Install Earth

This one is a really cute idea actually.  The World Wildlife Fund has come up with a way for you to go online and buy a baby tree which then gets planted in a rainforest in Indonesia.  That’s not the cutest part though.  They then give you the Google Earth KML file with the exact location of your tree, so that you can see it’s location and see the changes in it as the satellite imagery for that location gets updated over the years.  In essence, you’ll be watching your baby tree grow over the years.

Truthfully, the resolution of Google Earth in that rainforest in Indonesia isn’t the greatest.  But as you well know, Google Earth is always updating and getting new satellite imagery.  So I’m guessing it wont be too long before you can actually see the detail in the trees there.

So for only $5.50 a tree in the Sebangau National Forest can be yours, and you will know that you are contributing to the reforestation of Earth.  And that always feels good.

One small step toward improving the condition of planet earth.

If you want to purchase a tree for your very own, go to mybabytree.org.   Thanks to the Google Earth Blog for the info on this.

Technorati Tags: mybabytree.org, google earth blog, wwf, world wildlife fund, sebangau national forest, indonesia, deforestation, global climate change, google earth

There is a term among the software geek community called “Easter eggs”.  Basically what they are are little secret hidden treasures/surprises inside a piece of software or a program that you can only see if you know the right code to type into the right place.  These “easter eggs” are located somewhere inside a lot of the software you have on your computer right NOW and you don’t even know it.  They’re created by the software developers themselves, just for fun.

In honor of the Easter holiday, I want to let you know about a Google Earth easter egg I just found out about.  The Google Earth easter egg is called “Flight Simulator”, and it allows you to choose an airport, plane type and fly inside Google Earth

Here’s what you do:

1. Launch Google Earth version 4.2 and click Ctrl + Alt + A (or Cmd + Opt + A if you’re on a Mac).

2. BAM!  For more specifics on how to navigate once you find this easter egg, click here for Lifehacker’s  navigation instructions.

Additional info on navigation hotkeys and instructions can be found on Google Earth’s flight simulator keyboard page. 

And big props to Lifehacker for always having the skinny on EVERYTHING cool and web-related.

Technorati Tags: google earth, flight simulator, easter eggs, lifehacker

You like the earth?  You like video games?  PERFECT, you qualify!

The people at Google Earth Hacks have developed a video game that uses Google Earth and is FREE!  Its called “GEMMO” and it’s a MMPORG (massively multiplayer online) game for Google Earth.  All that’s required is that you have Google Earth ver. 4.2 or higher, and are on a Windows machine.  To download Gemmo, just click the Gemmo link above and register (free) to the site.  Then you can get your own copy.

I haven’t actually tried this game yet as I just just found out about it TODAY.  Apparently you can fight nasty monsters, collect gold and find and collect crystals which are hidden in various cities of earth.   You can win battes, increase points and shop for powerful weapons.  Wheee!

If you’ve already tried GEMMO, let me know what you think.  And if you haven’t tried it but are going to right this instant…hollar back afterward and let me know how it went.   And I’ll be doing the same…

Technorati Tags: gemmo, google earth, google earth hacks, mmporg

Don’t think that because of all our existing technology everything to be discovered on earth has been.  There are still a lot of uninhabited locations of earth, a lot of space and a lot of ground.  Especially in Australia!

In fact, one geologist, Dr. Arthur Hickman, a leading authority in the subject in Australia, just made a discovery from using Google Earth.

He was apparently using Google Earth to find iron ore and discovered a crater in Western Australia that was previously undiscovered, despite very sharp and clear images which exist of this mountainous region called Hamersley.  He did his research, and consequently has now got a crater named after himself!

Feel free to do your OWN research and have a piece of nature named after you, as well!

Read the original news article.

Technorati Tags: arthur hickman, hamersley range, australia, google earth, geology, geological survey of western australia

As I’ve mentioned before, there is a giant community of Google Earth users.  So when you download Google Earth you are very far from alone.  There are support forums specifically for new users, for people who create 3D views for Google Earth, for historians, for astronomers, for the military, for environmental groups, historians, and more.

Some of these forums have been around longer than others, and some have more members than others.  I based my top 10 on the number of total posts in the forum.

Here you go, the top 10 most popular Google Earth forums, from 10 to 1:

10. Open Forum - This is like the “misc” drawer in your kitchen.  It’s for all conversations that don’t fall under another category.  Currently has 21,182 posts.

9. Google Earth (read only) - This is a support group for Google Earth and currently has 21,924 posts.

8. Nature and Geography forum - 27,005 posts.

7.  Sports and Hobbies forum - 33,226 posts.

6. Military forum (unmoderated)- for any and everything military-related - 41,751 posts.

5. Transportation forum is all about every method of transportation as it relates to Google Earth - 44,408 posts.

4. Fun and Games forum - The fun forum to post mystery placemarks, hints, problems to solve, etc. - 93,984 posts.

3. Travel Information forum is where you go to give and get advice about travel (hotels, restaurants, points of interest, etc.) 101,936 posts.

2. Member-centric Locations - “Where you live, went to school, work, or play.” came in 2nd with 111,909 posts

And the number one, most popular forum in the entire Google Earth community is…*drum roll*….

1. Earth Browsing “the primary forum for sharing and discussing places around the world.” with 262,213 posts!

Click here to see or join the community.

Technorati Tags: google earth, bbs keyhole, google earth community, top 10 lists

I was reading some Google Earth news articles from all over the web, and I stumbled upon this article that basically gives you everything you could ever want to know about Google Sky, from the viewpoint of someone who seriously understands the subject of astronomy.  So here’s the link to that extremely informative post, for you star, planet and galaxy enthusiasts!

Now, I had to do my own research on the above, because in that article it stated that Google Sky was now available for viewing through a browser, but did not give the link for this.  So I thought “is this actually true???”  It was written up in Slashdot as well, but with no link, only the link to the article above.  Kept searching and finally….VOILA!  Check THIS out!  Google’s own browser version of Google Sky, for those who don’t have desire or machine capabilities to properly view Google Earth in all its coolness.

So there you go…all the fun of planetariums while still being able to be lazy and cheap and stay home with your laptop in bed!  Go make some popcorn…

Technorati Tags: google sky, google earth, google sky browser

I was just checking out a neat interface called “Flash Earth” today. It was built by Paul Neave in Flash. With it, you can view the earth from 7 different mapping applications including Ask, Yahoo maps, Google Earth, NASA and OpenLayers. It doesn’t have the bells and whistles that Google Earth has in its full form, and it isn’t meant to necessarily, it’s meant to be a zoomable mashup of 7 different mapping programs.  And it’s interesting to compare the different programs. It’s especially nice after years of reading blog posts which are pro microsoft, or pro yahoo or anti this or that, each giving its own opinion of whose imagery is better, etc. With this little simple interface, you can see for yourself.

It’s more of a novelty item than a vital tool like Google Earth, in my opinion. For me, Google Earth allows me to print maps, make trip routes, email locations and maps to people or myself, find restaurants and points of interest wherever I go, etc. It’s much more important to me to have THOSE features than to just see where my house is on a map. But if that’s all you need, and also if you want to compare the different 3D mapping sources, then check out “Flash Earth”.  It really is a fun tool and it will finally end the arguments of whose imagery is better.  Because those were REALLY annoying.

Technorati Tags: neave.com, paul neave, google earth mashups, flash earth

A Google Earth community member known as satishgsk has created a series for Google Earth called “The Extreme Series.” Basically, it’s a series of landmarks of earth which are the most extreme of their kind. Two recent examples are “Deepest cave” and “Largest flower”.

Satishgsk does research and finds these extremes of life, gets a ton of info and at least one really sweet photo, often from Wikipedia, and updates this information every day.

If you go to satishgsk’s page I linked to above, you’ll see his updates and also be able to load this Extreme Places into your Google Earth or into Google maps, if you prefer.

This probably isn’t something you’ll NEED to get by in life, but it’s real interesting and fun to check out. For more specifics on this series check out Frank Taylor’s Google Earth Blog post about it.

Technorati Tags: satishgsk, bbs keyhole, google earth community, google earth blog, frank taylor, extreme places

I wrote recently about the 3D views of buildings and entire towns being done by people and submitted to Google’s 3D Warehouse.  Well, here’s some more information about what’s done, what’s being done and what’s to come.

This past summer a group of students of varying design and architecture majors at University of Massachusetts Amherst created a 3D visualization of nearly their entire campus using Google Earth and Sketchup.  Initially this was a project for a particular class, but it turned into something huge and fantastic that has now become a model for other campuses to follow.  The project was submitted to Google, and now everyone who has Google Earth can see the amazing work that was created by these Amherst students. Read the full U Mass article here.

Aside from it being a cool project that a lot of people participated in, the possibilities for uses of these 3D models is infinite.  The school can use these in civic planning proposals, to show prospective investors, or future students what the campus looks like, just for a couple examples.

Then take this on a bigger scale.  All schools and towns of earth in 3D.  How much better will this be for solving issues in a particular city, or for planning, making the best use of space?  When you have an accurate 3-dimensional view of something it’s ALWAYS easier to figure things out.

But trust me, none of these ideas are mine,  Google is all over it.  Yesterday they released “Cities in 3D”.  With this tool, cities and regions of earth will be able to share their own data of their own locations with Google Earth, who will then turn this information into 3D models.  The specifics of how local governments will fit into all of this, see the full article at GovTech.com.

Good things are ahead…I can feel it.  And of course, I’ll keep you posted as I find things out.

Technorati Tags: google earth, sketchup, amherst, umass, govtech.com, 3d warehouse, cities in 3D

As Ive mentioned Im always on the hunt for great new and interesting uses for Google Earth. Sometimes I find articles about how people have used Google Earth to locate people or things. And sometimes I find people who have ventured into the more technical side of things, using Google Earth technology as a programmer for their own purposes.

And that is just what I found today! A website called Enobytes, which is a blog about everything you could possibly want to know about wine, has taken the Google Earth api and incorporated it into their own site for the purpose of helping you, the wine enthusiast, locate amazing vineyards all over the world!

You can access this information from enobytes if you have Google Earth downloaded on to your computer. Check out their site for all the details and all kinds of good info about wine, charts, maps, articles, all kinds of good stuff!

Technorati Tags: wine, enobytes, enobytes.com, google earth