Google Earth and SketchUp
John Hanke and Brad Schell from Google were on hand to show us new versions of Google Earth and Google SketchUp. The new Google Earth launched yesterday with PC and Unix builds as well as a universal binary for Macs (a first which was well-received by the Where 2.0 attendees).
Google Earth now covers about twenty percent of the landmass of the Earth in high-resolution imagery. They’ve concentrated on populated areas, and they claim to have mapped one third of the world’s population.
They showed off some of the brilliant satellite imagery in the new version. John took us on a “3D fly around” of the Nile river basin, up the Medeterranean coast and into Isreal, then down to Dubai, across to Mumbai and up to the top of Mount Everest. The “oohs” and “aahs” from the crowd were plentiful and deserved — the smoothness and detail of the 3D maps is truly amazing.
One thing evident during the Google Earth demo was that a great many locations were already tagged. One of Google’s goals is to get more and more information into the maps via user communities.
Brad demoed SketchUp, the 3D modelling tool that lets users add textured, photographic images to Google Earth. With SketchUp, you can draw your own house (or any building) using a small, easy to use toolset and real world images. When your building is done, you can add it to Google Earth where it will appear on your 3D map. SketchUp also has a connected 3D Warehouse of windows, doors, roofs and other 3D models that you can grab and use in your creations.
Users can post buildings they’ve created and share them with other Google Earth users. Very nifty.
