CNN has a video story up today about an Eagle Scout in Madison, NJ helping people in the town to create a 3D model of the town to show in Google Earth.  He is showing volunteers how to create the 3D town in Google Earth as a project (Thought I think they meant to say Sketchup… but that might cause confusion to people). They didn’t show anything of the town.. they showed one that was done in Europe instead.

Ok, the other week the Google Bloggers were all excited about the new Bathymetry for oceans that was added for Google Earth/Maps.  Well, since the data is open (and Google wouldn’t like it if anyone else used it from them) I downloaded the raw elevation data and built a shaded global mosaic GeoTiff.

If you want to use the GeoTiff, you can access it from the Free Earth Foundation server here (Warning, it is 360MB, 43200 x 21600).

It is also being processed so that it will soon be a layer in WorldWind.net and WWJava.  The next step will be the elevation data, so the 3D view will match the imagery.

Ok, I will admit it.  The new bathymetric imagery that is in Google Earth is quite nice and a much better improvement over what was there (though they didn’t/couldn’t make it follow the current terrain??).  I leave the reviews to the Google Fanboys I had to fire up WW to compare the two, and this is even an improvement over the BMNG bathymetric view of the globe that WorldWind uses for the default globe.

WorldWind BMNG view, just south of Cuba

Same general location in Google Earth.  There is more detail of the underwater features.

Now, the nice thing about this imagery is that it is NOT just for Google.  Anyone can download the imagery from GEBCO.  And it looks like they will have new imagery soon according to their website.

I can think of two projects that can make immediate use of this imagery, GeoMapApp and Virtual Ocean.  So, time to send some emails and get this imagery on the WorldWind servers.

Was passed this URL a few days ago, and while it is “kind of interesting” to see the authors thoughts, I would take the whole article kind of lightly.

Where do you draw the line with Google Maps?

One of the biggest catalysts for driving the use and adoption of online mapping services in both the consumer and enterprise domains has been the availability of the Google Maps. While the low cost of using the mapping service provides high appeal for organisations – and is placing increasing pricing pressure on commercial providers – users and/or developers considering its use within web mapping applications do need to be aware of its functional limitations and the terms of its use before deciding on how to meet their geographic information needs.

Well, maybe not exactly.. but while working on a project for work.. I found a section of local roads that have the shape of a Goose in flight, complete with an eye even.  It is easier to see in just the regular map view, but the aerial imagery really helps to make it look more like a Goose.

View Larger Map

Here is the Google Earth KML file of the road.

Got sent this last night and it is actually kind of funny and shows how little the media really knows.  But, to get picked at #5 though.. guess that is worth something.

Translated text:

Top-victims
Fifth place: NASA World Wind
NASA World Wind is still further development, but it is software which fell prey to Google. The main reason is the release of Google Earth.

Beside satellite images the program shows also overlays and useful information like restaurants and sights. Furthermore there are more detailed satellite images especially from Europe.

Google’s goals (making money) and NASA’s goals (distributing information) using Virtual Globes are two different monsters.

While NASA WW has fallen to a niche market of uses and developers (WW Java is in more places than Google could only dream of getting into and being used for), its goal was never intended to be a competitor of Google’s.