In+ersec+ion for Spatial People

Here's the recent Google-related geonews in batch mode.

From official sources:

• Google released a major update to the bathymetry and seafloor display in Google Earth
• There's new 45 degrees imagery available for 24 cities:
  • "US: Charleston-Folly Beach, SC; Lee’s Summit, KS; Lexington, SC; Magna (Salt Lake City), UT; North Charleston, SC; Pine Island Center, FL; Plymouth, MN; Salinas CA; Santa Rosa, CA; Shawnee, KS; South Hill, WA; Spanish Springs, NV; Killeen, TX; Decatur, AL
  • Europe: Torrelavega, Spain; Pamplona, Spain; San Sebastian, Spain; Bailen, Spain; Rolle, Switzerland; Ponferrada, Spain; Wachtberg, Germany; Weinheim, Germany
  • South America: Buenos Aires, Argentina"
• There's a new biking directions legend in Google Maps
• Ed Parsons mentions the coming of Street View in Botswana

From other sources:

• The GEB shares a 3D tour of the Costa Concordia recent ship wreck
• While there's apparently no new data involved, the GEB shares an entry on the city lights of Earth at night in Google Earth
• The GEB also shares an entry on the Monster Milktruck game in Google Earth and an entry on a new book named Google SketchUp for Game Design
• To end with a funny note, APB shares a quote regarding the "removal" of Atlantis from the Google Earth seafloor by manually cleaning the data 

Yesterday, Google released Google Earth 6.2. 

From the announcement: "With Google Earth 6.2, we’re bringing you the most beautiful Google Earth yet, with more seamless imagery and a new search interface. Additionally, we’ve introduced a feature that enables you to share an image from within Google Earth, so you can now simply and easily share your virtual adventures with family and friends on Google+. [...] We’ve also made some updates to the search feature in Google Earth. Aside from streamlining the visual design of the search panel, we’ve enabled the same Autocomplete feature that's available in Google Maps." 

On the welcomed seamless globe: "While this change will appear on all versions of Google Earth, the 6.2 release provides the best viewing experience for this new data." Sri Lanka, before and after:

A quick reminder, Slashgeo has its Google+ page too (but it's inactive at the moment, that doesn't mean it's not worth adding it to your circles ;-).

Related, the GEB shares an entry named Google Earth 6 now required for Street View.

Here's the recent geonews in batch mode. I've been overly busy lately - like a lot of us are at that time of the year I guess - please allow the unusual delay of this entry. Have a nice holiday break!

On the Esri front:

• Via an Esri email, I learned about the National Geographic World Map to be used as a basemap with Esri products and services

On the Google front:

• Again, there's new 45° imagery available, now for Detroit, Fayetteville, Nashville, Baton Rouge and Huntsville
• The GEB has an entry on Google Earth on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus
• The GEB also shares another entry on using Google Earth in the classroom
• Finally from the GEB, here's an entry named Visualizing Google Analytics data in Google Earth
• Slashdot is discussing a story about British Telecom suing Google over Android, including several location-related patents
• Here's the official entry on last week's imagery update

In the miscellaneous category:

• APB shares their top 10 GIS stories of 2011
• SS informs us that France's Pleiades-1 high-resolution is now in orbit: "Pleiades-1 has a 70cm resolution, mulitspectral views in the visible and near-infrared bands, and a swath width of 20km"
• Read this if you want to grasp how important geospatial intelligence is to the US Department of Defense
• We often mentioned the LightSquared debacle, now they want the FCC to rule now, not a bad idea since they might run out of money in the coming months
• SS also informs us of an hyperspectral imager that can be deployed on UAVs
• We mentioned GeoSMS before, here's the OGC blog the use of GeoSMS for disaster management
• APB informs us that Facebook added Location Tagging to their Timeline Rollout
• Two weeks ago in a PR we mentioned GISLounge's GIS job skills and employment survey
• Also from a recent PR, we never mentioned before the free Dinamica EGO software, now at version 1.8, EGO standing for Environment for Geoprocessing Objects
• V1 informs us that Russia's GLONASS satellite navigation system is officially global again
• Slashdot discusses how the brain's structure changes with your spacial and navigation skills, at least for taxi drivers
• Another location-related story discussed at the same place is named Japanese Use Wild Monkeys To Track Radiation
• Finally from the same source, DigitalGlobe's satellite spotted China's first aircraft carrier
• WebMapSolutions reviews 8 mobile GIS apps for iOS and Android
• Microsoft tells us about the Updated Spatial Features in the SQL Azure Q4 2011 Service Release
• MapQuest updated their Mobile Flash Maps API to v7.0.7, but with Flash for Mobile officially abandoned by Adobe, what's the future of Flash?
• O'Reilly shares a long entry on the Public Mapping Project for gerrymandering the U.S. elections, which we mentioned before
• Hum... APB shares an entry named Confidence Key to Women Doing Well at Spatial Tasks

In the maps category:

• While I'm a bit late for Christmas gifts, VS mentions interesting typographic maps of various U.S. cities on sale, VS also links to reasonably priced 'vintage' geography gifts
• Here's OWNI's list of Best Maps of 2011, a few of them previously mentioned here
• Discussed over Slashdot, a New All-Sky Map Shows the Magnetic Fields of the Milky Way
• O'Reilly shares this British map of traffic casualties

Here's the recent Google-related geonews.

From official sources:

• There's new 45° imagery available for nothing less than 21 cities: "U.S.: Albuquerque (west), NM; Benton, AR; Boulder, CO; Eldridge, IA; Boston (east), MA; Centennial (south), CO; GooglePlex, CA; Indianapolis (south), IN; Las Vegas Strip, NV; Montgomery (outskirts), AL; Olathe, KA; Petaluma, CA; Tulsa, OK. South America: Brasilia, Brazil"
• ​On a similar topic, there's new cities in 3D in Google Maps: Rome, Seville, Las Vegas and more - the full list: "US: Foster City, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Norfolk,Palo Alto, Portland, Redwood City, Riverside, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, Santa Cruz, Sunnyvale. Europe: Rome, IT, Rotterdam, NL; Seville, ES; Stuttgart, DE, Amsterdam, NL"
• Google Map Maker has been revamped with a new user interface, my hope is that one day Google will surprise us and link Google Map Maker with OpenStreetMap - they could eventually do it, since Google doesn't make money out of the data directly anyway and they're already great supporters of open data - am I delusional? :-)
• Somewhat related, Google Maps data got improved in the United Kingdom, Germany, Finland and Sweden
• The official Dev blog shares an entry named The power of visualization with the Google Analytics API and Google Earth
• We also previously mentioned Liquid Galaxy, and now they're running Google Earth on 48 screens! The code is open source is your living room is big enough 
• Here's a new entry on the tsunami-affected areas of Japan in Street View
• Here's an entry named Exploring ancient ruins in 3D with Google Earth

From other sources:

• The GEB reports about new high-resolution imagery in Antarctica in Google Earth
• APB mentioned Google blocking a first person shooter "game" in Google Maps
• The GEB also has an entry on the reorganization of the 'Ocean' layer
• Still from the same source, here's how to View your Google Latitude history in Google Earth
• Ed Parsons mentioned that satellite images revealed a “secret” Nevada UAV site
• Finally, the GEB is excited about the 3D tours of Mount Urgull in San Sebastian, Spain
• SS informs us that Google purchased Clever Sense, which tagline was "Never Miss Places You’ll Love", and APB informs us that Google launched Schemer, a non-checking location-based service for finding what to do, it's in invite-only beta

Here's the recent Google geonews.

From official sources:

• Here's another entry providing even more information on understanding how the Maps API usage limits affect your sites
• Google shared another entry on indoor mapping in Google Maps
• Street View goes to Belgium
• Here's the official entry on on the ski and snow edition of the Street View special collections
• For those using the Google Maps API, here's Four Tips for Improving Your Mobile Web Map App
• They also have an entry on visualizing water and energy solutions in a warming world
• Here's a story about using Google Fusion Tables along with Google Maps
• Via Ed Parsons, here's a short nice stop-motion movie using Google Street View named 'Address is Approximate'

From other sources:

• If you don't want to use Fusion Tables, here's how to Dynamically Map your Google Spreadsheets with GeoCommons
• You might be interested in previewing the 2012 London Olympics in Google Earth
• Kurt reminds of what Google Oceans is all about
• Ogle Earth today shared an entry named Iran missile base post-explosion imagery, now hi-res in Google Earth
• In Google Earth, you can see Captain James Cook's circumnavigation of New Zealand
• Here's NASA using 'Google Earth Portable' in Canada
• Oh, and last weekend, there was another round of imagery update to Google Earth

Here's the recent Google geonews.

From the official sources:

• Here's the 3-minutes launch video of Google Earth Builder at the Google Geo summit, I like it when Ed Parsons says "Geospatial technologies is moving away from [...] the specialist, it's now available to everyone", since you're reading Slashgeo, you probably are a specialist, should we be afraid or is this just our jobs' natural evolution?
• There's new 45° imagery available for 16 cities: "Europe: Caceres, Spain; Graz, Austria; Montreux, Switzerland; Zurich, Switzerland; US: Bakersfield, CA; Boise, ID; Canton, OH; Centennial, CO; Columbia, SC; Davenport, IA; Des Moines, IA; Enumclaw, WA; Grand Rapids, MI; Kansas City, KS/MO; Lawrence, KS; Los Angeles, CA; Merced, CA; New Orleans, LA; Omaha, NE; Payson, UT; Portland, OR; Springfield, MO; St. Louis, MO; The Woodlands, TX;"
• There's new StreetView imagery of the Swiss Alps, taken from railways
• The tool that allows you to get notified when new imagery is available, Follow Your World, is now available in 43 new languages
• We've been invited to Explore the history of Mexico with Google Earth

From other sources:

• The GEB shares the location of the Turkey earthquake and Gaddafi's death
• The GEB also describe YoubeQ, a 3D social network using the Google Earth plugin: "YoubeQ puts you on a Segway to drive around the globe, with the option to quickly teleport to any location that you wish to visit. You can click on other users to chat with them, collect stamps as you travel the globe, and it has a variety of other features (with many more coming)."
• A week ago the same site offered an entry on what Google Earth can do for responding to the Thailand Floods
• Here's a round-up of the great (American) Football resources in Google Earth
• If you have interest in it, here's how to tweak the Google Earth Flight Simulator
• Last Wednesday, there was new imagery released to Google Maps / Earth

Since the beginning of the year, we heard about geospatial uses of WebGL, and now, Google announced Google MapsGL.

The improvements are simply described as: "With WebGL your maps experience is much better with 3D buildings, smoother transitions between imagery and the ability to instantly “swoop” into Street View without a plugin." Particularly in geospatial, changes are easier to grasp when visualized, here's the short video showing the differences between Google Maps and Google MapsGL. You do need Chrome or the latest Firefox.

Other recent Google geonews:

• Here's an official entry on faster updates to local business listings
• The GEB shares an entry on A tribute to Steve Jobs in Google Earth
• And an entry on the Sea Ice Extent Animation updated for 2011

I've been overly busy lately, but give me some time and you'll get all the pertinent geonews. Here's for the recent Google-related geonews.

From official sources:

• Google proudly announced there has been over one billion downloads of Google Earth, clearly Google Earth and Maps were the symbols of a new era in geospatial technologies 
• Google also announced new countries 'graduating' from Google Map Maker: Afghanistan, Antarctica, Ecuador, Georgia, Guatemala, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Honduras, Iraq, Norfolk Island, Saint Pierre & Miquelon and Saudi Arabia, and shares a related entry on Google Map Maker efforts in Afghanistan
• Google Maps added a "My Location" default "From" location to directions, removing the need to type your current address location
• Slashdot noted that there's now an 'helicopter view' for driving directions in Google Maps
• Yes, the famous Google pushpin has been redesigned, amongst other changes of look
• Google Earth Outreach is now present in Canada, Google Lat Long also shared a story on Canada's boreal forest, the world's largest intact forest
• Here's a bunch of minor Maps API news
• And another developer-oriented entry is tips on mapping your business

From other sources:

• Some users might be interested in those tips to make Google Earth Flight Simulator easier to use
• There was new imagery made available to Google Earth yesterday and new 3D trees in Portland, Oregon
• Via APB, Google will use INRIX for real-time traffic for 8 european countries

Here's the recent Google-related geonews.

From the official sources:

• Google announced the release of Google Earth 6.1, the My Places panel is improved, and so is StreetView, and Google Earth Pro too gets several new features. The GEB offers some more details on what's changed
• You can now directly share your activites on Google Maps on Google+, such as directions, places and even search results
• The developer blog has an entry on the Google Street View Image API
• Not directly geospatial, but Google Wallet was launched in collaboration with Visa, American Express and Discover, enabling mobile payments anywhere 

From other sources:

• Here's tips on how to speed up Google Earth
• The GEB mentions Google Earth Explorer, a smooth way to fly through in Google Earth, which is in the process of becoming open source and has been purchased by Google
• Slashdot ran a discussion named Google To Honor "Don't-Track-Me-Bro" Requests, in which we learn "Google will allow owners of Wi-Fi access points to opt out of a Google service that uses their data to determine the location of others' smartphones."
• Ogle Earth shares a detailed entry named Biannual Swedish media panic sets in as Google Earth continues to show Sweden’s “secrets”
• Here's 50,000 worldwide power plants in Google Earth
• The GEB also mentions a few nice global overlays for Google Earth
• There's new imagery today in Google Earth

While the official Google blog offers a generic entry on the events of September 11, 2001. The Google Earth Blog offers entries on the events in Google Earth:

• The first entry focuses on the past, with 3D modles and historical imagery, including how the attack unfolded
• The second entry focuses on the present, the site, but also the memorial
• Finally, the last entry focuses on the future, what the planned buildings looks like, including the 'Transportation Hub'

UPDATE: I disabled the comments for this story. The mission of Slashgeo is to share geospatial content - the comments being posted below on this sensitive topic have nothing to do with geospatial. Thank you for your comprehension.

UPDATE #2: If it's your first visit here, be welcomed! This story got over 35,000 visitors coming from the Official Google blog in its first 10 hours. After several user requests, I have hidden the 28 comments posted for this story. None had geospatial-related content and some of them included profanity. Thank you for your comprehension.