When we hear "update" and "Google Earth" in the same sentence, we're used to groundbreaking additions to Google's high-powered, interactive, and ever-expanding desktop globe. In Google Earth 5, that's meant tools to explore the oceans, sky, and Earth's ruddy neighboring planet.
But Google Earth 5.1 for Windows and Mac is a mere tremor. In fact, if you've been playing around with Google Earth 5.1 beta, only Mac users should notice a change--that the Google Earth browser plug-in comes bundled in the download.
Still, the minor update should still be noticeable for those making the switch from Google Earth 5. Google has made some changes under the hood to improve speed and performance. Using compression technology to make images load faster, and improving the other ways that the app handles graphics, Google claims that Earth now loads 25 percent faster and soars the globe in smoother motions.
In addition, both Mac and Windows versions of Google Earth 5.1 pack in the browser plug-in, so you can explore Google Earth from the browser--Firefox and Safari for Mac users; Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer for Windows. Before, you needed to install the plug-ins separately. The move to drop the beta from Google Earth 5.1 comes just two days after Google released Google Earth for iPhone 2.0.
This is a map I saved online from my desktop.
(Credit: Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET)Google Earth made a splash when it spun onto the iPhone last October, giving users the capability to explore the virtual globe for free from virtually anywhere with an Internet connection. But without some practical mapping features, like turn-by-turn navigation and street maps, Google Earth was largely a discovery tool that didn't have much real-world impact.
This week, Google Earth 2.0 for iPhone gets more useful by pulling those Google maps you saved in the My Maps section of the Google Maps Web site into the app's mobile orbit. In Google Earth, you'll tap the settings icon (the "i") and sign in to your Google Account. Just below the login field, there's any entry for My Maps. Tap it to view your saved maps, and tap again to select the map you'd like to zoom to. While you can view a saved location or route in Google Earth, the app doesn't replace Google Map's directions-dispending feature.
Google Earth for iPhone still spins its digital globe each time you switch locations, so if your maps are halfway around the world, expect a delay. It's also still slow to load each time, and the 2.0 model only makes the app larger, growing about 3MB in size since the first edition. But it has also gained other subtle features in version 2.0, including support for thirteen additional languages (listed below) and icons that glow as confirmation that you've tapped them.
Google Earth 2.0 for iPhone is available in 31 languages and dialects: English (U.S), English (UK), French (France), German, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Polish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Arabic, Thai, Czech, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian, Malaysian, Romanian, Slovak, and Croatian.
Download: Google Earth for Windows|Mac.
Google Earth can now take you to the moon.
Timed with the 40th anniversary of the first moon walk, the Internet giant on Monday released an addition to its Google Earth mapping software to provide images of moon landscapes and traces of human exploration there.
Called the Moon in Google Earth and available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, the software allows you to see topographical features on our closest celestial neighbor with the lunar equivalent of Google Street View. People can also see a gallery of the Apollo space missions and get information on every robotic spacecraft that has visited the moon.
"This tool will make it easier for millions of people to learn about space, our moon and some of the most significant and dazzling discoveries humanity has accomplished together," Anousheh Ansari, a trustee of X Prize Foundation and the first female private space explorer, said Monday on a Google blog.
Google is hosting an event Monday to launch the Moon in Google Earth site at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., where Ansari and Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin will speak.
To access the images from Google Earth, you select Moon from the toolbar in Google Earth. From there, the viewer zooms down to get detailed images of the moon's surface.
From the left panel, people can surface information about the moon, including historical charts used by astronauts for training and NASA mission control. High-resolution photos break down the moon's surface into different quadrants to show its features.
The tool is designed to teach people about the missions to the moon by visiting the various Apollo landing sites. After zooming into a location, people can see video clips and panoramic stills taken by the astronauts, such as Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon. Aldrin also offers a guided video tour of the moon from within Google Earth.
The artifacts tab allows people to see three-dimensional models of the spacecraft that have gone to the moon.
The Moon in Google Earth project was done through Google's partnerships with NASA, which allowed researchers to develop much of the content. Japan's space agency, Jaxa, also donated the global terrain dataset for the moon.
Updated at 8:45 a.m. PDT with more details.
The Livestrong skin changes the look of Firefox.
(Credit: Mozilla)Mozilla announced a variety of new skins for its Firefox Web browser Tuesday. Many of the skins are from well-known brands and fashion designers. According to the company, All American Rejects-, Lady Gaga-, and No Doubt-themed music skins are currently available. Those looking for fashion designs can have a BCBG Max Azria skin, while those who want to support Lance Armstrong and the fight against cancer can download the Livestrong skin. Many more free skins are available on Mozilla's new "Personas" page.
The Weather Channel has launched the second version of its iPhone app, the company announced Tuesday. The new version is ad-supported. Users who are interested in the advertisements can click on them and check out the advertiser's page without closing the app. More importantly, the new app now features in-motion weather maps, metro traffic cameras, a snapshot of weather conditions, and animation radar. The free app is available now in the Apple App Store.
Music search engine SeeqPod filed a petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court Monday. According to the court filing, SeeqPod decided to file for protection after responding to pressure from the music industry, which has slapped the service with billions of dollars in lawsuits that it might not survive. SeeqPod has not disclosed any information about the filing.
Mobile advertising firm AdMob has launched the iPhone Download Exchange program, which will allow developers to increase their own iPhone app downloads by advertising the app in other programs. AdMob will be inking deals with developers who want to participate in the network. All the apps that are included in the deals will feature ads advertising other apps that are also in the network. According to the company, AdMob already has over 1,000 iPhone applications in the Download Exchange and, with the wider release, it expects more companies to sign up soon.
An artist named Helmut Smits has decided that working with paint isn't enough, so instead he is showing his art to people on Google Earth. Dubbed "Dead Pixel in Google Earth," Smits burned a 32x32-inch piece of grass in a field in the Netherlands. According to the artist, that patch of burned grass represents 1 pixel in Google Earth at a distance of 1 kilometer, or 0.62 miles, above the ground. Smits says the dead pixel is "concept art" and will be left on display for those in the field or people looking for it in Google Earth.
Photo- and video-sharing site Photobucket announced Tuesday that its application programming interface has been available for one year. To date, over 1,800 developers have signed up for the API and the company said that a variety of applications were created, helping it reach 55 million monthly unique visitors. The API is still available on Photobucket's site.
Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
The tip of Mt. Fuji, now in higher resolution from GeoEye-1 satellite imagery in Google Earth.
(Credit: screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)Google has begun offering the first high-resolution imagery from the GeoEye-1 satellite it helped sponsor--but only as an optional layer in Google Earth for now.
"In the coming months you will start seeing stunning GeoEye-1 imagery blended into our database and viewable through Google Earth, Maps, and Google Maps for Mobile," said Dylan Lorimer, strategic partner manager; and Jacob Schonberg, associate product manager, in a Google Lat Long blog post Wednesday.
Until then, some shots can be viewed by downloading add-on imagery for Google Earth from Google's GeoEye-1 preview site, they said. Because Google Earth now works as a plug-in to some browsers, the full Google Earth application doesn't need to be installed to get a taste. Clicking the thumbnail images in the film strip on the page will launch the in-browser version.
GeoEye launched the satellite in September and plans to launch another with a higher-resolution camera in 2011. However, U.S. government limits the resolution of the images Google shows to details measuring half a meter. GeoEye shared a view of President Barack Obama's inauguration and other teaser images.
GeoEye-1 imagery, such as this shot of Nukuoro in Micronesia, is available in Google Earth as an extra download.
(Credit: screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)
Google has fixed a disconnect between two of its software products, its Chrome browser and the plug-in version of Google Earth.
This Google Earth flight simulator works in Chrome now.
(Credit: screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET Networks)"As of ~4 p.m. PST today, Google Chrome 1.0+ on Windows is an officially supported browser," a Google employee said on a Google Earth mailing list on Thursday. "That means Chrome users will no longer get the unsupported browser message, and the plugin and API should work just as they would in other supported browsers."
Google Earth is generally used as standalone software, but the plug-in version can be mashed up with Web pages such as James Stafford's Mini Flight Sim and Thatcher Ulrich's Monster Milk Truck.
Ultimately, Google believes Google Maps and Google Earth will converge into a single product; the plug-in is one step in that direction.
The update is also noted on the Google Earth API page from which the plug-in can be downloaded.
In other Google geography news, the company also announced a new batch of public transit map updates Thursday. Houston, Calgary in Canada, and 21 agencies in Virginia include maps and schedules, while Atlanta, Bonn in Germany, and Sacramento, Calif., among others, got maps visible through Google Transit.
(Via the unofficial Google Earth Blog.)
Google Earth is adding an ocean feature, allowing people to dive into the deep blue right from their desktop, CBS News Correspondent Daniel Sieberg reports.
John Hanke, director of Google Earth and Maps, said, "Vast parts of it are largely unexplored and we don't really know what's down there."
While the visibility in the water has been cleaned up, everything you see is based on actual data. It's not quite swimming with the fishes, but it will let you see where they live.
Hanke showed Sieberg some impressive images that can be found with the new feature. "This is really an undersea canyon that is quite dramatic," Hanke said. "It's imilar in scale to the Grand Canyon."
You can also click on icons to see photos and sometimes video of endangered species, like the Goliath Grouper, or even an odd-looking type of shrimp off the coast of Spain.
There's even a fish GPS -- you can follow creatures that have been tagged, from above the water or below it.
A worldwide network of scientists will be constantly adding video, photos, and underwater topography.
"Just as Google Earth has connected people to far off places and made them real, this is going to connect people to the ocean, and make it a much more real and accessible place," said Marine Biologist Stephanie Wear, from the Nature Conservancy.
The good news is you don't need to be a computer whiz or a marine biologist.
Once you download Google Earth, it's just a matter of double-clicking on the ocean to get more detail. Then scroll your mouse over different icons to see what lies beneath, or on the surface.
Hanke said the possibilities are vast, with the ability to see things like "the best surf spots in the world, with photographs of the waves, the best kite surfing spots, the best wind surfing spots."
For tourists, students, and landlubbers alike, it's a unique underwater adventure.
And, it's one that doesn't mean getting all wet.
• Click here for more stories, and images, on Google Earth 5.0.
Google Earth upped the cartographic ante again today with Google Earth 5 for Windows and Mac. As CNET News reported back in April 2008, the latest version incorporates even more data from NASA, the BBC, National Geographic, and other proprietary sources to create one of the most unique map offerings ever, meshing comprehensive real-time data on Earth's surface with information on the oceans, the stars that we see, historical maps, and topographical information on Mars.
Google Earth's new Ocean feature includes a downloadable layer to view global chlorophyll levels.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Conceptually, the oceanic maps are great. It is beyond cool to be able to see ocean-related points of interest like shipwrecks, and have cross-referenced content like undersea explorations. The interface remains flexible in the new version, too. Hot keys CTRL+ALT+B and CTRL+ALT+T toggle the sidebar and toolbar, respectively, making it simple to maximize screen real estate. Meanwhile, Google's use of scientific content from multiple oceanographic concerns makes this one of the few places that the public can access such an incredible range of facts, figures, and true stories of the sea from one place.
Clicking the busted plug-in icon doesn't take you to the plug-in you need, nor does it tell you what the plug-in is.
(Credit: CNET Networks)However, it shouldn't surprise many that the execution of the new features leaves much to be desired.
Searching in Google Earth is still atrocious. Even when you have Oceans activated, typing in "Titanic" into the search field will get you nowhere. If you adjust the term to "Titanic shipwreck," your results seem to depend on your most recently searched locations. After looking at San Francisco, searching for "Titanic shipwreck" showed me a list of shops and restaurants that had "Titanic" in the name. After closing and re-starting Google Earth, and searching for "Titanic shipwreck" again, the globe panned over to the correct part of the North Atlantic but did not zoom in.
For Google to fail so hard with its search algorithms is like Ford failing to stay on top of developing car tech.
Even once I found what I was looking for, Google Earth was not always free from failure. There is a feature with which you can click on a white and blue circle icon to learn more about the part of the ocean you're exploring. Sometimes this results in a picture, a bit of text, and links to more content online. Other times I was rewarded with a blue puzzle-piece icon. Clicking on this missing plug-in icon resulted in nothing--no jump to download the plug-in, not even a message telling me what the plug-in is called.
The new historical maps feature lets you compare Las Vegas in 1990...
(Credit: CNET Networks)These mistakes are more than frustrating; they're the kind of basic problems that an outfit like Google should have nailed down by now. Despite these problems, though, the oceanic maps are pretty cool.
Sticking with Earth for a moment, Google Earth 5 also introduces historical maps. Accessible from the clock icon on the toolbar, they're neat to peruse but aren't useful for in-depth data mining. The time-lapse imagery of recent decades in specific urban areas, like documenting the growth of Las Vegas, is fun but somewhat counter-intuitive to the real-world relationship that Google Earth attempts to perpetuate.
Many of the older black and white maps awkwardly overlay the colorful ground beneath them, too. Having access to the images is better than not at all, but I'd like to see future versions of Google Earth improve on the historic map display and rendering.
...to the Las Vegas of 2009.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Thanks to information supplied by NASA and other fact-based sources such as A Traveler's Guide to Mars--not to be confused with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy--the Mars map is surprisingly rich with information. From the well-known Olympus Mons to the recent discoveries that indicate the presence of water on the Red Planet, Google Earth's Mars maps are an entertaining, educational delight.
Compiling all this information into one easily navigable place is no small feat, but there is definitely room for improvement. The Mars maps suffer from the same search flaws that plague their earthly siblings, and rendering is often sluggish.
This map of the Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the solar system, hints at the depth of information on Mars that's available.
(Credit: CNET Networks)You should find that the OpenGL engine is faster than the DirectX version, but if not, you can switch from the second start-up icon loaded in your Start menu. Why you're not able to change this setting from the Options menu is yet another simple fix that would improve the Google Earth experience. Some of the problems that plague Google Earth are long-standing. Let's hope they get addressed before it reaches version 6.0.
• Click here for more stories, and images, on Google Earth 5.0.
The digital globe app Google Earth (download) is getting new imagery from inside buildings. One, at least: a new layer gives viewers gigapixel (ultra-high-resolution) photos of artwork from inside the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain. The Prado project also includes detailed exterior views of the museum's buildings. See Google's blog post on the new layer.
As cool as it is to be able to view the art, the Prado project presents neither a complete (or even close) catalog of art from the Prado, nor an immersive 3D experience. There are 14 images of masterpieces, and you navigate to them via a pop-up that appears when you click on the exterior of the building in Google Earth.
I found that the high-resolution imagery, both of the exterior of the building and the pictures, was too much for my old ThinkPad T60 to handle. Google Earth stuttered and became unresponsive. More current computers should do better.
Other projects that attempt to bring the inside and outside navigation together include Microsoft's Photosynth, which intelligently joins photographs into navigable 3D online scenes, and Everyscape, which creates interior 3D scenes from photographs for businesses.
Google has also turned Google Earth outward, by adding Sky View to Google Earth.
Google has put up a new 3D model of the Prado Museum in Spain.
Clicking on the museum image brings up an image library.
Images that you click on can be examined in minute detail.
