Jan

23rd 2008

Google in hot water with South Korea

Filed Under Google Earth, Google Maps | Leave a Comment

Apparently Google has upset South Korea again with its choice of annotation that mistakenly attributes certain locations in South Korea as being part of North Korea. According to Digital Chosunilbo, a daily news site about Korea:

The controversial areas include Ongjin County under the jurisdiction of the city of Incheon, and some islands in Ongjin County such as Baegryeong-do, Daecheong-do, and Socheong-do.

While close to North Korea, all of these locations are in South Korea. Yet all of them are described in detail by Google Earth as belonging to North Korea. Even Yeonpyeong-do, in whose adjacent waters the 1999 West Sea battle was waged, is described as belonging to the North.

There have been several incidents in the past with Google referring to Seoul (the capital of South Korea) as “under Japanese rule” and labeling some locales with the Japanese name instead of the Korean name.

Read more: Google Under Fire for Flawed Korea Maps - Digital Chosunilbo

Jul

19th 2007

NASA in Google Earth

Filed Under Google Earth | Leave a Comment

Google Lat Long Blog has announced the availability of the NASA layer group in Google Earth:

The new “NASA” layer has three components:

  • Astronaut Photography of Earth
    The “Astronaut Photography of Earth” layer showcases some of the best of photos from the online Astronaut Photography collection.
  • Satellite Imagery
    The “Satellite Imagery” layer highlights some of the most interesting Earth imagery taken by NASA satellites over the years.
  • Earth City Lights
    “Earth City Lights” offers a new perspective on this popular image.
lights.jpg

 

Jun

21st 2007

Earth from Above

Filed Under General, Google Earth | Leave a Comment

Sponsored by UNESCO and Fuji Film, the work was an ambitious project by the photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand to document many of the world’s most interesting places and to examine the effects of humans on various corners of the earth.  You can view the vivid photos by clicking on the thumbnails or filter by country by selecting from a drop down list.  Over on the Google Earth Blog, you can access a link to download a .KMZ file to take Google Earth tour of the photos. 

Jun

08th 2007

Using Google Earth for Good

Filed Under Education, Google Earth | Leave a Comment

USA Today has an article about the growing use of Google Earth by non-profits to increase awareness about global issues.  Recently in the news was Google and the the US Holocaust’s efforts to bring awareness about the crisis in Darfur using an application in Google Earth.  The information about Darfur was compiled into a Global Aware Layer that was made available to the over 200 million users of Google Earth.  More recently, organizers at the non-profit Appalachian Mountains put together a Mountaintop Removal application in Google Earth memorializing the removal of 470 mountain tops in the region as a result of coal mining.  Coming down the pipeline will be Google Earth applications focusing on climate change.  The USA today article quotes Rebecca Moore a software engineer at Google Earth as saying, “Over the next year or two we’re going to see a lot of interesting visualizations in Google Earth to educate people about climate change.” 

Read More: Do-gooders do Google Earth

Apr

14th 2007

Trimble Launches Premium GPS Content Layer for Google Earth

Filed Under GPS, Google Earth | Leave a Comment

GPS Layer Provides Highly Accurate Outdoor Fitness and Adventure Data, Along with Complete
Multimedia Experience for GPS-Enabled Mobile Phones

SUNNYVALE, Calif., April 12, 2007 Trimble (NASDAQ: TRMB) today launched the first multimedia layer of GPS-based adventure details for Google Earth. The layer incorporates interactive information from the Trimble Outdoors™ catalog of GPS-on-cellular applications, as well as premium content from contributors to BACKPACKER, Bicycling and Mountain Bike magazines.

Premium GPS-based information from Trimble Outdoors and leading national publications is now available as a Google Earth Featured Content Layer. Users can access a wide variety of multimedia data on fitness and outdoor adventures, including routes, points of interest, pictures, video and audio. This information is designed to support the outdoor enthusiast community with new opportunities to explore the earth and share stories of their adventures.

The Trimble Outdoors solution takes advantage of technology convergence by integrating trip details with its planning software, the Web and mobile phone technology to allow users to view and participate in compelling outdoor experiences. Google Earth users can export the layer data to any WAP-capable mobile phone, experience it via a GPS-enabled mobile phone with Trimble Outdoors fitness and outdoor recreational applications, or download to a stand-alone GPS device.

“Trimble Outdoors is providing Google Earth users with the first multimedia GPS content layer for outdoor adventure seekers,” said Larry Fox, business development, Trimble Outdoors. “Using Google Earth and the Trimble Outdoors GPS layer, users can view a 3D trip of running, bicycling or hiking destinations gaining a unique perspective with the addition of audio, video, photos and detailed editorial. Through this interactive interface, users can not only see an activity, they can share an experience.”

For example, hikers, equestrians or families can experience the Pacific Crest Trail online by viewing hundreds of photos, audio clips and videos from BACKPACKER Magazine through Google Earth. Whether these adventure seekers plan to hike a few miles or a few thousand miles, they can download helpful information and virtually fly through several different regions from Mexico to Canada, through California, Oregon and Washington; guided by expert content along the way.

Google Earth combines the power of Google Search with satellite imagery, maps, terrain and 3D buildings. Featured content, such as the new Trimble Outdoors GPS layer, contains highly informative, multimedia-enhanced data about various places around the planet, overlaid on Google Earth imagery. Trimble Outdoors has populated its Google Earth layer with premium fitness and off-road GPS navigation information, such as GPS tracks and waypoints, trailhead directions, trail descriptions, photos, video clips and audio.

About Trimble Outdoors

Trimble Outdoors is a family of GPS-on-cellular applications for consumers.

With Trimble Outdoors, consumers can use their GPS-enabled cell phones to navigate trails and highways, track workout performance, geocache, and create, manage and share those experiences with others.

By leveraging Trimble’s 28 years of commercial expertise in GPS, software, and communications, Trimble Outdoors delivers cost-effective and convenient position-based services that promote consumers’ well-being, security and active lifestyle.

For more information about Trimble Outdoors, visit www.TrimbleOutdoors.com.

For more information about Google Earth or to download the application, visit http://earth.google.com/index.html.

About Trimble

Trimble applies technology to make field and mobile workers in businesses and government significantly more productive. Solutions are focused on applications requiring position or location—including surveying, construction, agriculture, fleet and asset management, public safety and mapping. In addition to utilizing positioning technologies, such as GPS, lasers and optics, Trimble solutions may include software content specific to the needs of the user. Wireless technologies are utilized to deliver the solution to the user and to ensure a tight coupling of the field and the back office. Founded in 1978 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., Trimble has a worldwide presence with more than 3,400 employees in over 18 countries.

Investor Relations Contact:   Willa McManmon of Trimble: 408-481-7838

Media Contact:   LeaAnn McNabb of Trimble: 408-481-7808

Apr

10th 2007

U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and Google Join in Online Darfur Mapping Initiative

Filed Under Current Events, Google Earth | Leave a Comment

U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and Google Join in Online Darfur Mapping Initiative
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum today joined with Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) to unveil an unprecedented online mapping initiative aimed at furthering awareness and action in the Darfur region of Sudan. Crisis in Darfur, enables more than 200 million Google Earth™ mapping service users worldwide to visualize and better understand the genocide currently unfolding in Darfur. The Museum has assembled content—photographs, data and eyewitness testimony—from a number of sources that are brought together for the first time in Google Earth. This information will appear as a Global Awareness layer in Google Earth starting today.

Google Earth’s Elliot Schrage, Vice President, Global Communications and Public Affairs, joined Museum Director Sara J. Bloomfield and Darfurian Daowd Salih at the launch.

Crisis in Darfur is the first project of the Museum’s Genocide Prevention Mapping Initiative that will over time include information on potential genocides allowing citizens, governments and institutions to access information on atrocities in their nascent stages and respond.

“Educating today’s generation about the atrocities of the past and present can be enhanced by technologies such as Google Earth,” says Bloomfield. “When it comes to responding to genocide, the world’s record is terrible. We hope this important initiative with Google will make it that much harder for the world to ignore those who need us the most.”

“At Google, we believe technology can be a catalyst for education and action,” said Elliot Schrage, Google Vice President, Global Communications and Public Affairs. “Crisis in Darfur will enable Google Earth users to visualize and learn about the destruction in Darfur as never before and join the Museum’s efforts in responding to this continuing international catastrophe.”

Crisis in Darfur content comes from a range of sources—the U.S. State Department, non-governmental organizations, the United Nations, individual photographers, and the Museum. The high-resolution imagery in Google Earth enables users to zoom into the region to view more than 1,600 damaged and destroyed villages, providing visual, compelling evidence of the scope of destruction. The remnants of more than 100,000 homes, schools, mosques and other structures destroyed by the janjaweed militia and Sudanese forces are clearly visible. Humanitarian organizations and others now have a readily accessible tool for better understanding the situation on the ground in Darfur.

With this release, the Museum also announced the creation of a similar mapping project on Holocaust history available on the Museum’s website: www.ushmm.org/googleearth. The Holocaust took place across the entire European continent, and for all of Europe’s Jews, as well as other victims of Nazism, geography played a major role in determining their fate. The Museum is using Google Earth to map key Holocaust sites with historic content from its collections, powerfully illustrating the enormous scope and impact of the Holocaust. Further information on Holocaust-era sites can be accessed through the Museum’s online Holocaust Encyclopedia at www.ushmm.org.

To find Crisis in Darfur on Google Earth, users must download the Google Earth application at no cost from http://earth.google.com. Once downloaded, users will find Crisis in Darfur by flying over Africa. Information on the Museum’s Genocide Prevention Mapping Initiative and the Holocaust mapping layer can be accessed from the Museum’s Web site at www.ushmm.org/googleearth.

About the Museum
A living memorial to the Holocaust, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum stimulates leaders and citizens to confront hatred, prevent genocide, promote human dignity and strengthen democracy. Federal support guarantees the Museum’s permanence, and donors nationwide make possible its educational activities and global outreach. For more information, visit www.ushmm.org.

In addition to educating the public about contemporary genocides, through its Academy for Genocide Prevention, the Museum works with State Department and other U.S. government agencies, the military and non-governmental organizations to develop effective methods for responding to and preventing genocide. In July 2004 the Museum declared its first-ever genocide emergency for Darfur and has been a leading voice in educating policy makers and the American public about the urgent need to respond to the genocide there.

About Google Earth
Google Earth combines satellite imagery, maps and the power of Google’s search service to make the world’s geographic information easily accessible and useful. There have been over 200 million unique downloads of Google Earth since the product’s launch in June, 2005.

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Google and Google Earth are trademarks of Google Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Media Contact:
Andrew Hollinger
202.488.6133
ahollinger@ushmm.org

Mar

16th 2007

London: A Life in Maps

Filed Under Cartography, Europe, Google Earth, Google Maps | Leave a Comment

Forty maps portraying life across London over different time periods was put together by staff of the British Library for this virtual exhibit.  Visits can click on map locations from a Google Map mashup or download a Google Earth KML file for a virtual tour of select maps.  A journey around London allows the viewer to see such maps as William Smith’s 1588 “Panorama of London”, Thomas Milne’s 1800 land use map or John Norden’s 1653 “A guide for Cuntrey men In the famous Cittey of LONDON by the helpe of wich plot they shall be able to know how farr it is to any Street…”  Clicking on one of the pushpins pops up a small window with a thumbnail of the map image as well as the cartographer and title of the map.  You can click on the map image to see further information about the map.  Under the Virtual Exhibit menu, maps are categorized by Age so you can take a journey through London over a specific period by visiting one of the following ages:

      1. Roman urbs to Stuart City
      2. Life in the 18th century
      3. Sweet and salutary air
      4. Out of sight: the East End
      5. The age of improvement
      6. Victorian London
      7. Modern London

There are many more features to this exhibit from postcards you can email to videos.

Visit ~ London: A Life in Maps 

 

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