New Gustav layer in Google Earth

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Google has just added a new sub-layer to the “weather” layer titled “Gustav Data”.  This layer includes a variety of information about the storm, such as the latest advisories, webcams from around Louisiana and a forecast track.  Coupled with the existing weather layers (clouds, radar, etc), it makes for some useful information.

As Google points out, the “clouds” layer is about 1-3 hours behind, but the “radar” layer is only about 15-30 minutes behind.

In the screenshot above, I’ve turned on the impressive-looking radar layer and pulled up a traffic camera (those are some empty roads…).  In addition, you can see the forecast track of the storm with the red line heading off to the northwest.

It seems to me that a general “hurricanes” layer might have been better (will we get one for “Hanna”, then one for “Ike”, etc?), but they can always just add/remove them as necessary, I suppose.

Google to get imagery from new GeoEye satellite

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In just over five days, GeoEye is launching a new satellite and Google will be the exclusive online source for the imagery.  Details of the agreement weren’t disclosed.

The GeoEye-1 satellite will be able to capture imagery at a suberb detail level of 41 centimeters, though Google will have to convert to 50cm quality to comply with US laws.  The satellite will be able to capture imagery equivilent to the size of New Mexico each day, though I don’t know if that will lead to larger or more frequent updates from Google.

As a cool side bonus, the Google logo is on the side of the rocket!  Check out the pics below.

Also, a brief clarification about Google’s affiliation with GeoEye was posted on Wired

earlier today:

Google is interested in collecting the highest quality commercial satellite imagery available and as a symbol of this commitment has agreed to put the company logo on the first stage of the GeoEye, Inc. launch vehicle. Google Maps and Google Earth already include imagery from GeoEye. Google does not have any direct or indirect financial interest in the satellite or in GeoEye, and did not pay any fee to place its logo on the launch vehicle.

MapQuest is trying hard to hold on

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Despite being far behind in features, MapQuest has been remarkably resilient in holding onto their market share.  Google Maps continues to catch up, but is still below half of the market share that MapQuest is holding.

However, MapQuest continues to try to catch back up.  Today they’ve released a new beta version

of their site, and it’s certainly a step forward.  The biggest change is that they’ve put a map directly on the home page, rather than forcing you to search or get directions.  The map includes some useful layers (gas prices, traffic) and seems pretty solid.

Another nice change is the option of “copy and paste” address input.  Rather than having to put each element in a separate field (address, city, state, zip), you can drop them in a single box (just like you already could on Google, Yahoo and Microsoft).

Maybe we can chalk it up to being beta, but even the basic map usage still lags behind the others.  There are two basic functions that are missing:

  1. I can’t use the scroll wheel to zoom in and out.
  2. The zooms are hard breaks, rather than the smoother zoom used by Google and Microsoft.

As we’ve said before, it’s great to see them trying to catch back up.  Is it too little, too late?  Or will these kinds of steps be enough to hold onto their audience?  They promise many more upgrades in coming months, so we’ll see what happens.

Track Fay using Google Maps

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Tropical Storm Fay is going to make landfall in Florida shortly, and there are a few sites that have excellent Google Maps tracking tools.

  • IBISEYE – The best looking one I’ve seen, with some cool semi-transparent overlays
  • StormAdvisory – A fairly vanilla map, but with some solid data behind it.
  • Weather Underground – A similar look to IBISEYE.

If you know of other good sites for tracking these storms, please let us know in the comments.

(via GoogleMapsMania)

Sorry so quiet…

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I’ve been guest posting for the last few days on the Google Earth Blog while Frank has been out of town, which has left me with rather little time (and content) to post on here.  I’ll be back posting again soon, but here’s what I’ve posted on GEB in case you missed it:

Potentially a mind-blowing development, but it’s still vaporware

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LivePlace.com has just released a video showing a new product they’re developing called “City Space”.  Wow!

City Space is a 3D world, somewhat similar to Second Life.  Users can create any content they want, and the world is persistent for others in the future (changes you make to the world will remain there).  The “wow” factor is two-fold:

1 – The graphics are absolutely mind-blowing. They look very, very realistic.   Not only that, but the entire world is alive.  If you see a big skyscraper, every window is the portal to an office, which is fully rendered, and can even be seen through the window (depending on light, curtains, etc).  You can drop a video clip on the wall for everyone to watch, or draw a sketch with people looking on.

2 – This amazing world will work on virtually any PC, and many mobile devices.  No downloads, no plug-ins.  All of the rendering will be done server-side using the OTOY engine, so your client simply needs to stream the graphics (just like streaming a video).  I’m not sure how they can pull that off without even using a plug-in, but that mantra was repeated a few times during the video.

At this point, there is no launch date, and really no information beyond the video.  The video is absolutely amazing, but I’m anxious to get a bit more hard evidence to see how this really works.

Watch the video below — it’s well worth your time.

Various privacy complaints about StreetView in Australia

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The Daily Mail has published an article today with a variety of complaints that people have aired against the new StreetView imagery in Australia.

The first one is quite interesting.  A guy lost his best friend in a boating accident, and drunk himself stupid to dull the pain.  When he got home, he collapsed on the grass and fell asleep, where Google snapped his photo.  The image has since been removed, but you can see a screencap of it here

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.

Others include a woman who saw her recently deceased father in front of his house (which “renews the raw loss”), and another woman that was pleased to find herself in the imagery, working hard in the garden.

StreetView is coming to Britain soon, and they’re already calling it a “gross invasion of privacy”.

Do you agree with that?  Or is it acceptable because it’s all taken from public property?

Kasatochi volcano in Alaska is erupting

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Frank Taylor of the Google Earth Blog has passed along a message from John Bailey of the Alaska Volcano Observatory

regarding the Kasatochi volcano, which is erupting as we speak.

According to John, the island is a bird sanctuary and two scientists were evacuated.  He has sent along a time-lapse KML of the ash, which you can download here.  According to the AVO site

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:

An eyewitness account from a marine vessel (in the vicinity of Kasatochi and heading in the direction of Adak) reported ash fall (particles up to pebble size), spectacular lightening and thunder, and total darkness tonight between the hours of 21:00 and 23:15 AKDT.

More imagery and information about this eruption can be found on the Kasatochi page of the AVO.

A small (but nice) enhancement to Google Maps

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When using Google Maps for driving directions, there is now an option to “Avoid Tolls”.  As the LatLong blog said:

When half your wallet is already going toward gas, it’s nice if you can save some money for ice cream instead of dumping it all off at the toll booth.

I agree.  It’s a nice little touch.

Google Maps rolls out new interface

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It was announced months ago, and it’s finally here — the updated design on the Google Maps site.

It’s not a major change, but it does some nice things.  The tabs are gone in favor of a single search box, and the map area is a bit larger as a result.

More details have been posted on the Google LatLong Blog

as well as on Google Maps Mania.

It seems like a nice step forward.  What do you think?