Google today announced a series of updates to the company's mapping product suite.
"We are excited to celebrate the one year anniversary of Google Earth and the Google Maps API with new technologies for these products," said John Hanke, director, Google Earth and Maps. "In the past year, we have had more than 100 million unique Google Earth downloads and have enabled over 30,000 websites to create mash-ups combining their own geographic data with the Google Maps API. The enthusiasm of the geo-developer community encourages us that these geo-based tools are connecting users to information in new and innovative ways."
The updates to Google Earth are:
• Satellite imagery update: A significant high-resolution imagery update for Google Earth increases the product's index of high-resolution imagery by four times. This makes sub-meter high-resolution imagery available for more than one third of the world's population. While initially available only in Google Earth, this database will also be accessible in Google Maps shortly.
• New version of Google Earth: In the product's first major update since its launch one year ago, Google Earth now features a more streamlined user interface and new tools that enable the creation and display of third party and user generated content. The addition of textured buildings brings a new level of realism and detail to Google Earth's 3D world. Google Earth is also now available for the Windows, Mac and, for the first time, Linux operating platforms; and is fully localized in French, Italian, German and Spanish.
• Google SketchUp with textured buildings: In coordination with the release of Google Earth, Google SketchUp now enables the creation of textured buildings for visualization in Google Earth and the Google 3D Warehouse.
Google also announced several updates to Google Maps and the Google Maps API (Application Programming Interface), the developer tool that enables users to easily embed Google's interactive, dynamic maps into their own websites.
Google Earth can be downloaded from here http://earth.google.com/ |
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