ) , and it still provides one of the most immersive experiences available using Google Earth. Here is the original blog post.

Content

Semapedia

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Last week, Ogle Earth came across Navizon, which connects physical places to user-created content on the web using GPS, wifi, and cellphone signals. We wished for a view from Google Earth, however.

Now check out Semapedia: the concept is just as innovative, but doesn’t rely on wireless positioning technology to link the real world to the web. Instead, software for Java-enabled cameraphones lets you take pictures of special digital tags attached to physical locations — this takes you directly to the related wikipedia article. What’s more, the project is deeply collaborative, with anyone able to print out tags for any georeferenced wikipedia article and affix them to the location.

This has the potential to turn the world into a giant museum gallery, with your phone as the guide. The project is just 6 months old, so there is still plenty of tagging to be done; this is why the brand-new Google Earth view (KML) is so handy (blog announcement). All those tags that do exist are locatable via the KML file. Note, however, that this file is not a network link, so you’ll have to make one yourself if you want the info to update automatically. (How?)

Some thoughts regarding this sudden meme:

1)Wireless telcos will love it, as both Navizon and Semapedia encourage the use of your mobile phone’s internet connection.

2) Navizon and Semapedia have a different method for geolocation and a different content set. There is no real reason why these methods and the content aren’t complementary, however. In the long run, I expect they will be — there will be multiple ways to connect the physical to the virtual, and for different purposes.