Tuesday, April 27, 2010

New Earth view highlights 3D buildings

Earlier this week Google announced the new Earth view in Google Maps. Earth view uses the Google Earth plugin to show 3D buildings, imagery, and terrain in the browser on Google Maps.

The Google Boulder office (where Google SketchUp and Google Building Maker are developed) is particularly excited how 3D buildings modeled by the Google SketchUp community are used to demonstrate the new Earth view feature.

By clicking on the “Use Earth view” link in Google Maps, you can see a tour of 36 famous places and landmarks around the world -- 24 of those are 3D buildings created with Google SketchUp.

You can see who created the models by clicking on the author link next to the thumbnail image. This will open a new browser window that displays all of the 3D models created by that author.


Congratulations to all the geo-modelers whose 3D models were featured in the launch!

8 comments:

  1. Hi, I found a mistake on the new page of Earth View at http://maps.google.com/earthview
    I've contact the Oficial Google Blog, but the mistake is already there.

    In the list of places you can visit appear the Statue of Liberty, but the author of that 3D it is not "Nicolas" as it says on the page. The real author of that 3D model is "Damo", you can see it here, at the 3D model page on 3D Warehouse:
    http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=bd933242fa42c440f8b758b99bd30e5b
    So they only have to change the link to the real author.

    Kind Regards,

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  2. Good catch. Thanks Nesua.

    Bruce

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  3. Too bad it doesn't work on linux, like everything else based on the google earth plugin...

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  4. I like the direct integration in the browser and the smooth transition between 2d / 3d / panorama view.

    @Yorik: What you bring up is currently the most popular request. The plugin is so great that I even shut down my PC and start windows only for seeing a 3d map! Please have a look here:
    http://code.google.com/p/earth-api-samples/issues/list
    It seems we can be happy, Google takes it now serious ;-)

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  5. Great update Bruce!
    The Earthview runs smoother then my Google Earth.
    Now all we need is clickable buildings!

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  6. This integration step was necessary and very important for Google Earth. Now the share is 100% of internet users.
    No more barriers to meet GE and 3D models in a more easy and simple

    Congratulations googelersss ¡¡

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  7. It's smooth and stunning ! congratulations !!!

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  8. So far I love the new integration. However, the overlays of information about what businesses actually reside at those locations on Google Maps, Streetview, and Google Earth are off about 100ft or more in most locations (Frederick, MD). I built all of the 3D buildings that can be seen in the Earthview, but literally none of the information overlays correspond to the correct locations. How can this be fixed?

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