Uses for Google Earth

  Last week, at a meeting at IFTF, I was able to talk to several people about Google Earth.   The common reaction from those that had tried it was ... great idea ... beautiful implementation ... but what practical application can it have?   It could be used for a dynamic presentation, but how can you use it for some business leverage?   Its an interesting question, I have now used it a number of times, and it appears that most of the location-based applications could be done by Google Maps.   Once you are done looking at all the places you have traveled, what is the additional value?   

My opinion changed when I looked at the 3D layers available, an example of the San Francisco shoreline is shown above.  This feature is available for some US cities. The tilted flat terrain is still there, but now 3D abstractions have been added to the land.  They are abstractions because they don't show the actual form of the buildings, just rectilinear pieces.  No details are on the building walls since these would not be seen from an overhead satellite, and need to be gathered in another way, say from a helicopter or plane (I understand MS's competitive package is seeking to add this).

This led me to think further about how such a visualization could help to add abstract data to the terrain pictures.   A sort of augmented reality, where the reality here is the terrain images, and the buildings are representations of data that has geographical implications.   Imagine painting a building to provide information about that location's status.   Not a new thing for GIS applications, we have experimented with it in regional sales applications, and even in such micro-geographies such as the supermarket aisle.   Google's 'advanced' forms of Earth appear to include some additional capabilities that allow layers to be edited.

The Layers, linked to the terrain images are work thinking about in more depth.  Other ideas out there?  I be glad to collaborate in an experiment with real data. As a final review, Google needs to update their images ... yes I know its free ... but its jarring to see some areas covered in clouds (Cape Town SA, for example) ... or of very minimal accuracy. 

Comments

[jim moore]

I am thinking something like the Meta-verse in Snow Crash but based on the real world. Google could offer a Massively Multiplayer Google - Earth service. Everyone who has an address in the "real" world has a corresponding address in Google Earth.

You provide a certain level of service for free and charge for commercial activity and premium services.

You could have a policy that states If you own it in the real world you own it in Google Earth. Google could then takes a small percentage of all sales of Google Earth's virtual "property" while simultaneously giving most people a stake in the success of Google Earth.

You might be able to create a geographically organized "wiki" / Flicker and get a lot of help users.

[Franz]

Great ideas ... I can understand the potential commercial applications of this, as well as that of MS virtual earth. A better visual add-on to the Google Maps idea, perhaps just more visually appealing than just a map) I am also looking at internal corporate applications, specifically. Can we describe sales districts, abstract quantitative measures etc, better using better imagery? Quite a challenge.

[GaryD]

I cannot help but think that this could be of immense value to the emergency services. For example, when trying to locate a person who can see landmarks/terrain but doesn't have a GPS or know where they are. Not all applications have to be commercial.

[Miguel Cabrera]

In terms of local or overseas real estate investments, I believe the maps are invaluable.This is of course if the information remains up to date and accurate.With the net at everyones finger tips,these 3d.maps will be as common as street maps,maybe even installed in vehicles on-board computers.

[Franz]

Right, if I was sure that the information remained accurate it could have tremendous value.
Thats a pretty heady task, though, keeping all that data accurate. Every building built, every one torn down! Right now I do look for the update date of each location I explore, in fact that should be more clearly indicated, the copyright data alone is not enough. It works better if you want to do a point search on an address. Why not also have the ability to search on 'views' so I can understand what a new place looks like geographically, as well as oriented to addresses? Historical overlays would also be useful ... how did the streets evolve?