TomTom and Garmin fighting for Tele Atlas

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aBR6ofSbiCEM&refer=home

How soon till Google and Microsoft are rumored to be making a bid too? I'd bet there an article (not even just a blog) speculating that by Monday.

C'mon Google, seriously?

Mapperz Blog, a must read recently btw, reports on Google new to estimate traffic in their driving directions time estimate. Read the article here. How many layers of estimated data can be piled upon each other before people just start completely ignoring results? Let's see, we have the original street network geometry (1), the individual cells classifications (2), the speeds assigned to the classifications (3), the routing optimization methods (4), and now traffic volume estimates (6). If you roll a dice six times and add the total what do you get? Could be anything from 6 to 36. The answer is 21 then right? It halfway between the two possible extremes. What if I knew the first of the six dice was 5? Then the "answer" is 22.5 and somehow people think my guess is really good? I don't get it. Drivetime data sucks. Get over it people. Two people leaving the same spot at the same time don't even take the same amount of time to travel. You think some software can tell you what travel time will be?

Alright I'm done. I'm going to the beach to relax, apparently I need it...

Gizmodo article on Google's Camera Car fleet

Article here. Presumably they're for the Streetview functionality they added to Google Maps recently, but with Google, who knows what they're up to.

Timoney Group at it again.

I remember being impressed by the way they used Google Earth before. Well now they've impressed again. Check them out making BLM, Oil and Gas Wells, and Federal Lands info available as KML for the Rocky Mountain states here: http://www.rockiesog.com/

What's really impressive about this is the way they take advantage of new KML spec including the Regions functionality to stream out huge amounts of data, from huge databases, at a very good speed. That shows it's possible for datasets that used to be only practical as fusion built layers to be shared as streamed static kml instead.

A discussion of this point is at Ogle Earth.

Data Visualization Site

Many Eyes

Very cool site that visualizes data in many ways. Users can upload data and explore it in different ways. Someone posted what looks like a grocery store's sales by dept which was very interesting to view as sized bubbles (sorry no link, site broke as I went back to get the link -- hey, it's in beta still). What brought me to the site was a series of political earmark spending visualized. The interface was very adept at switching between per capita, total, by category, and whatever other types of visualizations I ignored.

Different Real Estate Web Site

Terabitz

It's very Web2.0. I like that it's a different approach to the same old task. There are things to consider here. Also, I like that it takes non-real estate info and will plot it along side it. And, btw, it's using Google's Maps API for the maps.

Ending my Vacation with Ice Cream

I found the nearest Cold Stone and discovered they have a nice Google Maps mashup. I like the tabs in the info bubble.

Yummy!!!!!!

Mmmmmm Google Maps Mashup

Mapping + Games

http://www.andybeaulieu.com/silverlight/DestroyAll/Default.html

Web game that uses VE's BirdsEye View imagery as the background.

iPhone and KML

I discovered that the maps feature of the iPhone will load a KML file that is on a webserver. It only shows the name and location (as the standard red push pin) but its nice to know it does something with it.

Also I tried to load a kml from maps.google.com via Safari, but it was smart enough to send me to change to the maps app.

Also it will show 2 Billion Points!

dragging on the map to change route

http://maps.google.com/help/maps/directions/ - watch the video. imagine jerrie and i doing one if you want some laughs.

Seriously, do I have to discover a new cool thing you can do with google maps EVERY DAY? Do they have like 400 people working on these projects? Sigh.

I mean, sure, it’s basically just a creative way of using multi-point routing to create custom routes, but they do so well. User doesn’t care how it’s done, they just want it to be easy to do what they want to do. Google gets the user friendly thing like nobody else. Bastards.

Picture legend and pictures at icon and within bubble.

http://picasaweb.google.com/picasateam/VegasWeekend/photo#map

Thanks Google. Thanks for doing something new that will now be required of the upcoming FastMap2. Great. Please, go ahead and add new functionality or ideas daily if you can. That would be great. Our team will stay right there with you. Maybe 2 things on Saturdays huh? How's that sound?

I'm going to the beach to scout hot dog stand locations...

Mapgroove and Zeemaps

Mapgroove and Zeemaps both came to my attention today and are both excellent examples of what can be done to make a user friendly interface for placing info on maps and creating multiple usable output types. Both use google maps for their map interface, though Zeemaps uses Mapquest for their pdf prints. I have a feeling we'll figure out the hard way why they made that choice.

Microsoft Bashing

Why bash Microsoft? I needed something easy to do this morning before diving into something difficult. To make it even easier on myself, I'll just post a link to someone else's bashing that I found entertaining and simply my additional comment of "yah, damn Microsoft" to it.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/margaret-heffernan-/why-does-microsoft-hate-i_b_52992.html

KML closer to an OGC standard

http://www.gcn.com/online/vol1_no1/44454-1.html

Slashgeo linked to the story above. Microsoft is said to be joining the OGC soon. It would be fun to see them using OGC standard KML. Can you imagine VE importing and exporting KML? :)

Polygon search on a real estate web site

http://www.johnlscott.com/default.aspx

A real estate site using a polygon search. Some good and bad to pick from on this interface, definitely worth looking at since we'll have to do a poly search interface soon too. Uses VE for the mapping engine.

Everyscape

http://everyscape.com/

Cool demo. I'll have to remind myself to come back and check this out when it launches.

Location Searching Patented?

http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2007/06/location_patent

How dumb is this? Maybe someone patented breathing once too. That would be worth something these days, lots of people are into breathing, especially air.

Self censorship didn't take long

The humorous/concerning pictures from Google's Street View, appear to be gone. Fell free to do embarrassing things in public you are safe from the "GoogleVan"

Picture no longer available

Ask.com new map tool

http://city.ask.com/city?msid=ee662330245ff8809dcdb4916751a9e3&msuserid=e13309fb950631dd919e5b43327a82ed#1

of the local search variety following the likes of google, microsoft, and yahoo. a few interesting differences and worth a brief look.

Google StreetView Privacy Backlash continued

This time from Wired of all places. It's one thing for the crackpot bloggers, or crazy paranoid catladys of the world to get worked up, but when someone at Wired goes ranting it might have some traction.

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/commentary/theluddite/2007/06/luddite_0607

Google + Navteq?

http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2007/06/05/does-google-have-the-drive-to-buy-navteq/

I think Google should buy the rights to the DNA database that maps the human genome. Then maybe they can monetize things like breathing, eating, procreating, which all require some piece of DNA to happen right?

Interview regarding SQL Server 2008 Spatial Capabilities

http://www.directionsmag.com/article.php?article_id=2477&trv=1

This may allow some of our queries to be done more efficiently and much quicker. It could also release us from our dependence on a map engine for some spatial queries we make. Yay.

Microsoft adds new Imagery and Birdseye views

http://virtualearth.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!2BBC66E99FDCDB98!8739.entry

now where will i find my mid 90s black and white aerials of phoenix?

Hacking Google Streetview

http://brainoff.com/weblog/2007/06/03/1253

So, apparently in less than 2 hours after the announcement of Streetview someone had already figured out how to get to the images. This is pretty easy and will be done frequently with sites using REST.

Google Imagery and Terrain update 6/2

http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showthreaded.php/Cat/0/Number/910528

sons of bitches are updating on the weekend too. the updated terrain will be nice for cities with mountains nearby, salt lake city, denver, portland, etc. and the imagery update in europe may put some pressure on us to have something available for our euros.

i wonder if google rests on sundays...

Google Mapplets place in the world

I think we may be able to do some really cool things with this. They make for a way to create protected space to create a front-end for querying a whole db, they display results. Gotta play with it to find it's potential. The explanation for how it works was brilliant. Complex enough to do something hard, yet simple enough to make it easy enough to use. It's hard to make something so complex, so simple. That's pretty, very pretty.

Also, nice to see them pushing users to create and use KML and GeoRSS. I'm glad we've already started down that road. Now we'll need to find a good way to store or archive them.

Open Source versions of APIs from Google?

According to Pamela Fox, there will be some apis provided to an open source environment where users can add functionality. Gotta learn more about this, but it's a bit lower on my list. There are more pressing matters.

One open source addition mentioned was some guy creating a zoom box. Very nice. Another mention of a guy in Finland releasing graphing on the map support this summer.

Adwords with Maps API

Adwords can optionally be added to Maps API. When the user hits the dot it pops up the bubble, when the user clicks the link in the bubble, you make money. I like to call it the "Buy Gene a House in Expensive San Diego" program.

Traffic and Driving Directions in the API

just announced at a Google Developer Day 2007 session, and they make them both so easy to add. must figure out if that will be in the fusion enterprise version.

update: limit of 10,000 hits per day per key for the routing, no other terms of use issues discussed yet

Google Gears

Google Gears has been announced at Google Developer Day 2007. An open source project for developing and delivering data when offline. They want this to become an industry standard. In theory*, users could use apps without an internet connection. Developers could develop with google apis offline. A demo of this can be seen at Google Reader once you've downloaded Google Gears. I'm downloading now, and again, can't wait to get my hands into the code. Dammit Google, I was already busy and now I have so much new to learn!

Google Mapplets

Google Mapplets has been announced at Google Developer Day 2007. This really came up earlier at Where2.0. It's basically a shortcut for building FM2, or at least a design how-to. I can't wait to start getting my hands messy in this code.

Google Mashup Editor

Google Mashup Editor is a new product announced by Google at Google Developer Day 2007. It looks at first glance like an online Visual Studio. They just demo'd a basic mashup in 2 lines of code with Mashup Editor. I wonder how many lines of codes it would take me to find a hot dog stand to buy near me?

And Skyhook as well

http://www.loki.com/

The have the location aware browsers, but they use wifi instead of GPS phones. The advantage is you can use it on a laptop instead of your phone.

Where at Where2007

this is the bomb. The www.where.com site is the beginning of delivering location aware data to handsets without fighting the carriers to do it. Hopefully the carriers figure out they don't need the middleman and open it up directly to developer dorks like me. Loopt presented earlier as well. They're adding social awareness (where are my friends) and taking care of the location part of it for handsets. Again, a middleman, but that's a start. Very exciting to me, I love the potential of delivering spatial, personally, professionally relevant data anywhere at anytime.

"Shiny and crap"

The Swivel guys just represented their Monday night 5 minute explanation of their site. When explaning why the export to kml button was cool they explained you could see the data you found at Swivel in Google Earth, which is "shiny and crap." Visualization of data is shiny, even when the data is crap. Combine good data with a good visualization tool and that's not just shiny but very useful as well.

ESRI Still part of Web 2.0

Esri showed off Arc Server??/Arc Explorer. Great for the government types with a lot of parcel building data etc. It exports out to GE and VE. The GIS leader had better spatial query tools of course. They had the best looking base layer as well. Still impressive.

Gene is waiting to get excited about the wifi location stuff.

OpenLayers Open Source Maps

So some guy who looks like he was 16 just gave a presentation that was better than Microsoft, Garmin, Platial, and many more. He was talking about OpenLayers, an open source javascript mapping engine. It's one of those "I want to go sell hot dogs" moments. Now I'm going to have to go figure out what this is and what it can do. I'm scare to think it's something I may feel compelled to learn and use in some sort of way -- just to make my life more complete. Maybe I should just quit and sell hot dogs. I think mustard will be my thing. I'll have 12 different kinds of mustard, some home made. Yah, that could work.

Modest Maps and Microsoft intro

The Modest Maps guys were showing off a number of things including this:
http://hindsight.trulia.com/

OK, that's cool. It's some combination of apis and flash and uses trulia data for time-series animations. Cliph will love it. It has little value to cbre because it would be hard to automate and actually USE. It's pretty though. Pretty is better than not pretty.

Microsoft is coming up. I may skip it to go get coffee. Microsoft is the 7 foot center who can't dunk, can't run, and can't shoot. It looks impressive on a spreadsheet or a powerpoint slide, but is disappointing in actual action. Still, the crappy 7 foot player is better than all those 5 foot crappy players out there. Yah, yah, yah, 3d NYC in the browser. Let's see it play.

3-D Panel

The only thing interesting I can remember form this panel (which included Jack Dangermond) Is that VE wants to have 500 cities in 3-D.

API for Intl' Geocoding

The speaker from multimap made Euro Geocoding seem even harder then US. Yippie!!!!!!

http://www.multimap.com/openapi/

Howler Monkeys, and Whales, and dead birdies oh my!

Ok, so this guy from Wild Sanctuary is showing off a kml that links to sounds of nature and animals in remote locations and maps those locations. It should have been a 5 minute presentation last night when there was a third of the people here. Because it's now and like 30 minutes, I'm going to mock it.

This is quite entertaining if you're looking for something to entertain and teach your small child about animals. Of course your children would have to much more patience than I and would have to imagine that the big space of green on the map is a forest.

This is pretty much completely useless for a business environment. No way this is in anyway helpful for CBRE. Can you image us trying to use sounds with maps? New York dot: "Youse want to buy this building or what?" Houston dot: "Yee-haw, how's about y'all pay a truck load of dollars for my barn?" San Diego dot: "Duuuude, hurry up and look at the building. I totally don't want to miss the waves."
http://earth.wildsanctuary.com/index.html

I'm bored right now, even it does demonstrate the new ability to embed objects with javascript in a popup. This presentation is almost over and the two before this were boring too, I hope Garmin is better.

Old School Mappers Unite!!!

http://gisuser.blogspot.com/2007/05/gis-20-remember-good-old-days-when-map.html

I'll admit to sharing the thoughts posting in the link above. So much fancy, head-spinning stuff, but it has to simple and thorough enough to be adopted. Mapquest's General Manager is saying that right now. Good advice to consider while developing.

Eye Film - GeoTags

Geotag any Camera?

http://eye.fi/

More on the Google Mapplets Mashups with Google Maps

They're practically writing FM2 for us...
http://maps.google.com/maps/mm?mapprev=1

More info on it -- documentation site

it's having some load probs this morning, but will be nice when the release rush is gone.

Lost in the mix, Microsoft adds 3d markets

Including New York City, Tampa, and some other cities. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/may07/05-28NYC3DMA.mspx

but i can barely pay attention, that new google streetview kicks butt.

Highlights from John Hanke - Building the GeoWeb

2 Focus for Google...

Improve the Basemap
Build the GeoWeb - User Annotations

Basemap....
1/2 the population covered by hi res imagery
*Far off places using Google Earth: Tribes in Amazon, Inuits in Canada

Sketch Up Update
*Kabul in 3d Warehouse

Google Street View
*5 US Cities
*Panoramic View
*Navigation within the view
*Information not seen with overhead imagery "No Parking Signs" etc etc
*Full Screen View
(Gene is sighing.....)

Looks like no updates to the hazy 3 year old Queen Creek imagery though.....

User Annotation....
Increased support for OGC. KML is best practice used by OGC
GeoRSS Support
geosearch
"atom" tags
Google gadgets mashups with maps "Mashups of Mashups"

View of Where 2.0 Monday Night Event

http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2007/05/where_20_ignite_and.html

Above is a great update from Frank Taylor at Google Earth Blog. Trends Jerry and I noted include:
* too many underpants gnomes
* warehousing of data (mostly free) and providing mashup ability in one site. -- more than one new company launching this notion
* using gis for social websites -- think myspace more focused on community and location. again, more than one pushing that concept.

Nothing really blew us away. There was one company with a really cool Java applet that did GE type 3d. They're only in New York right now and I doubt they're very scalable. Take a look, I haven't yet so I'm not sure you can get to the good stuff -- http://www.upnext.com

Google is talking now -- I'm getting goosebumps..

CityGML and 3D buildings

CityGML is trying to become the open source standard for 3d Business Information Modeling (BIM).
http://www.citygml.org/

A story about them from Directions Mag at http://www.directionsmag.com/article.php?article_id=2209&trv=1

Google adds "Street View"

Street view pics of selcted cities. The photos even have lables on them.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=612+Howard+St,+San+Francisco,+CA+94105&sll=37.848833,-122.420654&sspn=1.051842,1.867676&ie=UTF8&ll=37.787776,-122.39984&spn=0.004892,0.010911&z=17&om=0&layer=c&cbll=37.786074,-122.401763&cbp=1,242.867730823863,0.516966638948982,0

Landsat 7 data to be released June 4th

"The project will allow the Landsat data user community to help refine the distribution system planned for the upcoming LDCM. Each scene will be registered to the terrain, or "ortho-rectified," prior to being placed on the Web. Copies of these data will also be available on CD or DVD at the cost of reproduction."

http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1676

Good news for those that like cheap/free data

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_5961970?nclick_check=1

Had this case gone the other way, it would have set a very nasty precedent and made data collection from the data a tricky thing.

Township and Range Finder

Helpful site to find township and ranges.

http://www.earthpoint.us/townships.aspx

Of course they have kml capability as well.
http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2007/05/us_township_and_rang.html

Very interesting article looking at the data sources and future of GMY mapping

http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/05/trends_of_onlin.html

ok, and the article looks at Ask too, but I don't consider them as influencial as the big three...

Microsoft's PopFly

http://www.popfly.ms/Overview/

It's a mashup creator that's been compared to Yahoo!'s Pipes. It's an interesting concept: bringing together data sources from a variety of providers and delivery types, manipulating, then delivering in a desired output format. Designed to do this easily enough for non-programmers, but with enough features and flexibility to accomodate programmers as well, this could be very useful. Like most Microsoft releases, this has already been overhyped and has already delivered disappointment (how long until I get the access info email promised at signup?). Sure, it's in "private alpha" still, but I'd expect no positive comments from non-Microsoft paid sources until at least 6 months down the road. I'll be keeping my eye on it though. Along with Yahoo! Pipes and SRC's Alteryx, Microsoft's attempt at creating a visual, simple, powerful way of walking non-experienced users through the stages of creating a mashup could bring out many creative and usefull end products.

Upgraded Yahoo! Maps

Doesn't seem to be anything major. They say they're using their own engine completely now. That's nice.

The one thing I'm taking away from this update is their decision to add building footprints to major markets. This feature is on its way to becoming the norm. Soon map users will expect to see building footprints in urban cores. We should recognize this trend and plan our offerings accordingly.

Racing the big three (GMY) is not fun. Hopefully we can piggyback Google's technology stay current no matter what the next front is in their race to be the best map portal.

Automated 3D in Google Earth?

There had been rumors for a while that Google was looking for a way to automatically create 3D buildings for Google Earth. Some content added to the 3D warehouse may have been from companies or individuals trying to impress Google with their skills or technology in addressing this topic. Well, it looks like Google may have found it's solution:

http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2007/05/google_licensing_aut.html

Expect a 3D world in GE some day, maybe some day soon...

Best 3D model yet

http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/en/Business/Planning_Development/PlanningPolicy/Heritage_design/theurbanmodel.htm

ps. i hate the Spurs.

Another one bites the dust -- Webraska bought

A continuing of the trend that has the lower to mid size companies specializing in location aware technologies being absorbed into larger companies.

http://www.allpointsblog.com/archives/2834-Webraska-Acquired.html

Limiting aerial imagery, in the USA?

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/08/2257224

one of many articles about NIMA, or whatever they're called now, talking about maybe, someday, in some way, sorta, kinda restricting aerial imagery in some places. good luck with that.

New free GE version - 4.1

http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2007/05/google_earth_41_beta.html

Before and After Images of Greensburg, Kansas via kml

These are amazing images. Must see.

http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2007/05/new_satellite_imagery_of_town_destroyed_by_tornado.html

Yahoo! Pipes now export in KML

http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2007/05/yahoo_pipes_supports.html

The samples are great for understanding the steps and logic involved in taking normal data and getting into a useful kml form.

Virtual Earth imagery/3D updates

It's a pretty long list, but has some random places. Was Beaverton, OR really high on anyone's list for 3D coverage?

http://blogs.msdn.com/virtualearth/archive/2007/04/28/april-2007-virtual-earth-imagery-release.aspx

Oh, and they've moved to version 5.0, whatever that means. I'm hopeful there's more pain of recoding than cool new features for those that chose the VE path over Google. Yah, I'm a jerk.

Google on the Simpsons

Homer is spotted laying out naked in his backyard with a Google Earth type of app.

http://www.ogleearth.com/2007/04/the_simpsons_fe.html

More Phoenix Downtown in 3d warehouse

More buildings of Downtown Phoenix have been added, but US Airways Center (Home of the Suns) and the Hyatt are only partially built. I am assuming this means better models are arriving soon.

But UP Stadium in Glendale is being attacked by some strange barn looking stadium.

New York City in 3D, in Microsoft VE

We're going to hear about this... sigh.

http://virtualearth4gov.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!369B39F890CE30C1!341.entry

Google Spreadsheets Geocode?

Google Spreadsheets has functions that geocode? That would be an interesting step toward making mapping easier and more automated.

http://www.ogleearth.com/2007/04/google_spreadsh.html

This building right here......

A tool for mappers and their clients...

http://server.divis-hagen.de/ge/index.php?page=start&lang=en

See Ogle Earth for more info

http://www.ogleearth.com/2007/04/ge_sharing_cros.html

More on KML & GML

http://www.galdosinc.com/archives/308

This is a useful post containing info on how the two standards work well together and an example of potential usage. A solution similiar to this might be what works best for FM2.

Google's sacrificial offering of KML to OGC

so Google wants .KML to be the .doc or .html of geospatial. that's so sweet of them. does everyone else get onboard or just ignore it?

OGC will supposedly make the KML 3.0 version.

http://geotips.blogspot.com/2007/04/kml-ogc.html

California Data Site Coming Soon

Might make it easier to collect data for California, also might be more data available now there's a home for it.

http://www.allpointsblog.com/archives/2723-California-SDI-Coming!.html

3D Route Maps in Singapore from Tele Atlas

Looks good and is based off of top quality street networks as well. I wonder if/when they'll try to have this in the US?

http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/mobilephones/ontheradar/0,39050922,62003906,00.htm

GeoRSS support from the GYM bunch of online maps

Time to tidy up those old georss experiments i did with some of our data. Anytime the entire GYM does something, they tend to get competitive about it, and everyone else wants to adopt as well.

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/06/1448246

Video in Google My Maps

Here is one with detailing my winning NCAA tourney strategy

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=103791868868663530886.00000111c4f43d5ed5328&om=1&z=5&ll=32.254085,-111.003209&spn=14.027432,29.267578

Read about it here
http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/2006/07/youtube-google-maps-virtual-video-map.html

So will video in Google Earth be far behind.......

Tornado history and paths in Google Earth

Very cool use of both Google Maps and Google Earth. You can view info about a specific tornado, then view and fly-through the path in Google Earth.

Go directly to the app at: http://climate.engin.umich.edu/tornadopaths/

Read an article about it at: http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=852428

Whoa, Virtual Earth 3D models do look cool

http://virtualearth4gov.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!369B39F890CE30C1!327.entry

this kind of quality is only in a handful of locations so far, but it does look really good.

Virtual Earth Aerial and BirdsEye Updates

http://virtualearth.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!2BBC66E99FDCDB98!8457.entry

same day as Google Earth updates, coincidence?

WHERE is blowing my mind

http://www.where.com/create/

some let me get this straight, $2.99/month and you get as many widgets as you want, you can develop your own widgets, AND you get access to gps info that average schmoe developers can't always get to?

right now only on Sprint for a handful of devices, i'm watching this very closely.

Blackberry opening more APIs to developers

including the already open location api and now the blackberry maps api.

http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/03/28/HNrimaddsapis_1.html

now if only the carriers would allow access to the apis as well...

New Google Earth Imagery

http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=847999

yay updates. can't wait to check out the Vancouver, CA coverage...

VuTool bought by Google?

http://freegeotools.blogspot.com/2007/03/new-capabilities-for-google-earth.html

a company that was looking for capital says they've been bought. they do street level imagery of major cities. who could want that?...

For any notepad haters

Try this KML editor

http://www.northgates.ca/kmleditor/

TIGER to open source format and shapefiles

http://freegeotools.blogspot.com/2007/02/tiger-is-moving-to-shapefile-and-web.html

Tiger may become a more viable alternative, especially for web apps. It won't have the quality needed for geocoding or routing, but shouldn't be too bad for visualization of non-aerial maps.

Tiger to Shapefile for free

http://freegeotools.blogspot.com/2007/02/converting-us-census-tiger-data-into.html

 

who needs expensive street data?  this is the lowend option for open source developers.

 

Weather.com using VE

http://www.spatiallyadjusted.com/2007/02/22/i-see-weathercom-is-now-using-virtual-earth-for-mapping/

I wonder if they'll get that into 3D someday?

College Football Geek Mashup

Now if we could track Reggie Bush's Outgoing Phone Records......

http://www.mapgameday.com/recruit/

Jerry McCahan | Sr. Programmer Analyst 

CB Richard Ellis | CBRE Mapping Center

1620 W Fountainhead Pkwy, Suite 610 | Tempe, AZ 85282

T 480 929 6448 | F 480 929 6400

jerry.mccahan@cbre.com | www.cbre.com | mapping.cbre.com

 

This email may contain information that is confidential or attorney-client privileged and may constitute inside information. The contents of this email are intended only for the recipient(s) listed above. If you are not the intended recipient, you are directed not to read, disclose, distribute or otherwise use this transmission. If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete the transmission. Delivery of this message is not intended to waive any applicable privileges.

Two New Concepts Collide

1) Geography as a filter, starting point, or context for info.

 

2) User provided content.

 

iCommunity.tv ( http://iCommunity.tv ) allows users to contribute video via YouTube and news and locate that on google maps or earth.  Both google maps and earth are also search and delivery mechanisms.

 

I don't know that this is the one, but someone will do this right and it will become a viable alternative to corporate news.  Worth checking out for its concepts and use of technology alone.

Yahoo! Pipes + KML

http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2007/02/yahoo_pipes_what_it.html

 

Good explanation of potential.

 

Yahoo! Pipes

http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/02/pipes_and_filte.html

 

this is all the GIS blogs are going to talk about for a couple of weeks.

 

Gene Wright | Sr. Programmer Analyst 
CB Richard Ellis | Mapping Center
1620 W Fountainhead Pkwy, Suite 610 | Tempe, AZ 85282
T 877 580 4674 | F 480 929 6400
gene.wright@cbre.com | www.cbre.com | mapping.cbre.com
 

This email may contain information that is confidential or attorney-client privileged and may constitute inside information. The contents of this email are intended only for the recipient(s) listed above. If you are not the intended recipient, you are directed not to read, disclose, distribute or otherwise use this transmission. If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete the transmission. Delivery of this message is not intended to waive any applicable privileges.

 

3D within Google Earth

http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2007/02/3d_video_inside_goog.html

 

what do we, or could we, do with this concept?

Excel to KML

http://freegeotools.blogspot.com/2007/01/importing-spreadsheet-data-into-google_14.html

 

Some tools that do what we're doing.  Can we learn from these?

New Bubble Layout in Earth

The Google Map Link will help users get phone numbers

Jerry McCahan | Programmer Analyst 

CB Richard Ellis | CBRE Mapping Center

1620 W Fountainhead Pkwy, Suite 610 | Tempe, AZ 85282

T 480 929 6448 | F 480 929 6400

jerry.mccahan@cbre.com | www.cbre.com | mapping.cbre.com

 

This email may contain information that is confidential or attorney-client privileged and may constitute inside information. The contents of this email are intended only for the recipient(s) listed above. If you are not the intended recipient, you are directed not to read, disclose, distribute or otherwise use this transmission. If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete the transmission. Delivery of this message is not intended to waive any applicable privileges.

Maposauraus!

http://www.edparsons.com/?p=415

 

I know what I want to be for halloween already.

 

KML of points to GPS Devices

http://gpstracklog.typepad.com/gps_tracklog/2005/10/converting_goog.html

 

conversions to/from KML is of special relevance to us, it's good to see it happening frequently.

Gene Wright | Sr. Programmer Analyst 
CB Richard Ellis | Mapping Center
1620 W Fountainhead Pkwy, Suite 610 | Tempe, AZ 85282
T 877 580 4674 | F 480 929 6400
gene.wright@cbre.com | www.cbre.com | mapping.cbre.com
 

This email may contain information that is confidential or attorney-client privileged and may constitute inside information. The contents of this email are intended only for the recipient(s) listed above. If you are not the intended recipient, you are directed not to read, disclose, distribute or otherwise use this transmission. If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete the transmission. Delivery of this message is not intended to waive any applicable privileges.

 

New CBRE Earth Software

Please use the link below to install the new client software (v4) of CBRE Earth.  This installation will be sent to the field users in the next week or so.  Please become familiar with the new interface and stay tuned for upcoming News From Nerds about the new client, from your star anchorman Gene Wright (it’s OK to pronounce the G like an S).  Let me know if you have any questions or problems.

http://mapping.cbre.com/earth/apps/GoogleEarthEC-4.0.2722.exe

Some of the new features in version 4 include:

• No more dashboard.  The navigation tools (pan, zoom, tilt, and rotate) are now a semi-transparent and compact “compass” within the map.
• Enhanced time series capabilities and slider.  I’ve attached a couple cool ones.  Turn on and select any one of these layers and click the play button on the time slider (next to the compass).
• More efficient legend with better nesting of subfolders and ability to show all available layers in the legend or only the ones that are turned on.
• The major enhancement that paid users will have is the ability to add and view Google’s database of imagery, 3D buildings, and other layers.  Research copies (yours) will not have this ability…at least not yet.

http://services.google.com/earth/kmz/BMNG-12months.kmz  (Blue Marble images showing seasonal change of the globe)
http://destinsharks.com/kmz/DeathValleyDrivingTour.kmz  (Death Valley road trip with embedded and synched video)

<<GOES 12 Animation.kml>>   - current radar time series of the last 4 hours

<<Aqua MODIS Imagery of Hurricane Katrina.kml>> - Time series of Hurricane Katrina images

GE Navigation Tricks

Great for the heavy users.

 

http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2007/01/navigation_tricks_wi.html 

 

 

Gene Wright | Sr. Programmer Analyst 
CB Richard Ellis | Mapping Center
1620 W Fountainhead Pkwy, Suite 610 | Tempe, AZ 85282
T 877 580 4674 | F 480 929 6400
gene.wright@cbre.com | www.cbre.com | mapping.cbre.com
 

This email may contain information that is confidential or attorney-client privileged and may constitute inside information. The contents of this email are intended only for the recipient(s) listed above. If you are not the intended recipient, you are directed not to read, disclose, distribute or otherwise use this transmission. If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete the transmission. Delivery of this message is not intended to waive any applicable privileges.