You’ve seen the video presentation of Microsoft WorldWide Telescope at TED. Some thoughts:

Google Earth and Google Sky, great as they are, do have room for improvement, so it is good to see Microsoft exploiting some of these shortcomings to provide what looks set to be a truly competitive product. What are these shortcomings? I can think of a few:

• Limited touring function: It is impossible to build a presentation using Google Earth/Sky where you narrate a voice tour of of the Earth or sky, lingering at some places while zipping past others, zooming in and out, turning layers on and off at particular points in your talk… Instead Google Earth only lets you to show each placemark for a set time, or else follow a path at a specific speed, or else let the user click from placemark to placemark manually. WorldWide Telescope seems (from the TED talk) to have a very nifty presentation/storytelling tool — one that I hope gets put to use on Earthly virtual globes as well.
• Google Earth Hack: Google Sky is a really cool hack, but it is still a hack piggybacking on the Google Earth engine. Put a placemark on New York City in Google Earth, and you’ll see it floating between Gemini and Auriga in Google Sky. And Google Sky suffers from a polar projection that is primed for mapping globes: The polar regions in Google Sky can’t show data due to this quirk.

  

  (This is also a problem for Google Earth, except that on Earth there are not that many Google users living at the poles to complain.) These kinds of problems can be avoided by a dedicated application like WWT, which can additionally provide cool features like telescope control.

• Mediocre UI: Let’s face it, Google Earth’s UI, with its directory-style Layers and Places panes and 90s-style placemark popups with basic HTML, may be familiar but is not exactly modern. Collect even a modest amount of KML and you need to scroll through acres of it in the Places pane — that’s not scalable, and hence not very usable. All this is fine when you don’t have anything else to compare it to, but do if you have a minute check out how Apple’s newly released Aperture 2 photo management software deals with potential information overload: Contents of folders/projects/collections are displayed in a separate hide-able window pane, where it can never overwhelm the main Projects pane. And the tools… mmm deliciously minimalist especially in full-screen mode. Imagine my surprise, then to see a very similar esthetic in Microsoft’s WWT when the metadata loop tool is shown in the TED presentation. I never thought I’d be congratulating Microsoft for their UI, but that looks promising!

Now that that’s out of the way… There is nevertheless something ironic about Microsoft coming out with a standalone Windows-only application for the sky while it has a (partly OS-neutral) browser-based application for Earth. Since it makes no sense to look at the sky obliquely (whereas it does make sense to want to look at the horizon in Google Earth), the sky is really better suited for a 2D solution, and that is something web-based apps excel at. When you switch from Google Earth to Google Sky, for example, you lose the tilting functionality you get with the Earth because there is no use for it when looking at the sky. In this specific sense, Google Earth’s engine is overkill for a sky viewer, and it is also why a website like sky-map.org continues to be competitive.

Microsoft WWT and Google Sky, however, do offer smooth zooming in and out, avoiding the discrete zoom levels you see with current web-based mapping tile solutions. This smooth zooming is one thing that WWT does not innovate at compared to Google Sky, though most of the gasps at TED and in this frustrating Microsoft teaser video seem to have been elicited from such zooms by people who have never seen Google Sky.

Sorry, to get to my point: I’d prefer to have seen Microsoft add smooth zooming to a 2D web app and turn it into a true universal skybrowser rather than once again serve Windows users only via a standalone app — and we know it’s possible; look at the zooming in the web-based Microsoft Virtual Earth 3D. Failing that, I wonder if WWT will support KML as a way of sharing content, so that non-Windows users can at least view such content in Google Sky. (Of course, even better would have been standalone versions of WWT for Mac and Linux, and the opportunities that entails for building super-smooth UI elements and tools.) Google made Mac and Linux versions of Google Earth/Sky not (just) because it is nice — the move guaranteed the adoption of KML as a universal standard and massive mind share among trendsetting geeks.

In the end, I think the biggest uptake will come for the application that makes it the easiest for users to add, annotate and share content. In the past, this has been Google’s undisputed turf, but Microsoft WWT’s presentation/storytelling feature may well turn the tables. We’ll find out when WorldWide Telescope is released, “this spring” — which meanwhile gives Google ample time to shore up Google Sky.

Seero‘s David Rothschild writes

Thanks for giving the site a look. We would be glad to extend 50 invites to Ogle Earth readers. On the sign-up form, just have your users enter ‘Ogle Earth’ under the ‘What is the meaning of life’ field. When we review the sign-ups we will be sure to let the first 50 with that in the field through to the site.

Remember, Seero lets you use the webcam on your laptop to broadcast live to the web. Add a GPS unit, and you can show your location live on the web as you broadcast. You can also upload and publish pre-made videos, and you can also manually georeference videos. So have a play. Perviously David wrote that

Our goal is to shake the foundations of how you see video with a platform that promotes exploration and geographical awareness. All of our content is scripted into KML and integrates with Google Earth to allow for users to navigate live and on-demand broadcasters.

I haven’t yet found the KML link for my account, but that can’t be long in coming if KML is in the foundations of their content management system.

• Seero: Seero lets you publish live georeferenced video from your GPS-enabled laptop to the web. Currently in a closed beta. The holy grail, as I see it: Being able to publish live georeferenced video to the web from a GPS-enabled mobile phone, sort of what you can do now with Qik or Sweden-based Bambuser, but with live location tracking added. Looks like development in this space is reaching warp speed.
• NASA’s 3D Moon: New Scientist reports on the a new 3D map of the Moon’s south pole, made from highly accurate Earth-based radar observations with a view to setting up a permanent base there. It comes with plenty of YouTube eye candy. Any chance we civilians can cavort there soon, albeit virtually? (Via Gizmodo)
• Top level domains as KML: Matthew Zook at the University of Kentucky’s Department of Geography brings us TLDs, visualized and linked as KML:

  

• WordPress to KML update: Andrew Turner’s GeoPress plugin for WordPress, which lets you give posts coordinates and then view them as KML, gets an update to version 2.4.1, adding KML 2.2 compatibility.
• Live orbiting frog satellites as KML: Tracking satellites from scraped data was an early use of KML, but such applications have not usually been long-lived as they require server-side resources. Now Orbiting Frog, which last week brought us a cool Google Sky layer, has a very nice implementation running: The 100 brightest objects, live, the International Space Station with upcoming flight path and horizon, and a network link you can play around with yourself that lets you get detailed info for any satellite.
• Google Outreach Spreadsheet Mapper: Google Outreach’s Spreadsheet Mapper let’s you separate style from content in a way that makes managing a large collection of KML placemarks into a true pleasure. I worked with a beta for a human rights project that is underway, and can testify that it gives you a whole new level of control over the way placemarks look. (I’m late in reporting this, but it is well worth an investigation.)
• International Journal Of Digital Earth: The inaugural issue is out now and it is free, available as HTML and PDF. What’s it about? “The International Journal of Digital Earth, as the official publication of the International Society for Digital Earth, aims to provide a predominant academic forum for people to exchange ideas, to carry out research and to discuss development problems. The Journal focuses not only on the theory and technology related to research on digital earth, but also on the many applications of relevance to society.” (Via The Earth is Square)
• KML tutorial on YouTube: Quick and Dirty KML with Mano and Pamela, Googlers: Creating simple KML in Google Earth, placemarks in Google Maps, and finally, on using Google Outreach’s Spreadsheet Mapper.
• South China Sea Project: Cool new science KML, highlighted on Google Lat-Long Blog. Plenty more where that came from on the Google Earth Outreach Showcase.
• Microsoft Virtual Earth update: New bird’s eye imagery on February 27, with extra love shown to Portugal, Italy, and Austria.
• Noah’s Ark is in Yemen: Really:
  

  When western scholars discovered a program named “Google Earth”, they looked continuously for Noah’s Ark on every mountain and hill across the sphere.

  It turns out that all you have to do is convert the numbers of the Koranic verses that mention the ark into geographic coordinates, and bingo, the location is plainly in Yemen.

• –ì–µ–æ–±–ª–æ–≥: Valery Hronusov has started geoblogging… in Russian. But don’t let language be a barrier: He’s gone and georeferenced some of the most amazing photographs ever made. The genius Prokudin-Gorskii, “Photographer to the Czar”, contrived to take color photographs of the Russian empire in the decade before the Russian revolution. How? By taking three black and white photos through three different-colored filters, and then projecting all three negatives simultaneously at lectures. I remember being stunned when the US Library of Congress put remastered versions of them online in 2003 — color from a time when everything was supposed to be in sepia! Now you can see a subset of them around Perm, georeferenced by Valery. Valery, more modern-day comparisons like the one in your post, please? I like it!
• Center of Gravity calc… that you can use: Ah, well, it looks like the last word in center of gravity calculators has just been written. What a slick implementation. (Yes, you can upload KML files).
• Tablet PC with built-in GPS: The Axiotron Modbook is a modded Apple Macbook, turning it into a tablet Mac with GPS added for good measure. This should be perfect for running Google Earth in the field. (No, you can’t use it with one or more fingers though.) (Thanks Robert)

What’s in a name? When it comes to the Persian Gulf, aka the Arabian Gulf to Arabs or just the Gulf, you’ll upset someone no matter what combination of names you use. Iran bans goods that have “Arabian Gulf” stamped on them, and the UAE bans textbooks that label it as “Persian Gulf”. (Source: Wikipedia)

“The Gulf” won’t do either, the Economist has found out when Iran banned the publication for calling it just that, nor does “Arabian Gulf” in parentheses behind “Persian Gulf” cut it, as National Geographic found out.

Sure, historically the Gulf has been known as the Persian Gulf, and that’s what I call it too, mainly because it is good for everyone to agree on calling it something. But the entire Southern half of the Persian Gulf lies in Arab waters (there are no international waters there), so if the Arabs want to call it the Arabian Gulf, I don’t have a problem with that. Arabian, Persian — it’s not like anyone is trying to call it Qatari Gulf, Sunni Gulf or Iranian Gulf, now is it?

Google’s solution for Google Earth — to label it both as Persian and Arabian, with a usage note — is sensible. If you search for Arabian Gulf in Google Earth, say because you are an Qatari schoolboy and don’t know any better, you’ll find it, together with that usage note. That’s a feature, not a bug. Those who feel strongly about the matter have also made good use of Google Earth Community to “add more speech” to the speech they don’t agree with:

That works for me too — Google Earth as a neutral canvas onto which anyone can publish their toponymic opinions, whether they be popular or controversial, clever or dumb. Just like the web.

Nevertheless, Google’s editorial policy earned it the displeasure of the National Iranian American Council two weeks ago, which wrote to Google CEO Eric Schmidt to tell him that showing both names is just not good enough. Now comes another volley by irate Iranian toponymicists, in the form of a petition that begins:

We, the undersigned, through this letter, protest your irresponsible, unscientific actions, and demand an immediate and unconditional deletion of “Arabian Gulf” from Google Earth.

Arbitrarily designating the Persian Gulf as the Arabian Gulf is an irresponsible violation of all historical and International standards and would undermine the integrity of Google Earth.

The petition, now signed by 12,792 people and counting, fails to mention that Google gives preference to “Persian Gulf”, though nuance is not usually a strong point of petitions. It then spends several paragraphs unhelpfully explaining that the term ‘Persia’ “has always been used to describe the nation of Iran, its people, and its ancient empires since 600 BC.” That, if anything, backs the Arab argument for naming the Gulf “Arabian” lest the Iranians get any ideas about further territorial claims on it; it is a place where the settling of maritime boundaries has been a long and difficult process, and where the sovereignty of some islands is still very much in dispute.

Let’s not kid ourselves, this dispute is not about “accuracy” or “science”, it is about not giving an inch when there’s oil involved, and it is a game being played by all sides. The problem is that it’s impossible not to play — no position is considered neutral by all the parties. Even acknowledging that dissent exists on the name (without making a judgment on the issue) is seen as bias by some, and that is just silly. (Via Global Voices)

PS: My suggestion for a solution: Stop calling it the Gulf and start calling it the Puddle — the thing’s so shallow anyway. Then whoever wants to name it after themselves is welcome to it.

• Twipster: Here comes another entry in the “GPS mobile phone camera => georeferenced images published to the web” service space: Twipster, still in private beta, is described as “a geocentric mobile publishing platform. It can be used for many different purposes. You can use Twipster to do things like photowalk, tell a story, journal a vacation, geocaching, or just share memories.”

  What sets it apart? It’s photo-site agnostic. Sure, you upload to Twipster’s site, but then you can further publish your photos to the likes of Flickr and Picasa. (Of course, competitor Shozu, not to be outdone, has just added that capability too.)

  What’s not clear yet: When it comes to geotagging via Shozu, it currently works just with Flickr, using Flickr tags. Nokia’s Location Tagger, meanwhile, puts coordinates directly into the photo’s EXIF data, so that any site that can handle EXIF can georeference the photos. It’s not clear yet how sophisticated Twipster’s photogeoreferencing skills will be. In the meantime, the screenshots promise some nice graphics. (Via GenBeta)

• Static Google Maps API: Got a device that won’t do javascript? Want to cut down on overhead? Enter static Google Maps tiles referenced as URLs inside simple <img> tags.

  You need a (free) API key, and there is a usage limit is 1,000 unique image requests per 24 hours. (Having your site request the same image more than once counts as just one unique image, however.) Note: You can get GIFs for two types of maps (standard and mobile), but not of satellite imagery or terrain.

  The parameters are dead simple, and you can play with the Static Maps Wizard to get your image precisely. For example, I’m posting from here:

  

  (Via Mapperz, who furthermore makes a list of the pros and cons of this static API.)

• KML2KML: Fresh from the creative imagination of Valery Hronusov, KML2KML, a stand-alone Google Earth application for the reorganization of KML datasets and creating view based regions in all KML or KMZ files ($50).
• Titan’s islands… mapped! Somebody is having way too much fun: Mr Minton of EVS Islands has taken some extraordinary imagery from Cassini’s Titan flyby, showing islands in a sea methane, and turned it into a map! The first of many such maps in the continuing annals of space exploration, no doubt…

• Submillimeter astronomy as KML: Yet more astronomy content gets the KML treatment, making it usable in Google Sky. Orbiting Frog has assembled a layer collecting astronomical objects that are radiant at sub-millimeter wavelengths, and has just made it available for all to download, “thanks to help from the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre (CADC), the Joint Astronomy Centre (JAC) and my colleagues at Cardiff University.” Eye candy is available over at Flickr. There is plenty here to explore.
• Barcelona censored: The Spanish-language Google Earth blog notices that with the latest update, bits of Barcelona are now censored. What gives?

  It’s the usual story. Satellite imagery got replaced by higher-resolution aerial photography, this time by the region’s Institut Cartogràfic de Catalunya (as per the credits). You can still see the old imagery in Google Maps here for a while longer, until Maps gets the update.

  Before:
  

  After:
  

  Catalonia’s governmental GIS office gets to censor those bits it wants to of aerial photography. (Satellite imagery, on the other hand, is beyond its jurisdiction.) At least the censorship is obvious, as opposed to camouflaged. (Entire update is listed below the fold for archival purposes.)

• iPhotoToGoogleEarth 2: Version 2.0 of the free iPhotoToGoogleEarth iPhoto export plugin is out, writes Craig Stanton. It works with iPhoto’08 in the latest version of iLife.
• Automator actions for Google Earth: Got Mac? Alasdair Allan has written two Automator actions for Applescript to switch from Earth to Sky, and back again. (Why not use in conjunction with the Google Earth Action Pack and/or GPS Automator actions…)
• GEMMO: Google Earth Hacks‘ Mickey Mellen is coming out with yet another Google Earth-based game, Google Earth MMO, now in a private beta. The cool bit? “All gameplay (including battles, shops, messaging, etc) is done completely in Google Earth with no add-on software or web browser calls required.” More here.
• Ads for online map makers (like you): You get the most of the money for ads showing on your websites, so why shouldn’t you also get money for ads on the maps you created? That’s the thinking behind one of the new features of Map Channels, which now lets you create your own Google Maps-based maps + content and then add ads using Lat 49’s “mapvertising”. The latest upgrade to Map Channels also improves KML support.
• Feature extraction from imagery: Awesome: Satellite imagery provider Spot Image is offering free imagery to researchers to help develop automated feature extraction tools that can then be used by the likes of GeoNames to offer more tan just point-based name tags. Writes GeoNames’ Marc Wick:
  

  Features that we think can be extracted from 2.5m imagery are city contours, airports, streets, shore lines, lakes, rivers and others. We believe this is a fantastic opportunity for researchers and student-works to find algorithms for feature identification and extraction. Drop me a line for more details if you are doing research in this area and would like to work on this challenging task.

  […] It will be a gigantic step forward for the availability, quality and coverage of free geographical data on global scale.

• GeoServer: GeoServer 1.6.0 is out, and among other things it features “improved connectivity to Google Maps/Virtual Earth/Yahoo! Maps, leveraging better integration with OpenLayers as well as bug fixes for our Google Earth support.”
• GPS to Illustrator? A reader asks a question that I don’t know the answer to: He’s “searching for Mac software that converts [GPS] tracks to vectors (to be used in Illustrator). I was as wondering if you could steer me in the right direction? If no mac software exists, are there Windows ones?.”
• GeoLily! Who needs geocoding when you have geoLily?
• Microsoft Sky: Microsoft’s answer to Google Sky, WorldWide Telescope, looks set to be launched on February 27.
• 360Cities update: Jeffrey Martin writes: “You might be interested to know that 360cities.net has had a facelift to its homepage. We’ve also added about 20 cities… Including few excellent places such as Kolkata :-)”
• Star Wars! The rogue spy satellite has been shot down. Alan Clegg has a post linking to a KML overlay that shows you where and how it happened.

  

• How To Get On Google Maps Without An Address: Short answer: Get a PO Box.
• Super delegates: Democratic superdelegates, mapped as a KML file. The Official Google Blog has more.
• HeyWhatsThat Cosmic Visibility: Listed here better late than never, this cool Google Maps-based tool lets you visualize night sky events such as yesterday’s lunar eclipse. There’s added functionality for the Moon and Mars too.
• Traffic sensor web: Back in 2006, this was a high-end experimental feature for Honda drivers in Japan; now Nokia is busy democratizing the technology — where you GPS phone acts as a node in a traffic sensor web, relaying driving speeds to a central processor, and benefiting from live congestion information gathered from others GPS phones. It’s such a good idea that it is just a matter of time before we take it for granted.
• New Blog: There’s a new blog on the block: Where On Google Earth? posts a screen grab from Google Earth and then lets users guess where its from. Winners get bragging rights.

Continue reading Links: submillimeter KML, Barcelona update censors, iPhotoToGoogleEarth 2 →