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virtual-earth posts

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Google

Google releases Google Earth API, browser plugin

Google Earth browser plugin
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]

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Microsoft, web 2.0

Microsoft gives Virtual Earth and Live Maps a major overhaul

Live Maps
Microsoft has rolled out a major update to its web-based Windows Live Maps and it desktop Virtual Earth applications. Here are just a few of the new features:
  • Improved 3D cities with higher resolution textures, rendered trees, and thousands of additional buildings. This feature is only available in a handful of cities for now, but more are coming soon
  • Export Collections to GPS devices in KML, GPX, and GeoRSS formats
  • Improved modeler for adding your own buildings
  • Labels added to Birds Eye imagery, letting you figure out what buildings or landmarks you're looking at
  • 1-Click Directions maps can now be edited to add hotspots and popups
  • MapCruncher integration
  • Subscribe to RSS feeds for any neighborhood to keep up to date on activities in that area
  • High definition videos in Tours
  • Improved display of web-based KML files, including Google maps links.
This release comes a day after Microsoft added ClearFlow technology which helps you choose driving directions based on traffic predictions.

Filed under: Design, Microsoft

Microsoft launches 3D building maker for Virtual Earth

Virtual Earth 3DVIAMicrosoft has partnered with Dassault Systems to launch a 3D building application for Virtual Earth. In other words, the new application called Virtual Earth 3DVIA is a direct competitor to Google's 3D Warehouse for Google Earth.

The application lets you create 3D structures that can be placed on Virtual Earth maps or shared with other users. Virtual Earth 3DVIA is free to use, which makes sense, because users are essentially adding value to Microsoft's mapping services.

We highly recommend creating completely unrealistic models of your home and nearby buildings and uploading them so that Virtual Earth users will get the sense that you live in Rivendell and not Poughkeepsie. We're equal opportunity here at Download Squad, so we recommend the same activities for Google Sketchup users.

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The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

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