In+ersec+ion for Spatial People

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

From the official sources:

• For developers, Google shared an entry on managing and visualizing your location based data with Fusion Tables and another one on High Performance KML for Maps and Earth
• Google informs us building outlines now appear in London, Paris, Barcelona, and more
• Google announced Google AdWords Express for local businesses and that Places Pages has been improved
• They shared an entry on Keeping an ‘eye’ on the 2011 Atlantic and Pacific hurricane seasons
• Google added large geographic features in Google Earth, such as the Alps and the Sahara Desert
• Google has an entry named UNITAR/UNOSAT team up with Google Map Maker to boost impact of community mapping for disaster relief and humanitarian aid
• Google has an entry celebrating Marine Day with Google Earth exploration of the ocean with Japan's Skinkai 6500
• Here's an entry on the evolution of the look of Google Maps from 2009 to 2011
• Google shared an entry on last week's imagery update, with tens of countries getting fresh imagery

From other sources:

• The GEB shares an interesting tool to find out what you are allowed to do with Google Maps and Google Earth, license-wise
• SS mentions that Google and SAP are teaming up for geovisualization of business analytics
• The FGT blog lists Geodetic Tools For Google Earth
• Ogle Earth offers a long entry on South Sudan's northern border discrepancies between Google Earth and other sources
• Another entry on Ogle Earth indicates satellite corroborates accounts of a massacre in Sudan and is visible in Google Earth
• The GEB shared an entry on the 100th anniversary of the discovery of Machu Picchu in Google Earth
• Here's an entry on Google Earth in the Classroom with StrateLogica

Here's the recent Google geonews for the last 7 days.

From the official sources:

• Google announced that Google Earth is now optimized for Android-powered tablets, which includes fully textured 3D buildings
• Google announced the Distance Matrix API web service, providing "a chart that showed the driving distance and journey time between pairs of major cities"
• Google shared an entry named Using the power of mapping to support South Sudan
• There's a new Google Earth Outreach Developer Grants Program
• Traffic information is coming to Google Maps in Sweden and Taiwan
• On the gaming front, here's an entry on the Travel Game and Google Earth as a gameboard
• And there was yet again a new imagery update for Google Earth and Google Maps, with tens of countries getting fresh imagery

From other sources:

• About an hour ago the GEB published an entry on High-res imagery of the Mississippi River flooding in Google Earth
• Google Building Maker supports new cities and offers expanded coverage for others, including Fresno, Lake Tahoe, Austin, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Diego and St. Louis
• The FGT blog mentions a tool to Generate Custom Color Code For Google Maps
• Here's an entry on powerful drag-and-drop capabilities with HTML5 and the Google Earth Plug-in, and another entry named Quickly share locations using the Google Earth Plug-in
• Inevitably, there's plenty of new Osama bin Laden's compound 3D models for you to explore in Google Earth, and there's even fresh imagery of the area taken on May 2nd

Here's the recent Google-related geonews.

From the official sources:

• Here's 5 user-created maps chronicling Egypt
• An entry named act Locally in Sudan with New Imagery & Maps
• An entry on the exploration of U.S. Presidents on a map
• An entry on mapping favourite romantic movie scenes

From other sources:

• O'Reilly offers an entry on the Google Public Data Explorer now available to the public
• Yesterday, there was another Google Earth imagery update
• Here's an entry on how to animate your SketchUp models with the Proper Animation plugin

Here's recent Google Geonews.

From the official sources:

• There's new oblique imagery for several U.S. cities in Google Maps
• There's an obligatory entry named Haiti, one year after the earthquake
• Google offers an entry named Rebuilding L’Aquila in 3D with Google SketchUp, referring to the April 2009 earthquake in Italy
• You can now Discover New Places From Your Hotpot Friends on Google Maps, and the related iOS new feature, Google Places with Hotpot for iPhone
• Google is proposing Map Maker to build a better map of Southern Sudan, OpenStreetMap efforts for Sudan doesn't seem very active
• In the Augmented Reality realm, Google Goggles gets improved and can even solve your Sudoku

From other sources:

• Via Ogle Earth, we learn from Google that there is now 800 million Google Earth 'activations', that's a very significant amount. In August 2009, they we are 500M, up from 400M in July 2008. How is that calculated? See this 2008 entry
• The GEB has an entry on viewing SketchUp models in your hand with augmented reality
• Here's the USCG MISLE public database in Google Earth, MISLE standing for 'Marine Information for Safety and Law Enforcement'

Here's the Friday geonews in batch mode.

From the open source / open data front:

• A third entry in the series of the Free Shapefiles of Countries of the World, focusing this time on small countries
• Mapperz mentions FacilMap.org Beta, that aims to group together layers of various OpenStreetMap projects
• An entry on OpenPisteMap, for mountain sports
• Via Kurt, here's NOAA's new bathymetry data viewer
• There's a new offline editing plugin for QGIS
• GeoNetwork opensource v2.6.2 released
• Shapely 1.2.8 has been released

From the ESRI front:

• SS summarizes Jack Dangermond's opening talk at the GeoDesign Summit and shares a second entry named Exploring the Esri Approach to GeoDesign
• James praises for Python in ArcGIS

In the miscellaneous category:

• There has been quite a few entries on the Australian flood maps, the best one I found is from VerySpatial
• Here's the Top 10 Spatial Law and Policy Stories of 2010
• Via APB, here's DigitalGlobe's Top Ten Imagery Related Events of the Decade
• APB mentions that a Japanese Company Achieves 3 cm Accuracy for GPS
• GLONASS-enabled phones are coming in March
• Here's Cédric's seven 2011 geo predictions
• Kurt mentions the Earth Observer iOS app
• SS mentions Satellite Monitoring Employed to Prevent Civil War in Sudan, supported by actor George Clooney
• Slashdot ran a story named 'French Use Space Tech To Find Parking Spots'

In the maps category:

• A map of North American English Dialects
• An entry on Michael Zeiler's Solar Eclipse Map Website