This just in: Some Google Earth Pro users report getting an email that declares:

Good news! Your Google Earth Pro subscription has been upgraded. Enjoy these new premium features on us (up to a $600 value):

Movie Maker Module – Record 3D viewer imagery and export movies of tours for websites or presentations.

Premium Printing Module – Save and print at 4800 pixels per inch and print high-resolution images up to 11″ x 17″. [Google’s email got it wrong originally, and wrote in to correct this.]

GIS Data Importer – Incorporate GIS data in .shp or .tab file formats. Examples of data include parcel data, demographics data and 3D building data.

You can use these new features the next time you open Google Earth Pro. Also, our Technical Support options have changed. We’ve added live chat & email support to replace telephone support.

A quick check on Google Earth Pro’s web page confirms that these extras, previously $200 a pop, are now listed among the features of Google Earth pro (still $400 a year). On my Mac, The movie making module works like a charm, and for free. One new premium service that’s listed which I don’t remember seeing before (correct me if I’m wrong) is traffic data (sample).

• WWJDev? The powers that be at NASA are pushing development of the Java version of World Wind, according to the Earth is Square. As a Mac user, I couldn’t be happier. The .Net version’s use of ActiveX controls means it still won’t run in Parallels Desktop for Mac (SkylineGlobe does) and rebooting into Boot Camp is too much of a hassle. In other words, WWJ frees NWW from platform dependence, while also making it a far more viable modular component of other applications.
• KML guru Barry Hunter describes a method of tweaking the info returned by the bounding box in a network link, so that tilting the view does not result in data being pulled from here to the horizon. He explains it better. (Via his own blog, natch.)
• This use of Second Life as a means to visualize complex modelling is particularly striking and unexpected to me. Indeed, why not walk around 3D visualizations of data models in Second Life, especially if the datapoints do not need to be constrained by geographic coordinates (in which case Google Earth suffices)? In addition, you get to manipulate the data structure with an object-oriented language using inputs from the web — something not currently possible in Google Earth. I suspect this innovation has the potential to bring Second Life into the boardroom — or rather, to bring the boardroom into Second Life.

The missing URL of the blog post by Harish Kumar Bhamidipati that served as a source for the Hydarabad land scam story has now been found, and it comes with a translation of the original newspaper article in Hindi Telugu that started it all. It’s a great read. Google Earth does indeed play a starring role.

Here’s a highly abridged version of what transgressed: As part of a general amnesty, houses built before 2001 on plots of illegally sold land were “regularised”, and thus allowed to be resold on the market. Somebody with government connections got the bright idea of “backdating” some houses built after 2004, pretending that they were there since 2000, so that they could benefit from the amnesty and sell them. Digital Globe imagery from 2004 in Google Earth quickly put paid to that lie.

In a sign the state government is both clueless and in trouble, it maintains that the images were doctored (according to the blogger’s dad). How cunning of Google!

Seriously, though, this argues strongly in favor of keeping archives of successive generations of Google’s base layer. Google Earth Pro lets you access different datasets; why not make older ones available there as a pay service? (Added bonus: placemarks of time-sensitive artifacts like planes in flight could be metatagged to a specific generation of imagery.)

Google today launched Google for Educators, to help teachers use Google products in the classroom. One section is about how Google Earth can be used as a teaching tool, and it includes a page with detailed lesson plans prepared in cooperation with Discovery Education unitedstreaming [sic]. (Strangely, these lessons plans still use the old Google Earth 3 interface for screenshots and instructions.)

Within minutes of posting the Hyderabad land scandal story (and going to bed), several far more adept Google Earth users emailed the location of the site in question:

It’s still nor clear to me what the parameters of the scandal are, in part because The Hindu‘s reporting is impenetrable, but at least this article by the Deccan Herald from September 30 introduces us to the scandal in plain English:

The entire Opposition, led by the Telugu Desam Party formed a united front as serious allegations emerged of a nexus of government officials and ruling party big-wigs that twisted rules, issued notifications and later withdrew them or allowed them to lapse that enabled them to “grab” vast extent of prime land at low rates from farmers who feared acquisition of their land at throwaway prices by the government [to build the ring road].

… Former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu pointed a finger at Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and alleged that the government had changed the alignment and notification for the ORR [ring road] project several times to help his relatives, friends and close associates.

One reader who emailed the location helpfully labeled the area “Nagarjuna Farm House”. Googling that (hey, this is a blog, not the NYT) led me to this “gossip” article on greatandhra.com, where an Indian film star named Akkineni Nagarjuna is alleged to have gotten a special tax break from government officials after newly acquiring the property, prompting an outcry by neighbors. (BTW, when I measure the acreage of his “farm house” with Google Earth I get 8.6 acres, not 6.5 acres as reported in the story. Surely it’s not that easy to avoid taxes in Hyderabad?)

Details are hard to come by reliably, but it would seem that the Andhra Pradesh state government is being rocked by a scandal concerning the acquisition of land for the building of a ring road around Hyderabad. A crucial piece of evidence in this affair was apparently gathered by firing up Google Earth and pointing out that imagery from 2004 showed no construction on land that a government official maintained did have construction on it then — presumably a retroactive fib to explain why the ring road had been routed around it.

Popular Indian IT blog Digital Inspiration flags the story and credits Google Earth, but the crucial source it links to is down, while an article referred to in the Hindu does mention the scandal but not Google Earth.

What to do? These stories coming out of India where Google Earth Saves are beginning to have the sheen of urban legends, but at the same time Hyderabad’s imagery is from 2004, and the color tone matches. I spent some time trying to locate the following image, but without luck. Perhaps Hyderabad locals could point me in the direction of the Puppalaguda suburb:

If the story is true, what delicious irony! Who’d have bought DigitalGlobe imagery from 2004 to verify a minister’s explanation? Not me. Who’d have started up Google Earth to verify a minister’s explanation? Definitely me. The democratization of access to geospatial data continues apace, to good effect, especially in India.

[Update 22:20 UTC: This story makes James Fee’s question especially pertinent: Had Google updated its imagery of Hyderabad sooner, the minister would have been scot free. A timeline for the baselayer would indeed rock — even if it were an affordable premium service.]

• Interesting confirmation by All Points Blogof the low-key launch of SkylineGlobe. Remember also how ArcGIS Explorer’s anticipated launch was delayed from the end of July, soon after Géoportail’s disastrous debut? I think lessons were learned from the French debacle — namely, that not being able to meet demand can be a reputation killer. In other words, stage-fright can be a wise sentiment.
• This came out in August, but hasn’t been blogged here yet: It’s a Google Earth plugin pack for the Franson GpsGate ($10) which lets you use a GPS device with a number of applications simultaneously — this now includes live tracking in Google Earth. It’s made in Stockholm, so it must be good:-)
• FS Earth, which plots your virtual plane’s position in your flight simulator to Google Earth, is now compatible with Microsoft’s Flight Simulator X (in addition to Flight Simulator 2004). FSX is due out before the end of the year. Until then, there is a trial version. (Via AVSIM Online)
• PictureSync for Mac (and soon Windows) ($14) lets you annotate and batch-upload your photos to a range of online photo sharing services. In version 1.6 you can geocode photos using Google Earth.