Announcements
Each
month we highlight the newest additions to Google Earth content and
features. If you haven't been subscribing to Sightseer for long, check
the forum for previous editions. There were many new announcements for Google Earth in April including a new version of GE itself. Read on to learn more!
Introducing Google Earth 4.3
On April 16th we announced
the latest version of Google Earth version 4.3. This release advances
our vision of offering a realistic, 3D model of the world by giving
users a higher quality, more immersive experience. Watch a short video demonstration of 4.3.
Here are highlights of the significant new features in 4.3
 The sun is here - If you've gotten tired of seeing everything lit with the mid-day sun,
then we have just the trick for you. Click on the new sunlight button
on the toolbar in Google Earth, click the play button on the time
slider, and watch the sun as it circles around the globe. Try getting
close to the ground and look up at the eastern sky to see the sun
rise. We've added new lighting models to
help the experience look more real. See more about this fun new feature.
More, faster 3D buildings
- With 4.3 we've significantly enhanced our approach to rendering 3D
data and have greatly improved performance and realism. We've also added tens
of thousands of new photorealistic buildings for cities around the
world. Read more about the details of the new buildings, and to learn where to find them.
 New navigation
- The most visible changes in 4.3 are the new navigational gadgets.
Google Earth is a 3D application, but we realized that a lot of our
users never quite got the hang of using the tilt feature to navigate
around 3D features like mountains and buildings. So, we spent a lot of time
rethinking how users interact with 3D data and realized that when in
outer space and far above the ground, you really want standard map-like
controls that allow you to pan and zoom smoothly. However, if you want
to get down to the ground and check out a city street, you really want
a street-level navigation mode like you'd typically find in a video
game. The new features address these issues, and include other
mouse-based controls as well. Read more here and here.
 Street View - Ever since we introduced Street View
in Google Maps back in May 2007, people have been asking us when the
same data would be available in Google Earth. Well, that feature is now
available in GE 4.3! Using the PhotoOverlay
feature available in KML 2.2, we have made all of the Street View
panorama photos available as a layer in Google Earth. Double-click on
an icon to fly into a photo, and navigate from photo to photo. Read more.
 Image dates
- Probably the most frequently asked questions related to Google Earth
have been - when was this or that satellite or aerial photo taken? Now
with 4.3, you can easily find the answer to these questions. While
looking at a particular image, point your mouse over it and look in the
status bar on the lower right. If we have information on the date the
image was taken, you'll see the date appear. Although we don't have all imagery dates, we still have a great amount of coverage. Have fun exploring!
12 new languages
- Google Earth 4.3 now supports 26 languages. New additions include:
Danish, English (UK), Spanish (Latin American), Finnish, Hebrew,
Indonesian, Norwegian, Portuguese (PT), Romanian, Swedish, Thai, and
Turkish.
Want more? Here is Google Earth blogger Frank Taylor's first impressions of the new 4.3, along with a video demonstration of the new features.
New Layers
April was also a big
month for new data layers in Google Earth. Here is a brief summary of
the new layers with links to more in-depth information.
- New York Times - We've worked with the New York Times to provide the first real-time geo-referenced news layer built in Google Earth. Just turn on the New York Times layer found alphabetically under the Gallery layer folder. You will see New York Times placemark icons around the
globe. Click on an icon to find a list of recent stories with a brief
synopsis related to each marked location. Click on the story to be
taken to the full story. The stories are updated frequently, so check
it often to look for news near you, or where you have an interest. Read more.
-
Global Awareness - Many organizations have been working with the Google Earth Outreach
program during the past few months to develop new layers that
raise awareness about the environment, human rights, and human
hardship. In April, we published six new layers to the Global Awareness layer folder. The layers appear in alphabetical order with links to stories about each:
- ARKive: Endangered Species - ARKive
is a unique collection of thousands of videos, images and fact-files
illustrating the world's species. They now have a layer showing the
locations of endangered species with photos, information, links to
videos and more.
- The Elders: Every Human Has Rights - This layer provides information from the "Every Human Has Rights" Campaign." Placemarks show the locations and stories of people who are working to help with human rights.
- Greenpeace - Stop Climate Change
- Unicef: Water and Sanitation - This layer describes projects where Unicef is working on water and sanitation problems in third world countries.
- USHMM: World is Witness
- This is a new 'geoblog' by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum that opens a
window into the lives of people at risk and/or who have been affected by genocide and
related crimes against humanity.
- WaterAid - WaterAid is an international charity whose mission is "to overcome poverty by
enabling the world's poorest people to gain access to safe water,
sanitation and hygiene education." The layer shows the locations where
the organization is working to help with water problems.
- New Sky Layers - When we updated Sky a few months ago,
one of our goals was to present views of the sky across different
wavelengths and time. The imagery from Spitzer, Chandra, GALEX, WMAP
and IRAS showed how different the universe looks depending on how you
view it, and the historical maps by Cassini and Hevelius showed how
humankind's view of the stars has changed over time. With this update,
we've expanded the audio-visual axis, with layers from Celestron, SpaceTelescope.org's Hubblecast, StarDate, and Virtual Tourism joining the podcasts from Earth & Sky
to provide you with sights and sounds as you explore the universe.
These audio-visual layers use Flash, which is now supported on Macs in
4.3. Read more.
New Imagery and Terrain
 On
April 1st we released a big update to imagery for Google Earth (no, this was not an April Fools Joke!). The update includes new imagery
of all seven continents, touching over 86 different countries.
Included was this photo of Mount Fuji taken on February 4th, 2007. Several countries were updated with new medium resolution imagery, and
dozens of cities have new or updated high resolution imagery. Read here for full details - which also includes new higher resolution 3D terrain for some locations.
KML Now an International Standard - KML
is the file format for storing and sharing information from Google
Earth and has been widely adopted by many mapping tools. Now, the Open Geospatial Consortium
(OGC), an international standards body, has announced the completion of
KML's standardization process. KML has become an OGC Standard, and the
OGC will take responsibility for maintaining and extending it. When
geographic content is easy to put online, everybody benefits. Just as
HTML has benefited the world by enabling new forms of information
sharing, we hope that KML will do the same for mapping. Read more.
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