In+ersec+ion for Spatial People

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

I'm back in front of the keyboard after a 3 weeks break with my wife and daughters. I'll catchup and share the recent geonews in the coming days. Thank you for your patience. Let's start with Google geonews (because they're easier to aggregate).

From the official sources:

• There's new 45° imagery in 24 citites: Augusta, GA; Badajoz, Spain; Boise, ID; Boston, MA; Fairfield, CA; Girona, Spain; Knoxville, TN; Lausanne, Switzerland; Little Rock, AR; Lodi, CA; Merida, Spain; Modesto, CA; Montgomery, AL; Murrieta Hot Springs, CA; Provo, UT; Reno, NV; Salem, OR; Sebastopol, CA; Spokane, WA; Tallahassee, FL; Vacaville , CA; Vallejo, CA; Victorville, CA; Wichita, KS; Yucaipa, CA
• Weather forecasts is a new layer in Google Maps, along with cloud coverage, data from third-party sources
• Google Maps gets voice recognition and you can now say your map queries out loud, if you use Google Chrome
• The new GTFS-realtime, extending the original 'General Transit Feed Specification', has been released to the public by Google, it includes: Trip Updates, Service Alerts and Vehicle Position updates
• Here's the announcement of the deprecation of the Maps API for Flash
• StreetView news;
  • New in StreetView is a 30-mile section of the Rio Negro River tributary in the Amazonian bassin, also discussed over Slashdot
  • Slashdot reports that StreetView has finally been approved by the Israeli government
  • Irak's National Museum corridors can be walked in StreetView
• Using short URLs to share links is now a permanent feature of Google Maps
• Google added a round of 3D trees Los Angeles, Denver and Boulder
• Ancient and modern Rome have updated 3D content (remember 2008?)
• Google announced Map Makerpedia, a crowdsourced guide for Google Map Maker (you mean similar goals to wiki.openstreetmap.org? ;-)
• The Static Maps API's new feature is the ability to scale the display of maps
• There was an imagey update to Google Earth and Maps for the week of the 15th, and another one on the week of August 29th, with several tens of countries getting new imagery
• Google Maps is now available in 40+ new country domain names, and more languages have been added to "Your World in 3D"
• Paronamio users and contributors can now join groups of interests
• Google mentioned a new book named The Great Global Treasure Hunt on Google Earth, and informed us that they are now at over 700 million activations of Google Earth, which made me though of our current poll

From other sources:

• In a series of generic but useful entries, the GE Blog is offering an entry named Ten easy steps to learn about a place with Google Earth, another one named Measuring distances with the Google Earth Ruler and yet another one named Running Google Earth offline from a portable server
• Ogle Earth analized Sweden imagery update and reminds us of being cautious of imagery tagged January 1st
• Google and OpenDNS are working on global Internet sppedup, and unsurprisingly, they use location data

Via Datalibre, I learned about OpenTreeMap, an open source software for collaborative, geography-enabled urban tree inventory.

From the main site: "Urban street trees have myriad proven benefits for communities including providing shade, improving air quality, assisting with stormwater runoff, raising property values, decreasing utility bills, and enhancing the look and feel of communities. While tree inventories provide municipalities with vital data to consult when managing the urban forest, creating a complete inventory is a time consuming and resource intensive process.  OpenTreeMap provides an easy-to-use public inventorying platform that enables individuals, organizations, and governments to collaboratively contribute to an interactive and dynamic map of a community’s tree population. OpenTreeMap can be used in a single municipality or cover a broader geographic region with many communities.

Main Features:

• Search for trees by species, location, or advanced filters such as diameter, date planted, or tree characteristics (flowering, native, etc.)
• Add trees individually or load tree datasets to the system
• Edit and add information about existing tree records including species name, location, height, plot size and type, conditions, actions needed, funding sources, data owner
• Upload tree photos
• Export tree lists as KML or CSV files
• Automatically calculate ecosystem benefits (greenhouse gas, water, energy,  air quality) based on a tree’s species and diameter
• Monitor user accounts, comments, and system edits
• Get optional integrated tree key to assist in identifying tree species"

Geocoded trees have been mentioned a few times in the past, including Google Earth 6's native support of 3D trees, using lidar to identify urban trees, or even embedding RFID tags in trees.

Here's the recent Google-related geonews.

From the official sources:

• Google announced that they begun rolling out live transit updates to Google Maps, allowing you to know if you bus is early or late. For the moment: "We partnered with transit agencies to integrate live transit data in four U.S. cities and two European cities: Boston, Portland, Ore., San Diego, San Francisco, Madrid and Turin."
• There's a new improved seafloor in Google Earth, using the Global Multi-Resolution Topography (GMRT) synthesis data
• There's also new 3D trees in Google Earth, including in "New York, Philadelphia, Boston, London and multiple cities in the California Bay Area"

From other sources:

• Ogle Earth shares a long entry on Google Maps in the context of China now banning foreign companies from offering online mapping, except for joint ventures
• The GEB shares aerial imagery of the Wallow Fire in Arizona

Here's the recent Google-related geonews. I'm pretty certain most of you learned of the major 8.9 magnitude Japan earthquake near Honshu that happened a few hours ago. We'll share news of it when related maps and geospatial news will be available. You're always welcomed to contribute.

From the official sources:

• Google announced new 3D imagery of central London’s buildings and trees in Google Earth
• Japan's Hiroshima Peace Memorial in now available in Street View and the GEB mentions other new Street View imagery in Japan
• Google is encouraging Latitude adoption with check-in offers in Austin, Texas
• Google Maps now allows you to find electric vehicle charging stations
• A few days ago, Google shared post-earthquake images of Christchurch, New Zealand
• The Photos layer from Google Maps is now available to Maps API developers

From other sources:

• The GEB mentions another way to build 3D building models using satellite imagery via a stereographic pair
• The GEB has an entry on using Google Earth to map all facilities in Haiti that need Internet access
• The GEB mentions a detailed Shaker village modeled in Google Earth, head to Wikipedia to learn who Shakers are

From the Google Earth Blog, there is a new release which brings three big updates. First there is a tighter integration with Street View imagery, as well as a new navigation mode (ground navigation) which allows you to easily navigate at ground level (ala fps). Secondly, there is better/native support for 3D trees. Not quite sure there is an API around it, but at least they are slowly populating GE with 3D trees. Lastly, there is an update the the historical imagery to make it easier to detect and switch between the imagery. Check out the blog for more details and youtube videos.