In+ersec+ion for Spatial People

I have a lot of geonews to catchup. You'll get everything that's pertinent (at least from my point of view ;-), but just a bit later than usual. Thanks for your patience!

Here's the recent Google-related geonews. Nothing major, but several interesting items.

From official sources:

• The first update to the Google Maps SDK for iOS
• Google informs us that Ski Resorts are now on Google Maps

From other sources:

• The GEB informs us that Google released 3D imagery in Berne (Switzerland), Anaheim (California) and other cities around the world
• Ogle Earth has an entry named Reconstructing the Chelyabinsk meteor’s path, with Google Earth, YouTube and high-school math
• Related, the GEB has an entry named Mapping meteor impacts
• Still the same source a book named "Google Earth and Virtual Visualizations in Geoscience Education and Research"
• The GEB shares a kmz to watch U.S. watersheds in Google Earth
• The GEB reminds us that we can animate GPS tracks in Google Earth
• You're an Olympics fan? Previewing the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi
• If you prefer Grand Prix racing, Ride along GP tracks from all over the world
• There has been games for Google Earth for a while, but now we're talking about multiplayer games: Two player driving shooter game in Google Earth

I've been overly busy lately, please allow the delay. Here's the recent Google-related geonews.

From official sources:

• Google is ready for winter, Mapping the Canadian Arctic and global ski resorts
• Here's a story about A 5,000-mile walk across Asia, guided by Google Maps
• For the U.S., here's a map related to Zagat’s America's Top Restaurants revealed
• Here's the official entry on the imagery update two weeks ago

From other sources:

• The GEB invites us to explore over 10,000 mines with Mining Atlas in Google Earth
• It also informs us how to create amazing Google Earth tours with TourMaker
• And in the same direction, a great 3D driving simulator that uses the Google Earth plug-in
• APB made me aware of Google's new location-based + Augmented Reality game named Ingress, see its introductory video below. Here's how APB summarizes it:
  • There are two teams: “The Enlightened,” who embrace the power, or “The Resistance,” who fight the power.
  • You get "energy" by visiting real wold paths (like a human PacMan).
  • You go on missions to portals which are associated with real places like libraries, public art and onter public places.
  • There's a tie in to real world vendors and products (Hint Water, Zipcar, Jamba Juice and Chrome apparel and messenger bags).

Some pretty interesting Google geonews in batch mode.

From official sources:

• Google announced Photo tours in Google Maps: "Photo tours are available for more than 15,000 popular sites around the world [...] To produce these photo tours, we use advanced computer vision techniques to create a 3D experience from public, user-contributed Picasa and Panaromio photos."
• The new 3D buildings announced last month are now available in Google MapsGL
• There's new 45° imagery available for 19 cities, International: Avignon, France; Reus, Spain; Rotterdam, Netherlands; L'Alcudia, Spain; Gandia, Spain; Sueca, Spain; Burgos, Spain; Los Palacios Y Villafranca, Spain, US: Albany, GA; Omaha, NE; Baytown, TX; Miami, FL; Amarillo, TX; Monroe, LA; Manchester, NH; Alexandria, LA; Rapid City, SD; Loudon, TN; Farmington, NM
• Street View is now available in Ukraine

From other sources:

• It's James that made me aware that the Google Maps game 'Maps Cube' is available, I couldn't test it yet on the Linux machine in front of me. Here's how James describes it: "Basically you use your mouse to tilt a 3D cube and have a ball travel down the transportation networks (road, trails, subways, etc). Since we in GIS all know about topology in these networks, the game isn’t as hard as you might expect. Still it’s a pretty amazing example of using HTML + WebGL for web mapping." APB also links to a short PC Mag article on the Maps Cube Game.
• The GEB shares an update on the impressive Data Appeal visualization tool for Google Earth
• Slashdot also ran the story named Google Releases FCC Report On Street View Probe
• If you want analysis of Trimble's acquisition of SketchUp from Google, read more from the GEB, from Spatial Sustain,
• Here's Plymouth, Michigan in 3D
• And to end with something funny, here's UFO Sightings in Google Earth

While this is an April Fools related story, it's 100% real and live, at least for today. I learned about it on Slashdot in a story named Google Maps Introduces 8-Bit Quest Maps. StreetView is quite bizarre in 8 bits...

From the official Google Lat Long blog: "With Google Maps 8-bit, you can do all the things you already do on regular Google Maps. Search for famous landmarks and sites around the world. Take an epic journey with 8-bit Street View. Get detailed directions to avoid dangerous paths, and battle your way through a world of powerful monsters and mystic treasures."

The Slashdot summary: "Today users of Google Maps will notice a new mapping option — 'Quest' — alongside the usual 'Map' and 'Satellite' views. Quest view renders the planet in a retro 8-bit fantasy video game style, including renders of famous landmarks such as the White House and the Eiffel Tower. Even Pegman gets in on the game, now taking on the appearance of a sword wielding 8-bit adventurer, allowing you to witness Street View through 8-bit eyes. Basically, imagine a fully functioning Google Maps on an NES."

The 2-minutes video shows what this is about and is funny (but you'll have to test StreetView yourself since they don't show it in the video).

Here's the recent Google-related geonews.

From official sources:

• On the developers blog, they introduced the Store Locator Utility Library: "This open-source library makes it simple for developers to create interactive, useful store locators."
• Last week Google announced you can visit the Amazon with Street View
• You can also now take a train through the Swiss Alps with Street View
• There's a Street View Guide to Japan’s Cherry Blossom Season too
• And finally regarding StreetView, Street View on Google Maps comes to Thailand and explore Poland on Street View
• There's a screencast on debugging a Maps API application with the Chrome Developer Tools
• Here's the official entry on the latest imagery update

From other sources:

• SS informs us of Google's work on an open source field data collection tool called the Open Data Kit: "It supports GPS data collection, the integration of images from a phone camera sensor, the capture of audio, and video. It provides a means to present multiple forms on one device, with automated connection to networks when the device is within range, and automated upload to Google’s Fusion Tables."
• The GEB has another entry on viewing satellites positions with Google Earth
• SS also shares an article on the Google Earth Engine, named Google Promotes Terrapixels for Everyone, that's a long time since we last heard of the Google Earth Engine
• Here's a new rally racing game in Google Earth, using the GE Plugin
• APB informs us that Google got a patent on “Environment” based ads

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 

Here's the geonews in batch mode, covering a bit more than a week (exception made of a few minor geonews I forgot to mention in our last 'batch mode' edition).

On the open source / data front:

• A new MapGuide Instant Setup utility has been introduced
• Here's a detailed entry on scale-dependent generalization in PostGIS and QGIS
• Here's an entry on time and elevation support in GeoServer
• If you're new to OpenStreetMap or want to introduce new people, here's OpenStreetMap editing for beginners videos
• Plenty geoblogs mentioned the Magicshop Frontdoor (Beta) tool, with which you can easily improve address search results for Bing Maps and OpenStreetMap

On the Google front:

• Ogle Earth mentions Google JV applied for online mapping license in China
• Ogle Earth also mentions the constraints on high-resolution satellite imagery of Israel in Google Earth/Maps
• There's New Building Maker cities available in Argentina and Canada
• Google unveiled the new My Places tab on Google Maps, "which helps you quickly view and interact with your saved maps, starred locations, and rated businesses"
• ​They also introduced descriptive terms in Local Search results
• The GEB mentions the Touristo and Skydiver games for Google Earth
• Some readers like to know when there's new imagery available in Google Earth, well, there is 

On the Microsoft front:

• An entry on The Value of Bing Maps Spatial Data Services

In the miscellaneous category:

• Mapperz informs us of the Yahoo! Maps APIs Service Closure, due 13th September 2011     
• James Fee summarizes What Was Up at the Pitney Bowes Business Insights Conference, with news of MapInfo 11, and APB has more on MapInfo Spatial Server
• APB shares a long article named Intergraph and ERDAS: From GeoMedia to IMAGINE-The Big and Little Picture for this Geospatial Marriage, Spatial Sustain also shares an entry on the same topic, named Intergraph ‘Reinforces the House’ Under Hexagon
• A study concludes that Schematic Transit Maps Affect Passengers' Travel Choices
• Slashdot discussed a story named New Projects Use Phone Data To Track Big Cities' Mass Transit Use
• Slashdot also offers a story named NASA's Aquarius Launched To Help Map the Oceans' Salt
• Still from the same site, we learn the Nissan LEAF Leaks Speed & Location To RSS Feed
• And last story from that site, if you're interested in tools to map wifi networks, this discussion named What's Killing Your Wi-Fi? will interest you

In the maps category:

• The Strange Maps blog offers maps of the U.S. States, with what they do best and worse, worth a quick look of you're American
• Slashdot mentions a map of the Universe called the 2MASS Redshift Survey
• Not a geographic map, but O'Reilly has an article on generating a map of your LinkedIn contacts with InMaps, I found the result pretty interesting

Here's the recent Google-related geonews.

From the official sources:

• Here's an entry on Belgium's Brussels in 3D in Google Earth, named Europe’s best kept secret revealed in 3D
• Google updated the Help Center of Google Map Maker
• Google is updating their maps data from authoritative sources for France, Monaco and Luxembourg
• Google shared an entry named using search patterns to track dengue fever
• Google's Ed Parsons shared his Location Business Summit slides, a presentation named "Making the most of place", Google Places, of course

From other sources:

• Here's a 3D model of Joplin tornado debris
• Slashdot ran a discussion named Google Wallet: the End of Anonymous Shopping, about the probable upcoming systematic location tracking of all purchases
• It seems Apple Just Renewed Maps and Search Partnership with Google
• The GEB has an entry named Space Archeologists discovering egyptian tombs
• The same site is also enthusiastic about Sony's Project Shiphunt, a fun game using Google Ocean
• And there was a new imagery update on May 31th

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:

• Today's Prince William and Catherine Middleton Royal Wedding was featured in the Google Earth Plugin.
• Google offers post Japan earthquake panoramas in Google Earth
• There was an entry on celebrating Earth Day (that was a week ago) and an invitation to celebrate Arbor Day with Save the Redwoods League and Google Earth
• Google also have an entry this week's imagery update, with plenty of countries getting fresh imagery

From other sources:

• Ogle Earth offers an article named Google Earth Builder: A potential solution to the map censorship conundrum in China, India
• The GEB mentions the launch of the Earth Knowledge Portal which uses the Google Earth Plugin
• Here's an entry on tracking tornadoes in Google Earth
• The GEB forecasts updates to all versions of Google Earth coming this summer
• Here two entries on how beautiful 3D models can be in Google Earth
• And if you're more into gaming, Ships version 1.5 has been released, a ship game in Google Earth