Well, we're a little late given that the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing has passed, but this version of Lunar Lander is just too cool to pass up. Grant wrote about the classic versions of Lunar Lander last month, and though this one is certainly inspired by the same event, the implementation is just a tad different.

To play this 3D version of Lunar Lander you will need the Google Earth plug-in for your browser (don't worry, if you don't have it the page will automatically prompt you to install it). This version of Lunar Lander attempts to simulate the landing that Neil Armstrong performed on Apollo 11. The game is rendered in 3D using Google Earth's moon mapping capability, and your view is from outside the lunar landing module.

You can control the lander's tilt side-to-side and forward-and-back by using the arrow keys, and you use the spacebar to fire the ignite the lander's engine. The game starts with you moving rapidly to the left towards the landing site. You must slow the lander down and keep from impacting the ground until you reach the landing site, but be careful not to run out of fuel. To say this is difficult is an understatement, but thankfully there is an Unlimited Fuel cheat you can employ to make landing a bit easier.

I know it sounds a bit cheesy, but one of the most moving tributes to fallen American servicemen and women you can see this Memorial Day is a layer on Google Earth. Map the Fallen shows you the hometowns and places of death of the more than 5,000 soldiers lost in Afghanistan and Iraq to date. Rather than being a crass and hollow tribute, Map the Fallen represents each of these people as more than a statistic or an icon on a map.

When you're zoomed out, those clusters of little icons do a good job of visualizing the sheer magnitude of the human sacrifice involved in war. Clicking on each of those icons shows details about each person, aggregated from several different sites that have been documenting the casualties. As a geek, I can't think of a more fitting way to honor each one of these people for their service. It's both educational and emotional.

Got the Google Earth browser plugin installed? Ever looked at Google Earth and had the burning desire to navigate the landscape by boat or blimp? Well, now you can!

I know, I know. It's really not that exciting as a game. As a glimpse into the near future, though, Ships is undeniably cool. There's also something strangely addictive about tooling around the amalgamation of satellite imagery and 3D rendered buildings.

That's my airship, tooling around downtown Cleveland, searching for a pro sports championship.

For seafaring types, you can choose from barges, cruise, and container ships and peacefully putter along the world's waterways. A cruise ship floating in the middle of Lake Eerie? Sure, why not? That site is at least as believable as the Browns winning the Super Bowl, after all.

Who knows - maybe one day games like this will progress from some kind of Open Arena - Google Earth mashup.

Google has released a browser plugin that lets you access most of the key features of Google Earth in your web browser. No need to download and install the standalone Google Earth application. Google Earth provides more detailed imagery and navigational controls than Google Maps. You can also see 3D models of buildings and view KML files in Google Earth.

You do still need to download and install a small utility though. While the plugin works with Internet Explorer and Firefox (2.0 only, Firefox 3 is not yet supported), it's not available through the Mozilla Add-ons page. The plugin is also Windows-only.

The Google Earth browser plugin is powered by a JavaScript API, which Google has also released, allowing web publishers to embed a Google Earth widget in their web pages and build customizable applications around it. You can see some examples at the Google Earth plugin samples page.

Microsoft has been offering a web-based version of its Virtual Earth application for a while now. And Poly9's FreeEarth offers web publishers a similarly custimizable spinning globe that can be embedded in web sites.

[via Google LatLong]

Sure Google added a flight simulator to Google Earth last year. But what fun is a flight simulator if you have to use your mouse and keyboard to navigate? Well, some. But not as much fun as flying through Google Earth while riding a bicycle, E.T.-style.

Want to build your own bike-powered Google Earth flight sim? Here's what you need:

1. A programmable SunSpot wireless sensor
2. A bunch of corresponding sensors
3. A bike or other unit that you want to use for navigation/exercise
4. Way too much free time on your hands

The flight simulator lets you know what it would be like to pedal your bike through the sky. Or you could just take your bike outside and figure out what it's like to pedal through your neighborhood.

[via Hackszine]

We can't count the number of times we've wished we could embed an interactive globe on our web sites. That's probably because it's hard to figure out how to count to zero. But if you really want a Google Earth-like globe on your page, Poly9's got you covered. The company's FreeEarth bears a superficial resemblance to Google Earth or Microsoft's Virtual Earth. But unlike those applications, FreeEarth is Flash based and can be customized and added to pretty much any web site.

A handful of popular web visualizations are already built on FreeEarth, including Flickervision 3D an Twittervision 3D. Because the software is built in Flash, most web surfers will be able to interact with the globe by spinning it around or zooming in for city-level details without downloading any additional software.

But FreeEarth doesn't have the level of detail that you'll find in desktop applications like Google Earth or Virtual Earth. You can zoom in far enough to make out buildings, but only if you squint. And it takes much longer for FreeEarth to load new satellite imagery when you zoom in.

[via WebWare]

About a half a year after adding stars, constellations, and all sorts of astronomical data to Google Earth, Google has launched a web based version of Google Sky. The interface is similar to Google Maps. You can drag and drop the sky to see different items, and you can search for locations by typing in terms like "Mars," or "constellation."

There are also a series of galleries highlighting some of the coolest views gathered from Hubble and other telescopes. You can toggle between naked eye, infrared, microwave, ultraviolet, and x-ray views. Google has also integrated an Earth & Sky podcast directly into the site.

[via Google Lat Long Blog]

Google has rolled out a few new layers for Google Earth and a redesigned layer menu to help keep them tidy. Major categories get their own heading, while sub-directories are folded into, well, subdirectories.

For example, Google Earth 4.2 now includes a weather layer with sub-folders for clouds, radar, conditions and forecasts, and information. The clouds information is updated hourly with data from the Naval Research laboratory in Monterey. The radar information is updated every 15 mminutes, while Weather.com provides forecasts.

You can also download KML files showing the last 24 hours of cloud data or 6 hours of radar data.

Google has also added the MDG Monitor, a layer that shows how countries are doing in meeting the Millennium Development Goals to do things like combat poverty and hunger, improve education, fight HIV/AIDS.

[via Google LatLong]

Google may have started out as a search engine, but the company now has all sorts of divisions: e-mail, maps, online video, social networking, online document creation/storage, photo sharing. Some of these services already talk to one another. You can send a Google Document via e-mail, for instance. Others remain separate. There's no way to save a photo from Gmail to Picasa Web.

But if you've noticed that many of Google's services are marching slowly toward convergence, you're not alone. Today Google announced support for discovering geotagged YouTube videos from within Google Earth. Because you know, that's exactly what you've been waiting for. Wait, what?

Here's how it works. Anyone can tag a YouTube video with the location where it was recorded. Then when you're searching Google Earth you can look for videos from across the globe. The new geotagged video layer is in the 'featured content" folder of Google Earth. Click on the YouTube button and you'll see video icons pop up. When you zoom in you'll find even more videos. You can play them from within Google Earth or you can click through to YouTube and watch them in your web browser.

It's kind of cool, but seriously, we would have been happier if Google had announced we could save Gmail attachments to Picasa Web.

Part of the appeal of virtual worlds like Second Life and World of Warcraft are that they let you escape from the real world. But who's to say there's isn't a market for virtual spaces based on real places?

CNet reports that Google and Multiverse Network are set to announce a partnership that will let anyone create a virtual world/MMORPG using data from Google Earth and 3D models created with Google's SketchUp.

You could set your virtual world in real cities, allowing visitors to interact with realistic representations of buildings, streets, terrain, and other landmarks.

According to CNet, the Multiverse partnership has nothing to do with the rumor that Google is developing its own virtual world technology.

Time to get virtually closer to a few more pieces to the Earth's landscape. Google Earth, which will be followed by Google Maps, has updated imagery in the US, Latin America, Africa, India, China, Australia and New Zealand.

Google isn't saying exactly where to find the updates, which hit 130 countries. So if you think it is going to be easy to find the new imagery, think again. You are going to have to work a little. Google has put together a list of 11 clues as to where the updates are. Here is one to get you off and running on your Google Earth trip:

The Trojan horse from the 2004 movie Troy is visible in this city:

• Çanakkale province in northwest Turkey

If any DLSers are map explorers, or have come across the recently updated satellite imagery, feel free to drop a note in the comments as to the locations.