Posts Tagged ‘Google Pack’

Updated Google Earth Layers and NASA

Google has added a NASA Google earth layers group to Google Earth, and they have updated the European roads in Google Earth, adding 15 new countries in Europe, as well as adding more content for the Netherlands, like business listings layers and country names in Dutch. Get Google Earth as part of the Google Pack here,

A few months back, Google Earth team and NASA began a collaborative effort to bring awareness and promote knowledge of NASA’s “earth” programs. After months of production, the “NASA” layer group is now live in Google earth.

Personally, I find it quite eye-catching. People are usually familiar with NASA’s space missions, but not everyone knows that NASA also devotes a considerable amount of effort to Earth explorations. This new NASA layer group showcases some of their most interesting content.

The new “NASA” layer has three components:

Astronaut Photography of Earth
Satellite Imagery
Earth City Lights

Source: NASA in Google Earth

The Satellite Imagery layer highlights some of the most interesting Earth imagery taken by NASA satellites over the years. Some place marks also offer the option of downloading additional imagery from different years or seasons and overlaying them on the earth’s surface.

“Earth City Lights” offers a new perspective on this popular image. One can identify some interesting urbanization patterns around the globe. I find it even more interesting to have roads and place name layers on at the same time as I fly over this layer. The United States interstate highway system appears as a lattice connecting the brighter dots of city centers.

Google Launches Earth and Maps Blog, Talk Geoweb

Google has created another blog, this time for Google Earth and Google Maps, called Google Lat Long Blog, and they are talking about the Geoweb.

So… what is the “geoweb”? Some people will scratch their heads and call it buzzword proliferation. Others, including Mike Liebhold, who has a long history of thinking and writing about this area, have a very well defined notion of what they believe it is (or should be). I don’t think that there is agreement on what the geoweb is, but I think there is a lot of enthusiasm and energy across many fronts to make it happen. I expect the “it” will evolve substantially over the next few months and years as we (the geo ecosystem on the web) collectively figure out how “earth browsers,” embedded maps, local search, geo-tagged photos, blogs, the traditional GIS world, wikis, and other user-generated geo content all interrelate. Those of us who work on geo products and services at Google believe we have an opportunity to make the web more useful — and ultimately, to improve people’s lives through better information and understanding. Source: A new world unfolding

One searcher at a time…

A new feature called geo search, gives users the ability to search all kinds of geographical information and makes it possible for people to discover these maps through normal “local” searches simply by clicking on the “see user-created content” link. Looks pretty cool.

A company from California has created software that will allow creators, etc, to layer sounds in Google Earth. The firm is already in talks with Google, smart, but no official agreement has been made.

As well as homing in on visual feasts around the globe, users of Google Earth may soon be able to listen to the sounds that accompany them.
A Californian company has created software that can layer relevant recorded sounds over locations in Google Earth, New Scientist reports. Source: Sounds bring Google Earth to life

An example of a use they mentioned was people are talking about selective logging and how is was a good way of not harming the environment, but, even though the images are the same, the sounds coming from the natural world is completely different.

Be sure to check out the Google Earth Layers, Google Pack from which you can download Google Earth, click this link, Google Earth Search to search for everything relating to Google Earth and click this link to download Google Earth here

Google Updates the Google Pack

Google has recently updated their Google Pack, the free set of software that anyone can download and use, it includes programs like Google Earth, Picasa, the photo organizer, Ad-Aware, Google Desktop, Google Talk, Google Toolbar, Skype and many more. They have added Symantec’s Norton Security Scan and PC Tools’ Spyware Doctor Starter Edition, both tools will help you protect your computer from viruses and malware, and both of which are free. They also updated their free photo screensaver, it will now display photo feeds, like the ones available from Flickr, and will show a constant stream of photos from the web. This is great for family members who live far away, and can’t see your kids, etc, it will allow them to see whatever photos you upload to your photo stream.

Google Pack makes it easy to setup and protect your PC, and now we’ve added two new applications to make your PC even safer: Symantec’s Norton Security Scan, which detects and removes viruses, and PC Tools’ Spyware Doctor Starter Edition, a top-rated anti-spyware utility. Both are free and include automatic protection updates with no paid subscription required.

We’ve also substantially updated our screensaver. Now you can turn your computer into a digital picture frame that displays pictures from photo feeds continuously updated streams of photos from the web. Many of your favorite photo-sharing sites support them already, so it’s easy to keep in touch with your friends and family this way. Source: Google Pack cures the PC blues

More info on the Google Pack available here. Download the Google Pack by clicking this link,

Santa Claus Tracker Google Earth Layer

Added: Just wanted to make sure everyone remembered they could use Google Earth to show thier kids where Santa was on Christmas eve. Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas.

Here is a great new layer for Google Earth, you can find presents hidden all over the Google Earth program, and you can track Santa Claus on December 24th with it. How cool is that? Now you won’t have to look at some stupid radar screen with a dumb outline of Santa’s sleigh on the evening news, now you can actually track Santa Claus kids!

First, you need to download Google Earth by clicking this link, , Google Earth comes as part of the Google Pack, with loads of other software, you can select or de-select whichever ones you want, then you need to get the kml file here. More detailed instructions are available here.

Hello boys and girls. Ready to find some toys? Santa has hidden a treasure trove of presents somewhere in Google Earth (actually, it was a few of his elves, but you get the idea) . Every day from December 12th until Christmas Eve, a clue will appear outside Santa’s North Pole workshop which, if you can solve it, will lead you to a toy hidden in a Google Earth satellite image. And every day, the location of the previous day’s toy will be revealed.

On December 24th, Santa will load his sleigh, take the reins and soar into the skies, delivering presents to good children all over the world. And now you can follow his fabled flight. First, you must download the latest version of Google Earth. Then download the Santa Tracker/Toy Hunt file. You’re done! [tag]Google Earth[/tag] will automatically refresh each day. What are you waiting for? Source: Google

This looks really cool, I will have to get some hot chocolate so the kids and I can bask in the glow of our computer monitors while we watch Santa head our way. Find other layers by clicking here Google Earth Layers.

Added:
Google just updated their blog, with this post,

As you know, every Christmas Eve Santa Claus gets busy on his tricked-out sleigh, soaring around the globe to deliver presents to (presumably deserving) children the world over. This year, even if you don’t have a reindeer team of your own, you can use the Google Earth Santa Tracker.

Technorati tags:
track Santa, Santa tracker, where is Santa, tracking Santa, track Santa Claus, watch Santa

Del.icio.us tags:
track Santa, Santa tracker, Where is Santa, tracking Santa, track Santa Claus, watch Santa

Weather Layers for Google Earth

Here are some more great layers for Google Earth. Weatherbonk has posted four layers that allow you to see temperatures around the world. First, you need to download Google Earth by clicking this link , it is part of the Google Pack and if full of great free software, download it all, or just Google Earth, it’s up to you. Then, click the links below to download the Google Earth Layers, they will open in the program automatically. Piece of cake!

Fahrenheit (no wind barbs)

Fahrenheit (wind barbs)

Celcius(no wind barbs)

Celcius(wind barbs)

Powerful Computer Search Tool, Right from Your Desktop

Are you looking for a better search for your desktop? Google Desktop is an excellent search tool for your computers, it comes as part of the Google Pack, you can quickly search your computer for emails, web history, and files, view news, photos and more anywhere on your desktop, you can add Google Gadgets to customize your desktop and Sidebar.

Google Desktop gives you easy access to information on your computer and from the web. It’s a desktop search application that provides full text search over your email, files, music, photos, chats, Gmail, web pages that you’ve viewed, and more. By making your computer searchable, Google Desktop puts your information easily within your reach and frees you from having to manually organize your files, emails and bookmarks. It makes searching your computer as easy as searching the web with Google.

Google Desktop doesn’t just help you search your computer; it also helps you gather new information from the web Sidebar and Google Gadgets, which can be placed anywhere on your desktop to show you new email, weather, stock information, photos, personalized news, RSS/Atom feeds, and more. Sidebar is personalized automatically, without any manual configuration required (though you can certainly make your own customizations if you want to or turn off automatic personalization). Source: Google

Use the powerful Google Search on your desktop, its part of the Google Pack, and you can download just Google Desktop or a bunch of other great software, like Google Earth, Picasa, a Photo Screensaver, the famous Google Toolbar, Adobe Reader, Norton Antivirus, Adaware, Firefox, Google Talk and Video Player, Skype, and more. Download the Google Pack by clicking this link here.

New Features for Picasa Web Albums

One of Picasa’s newest features, Picasa Web Albums allows you to post your photos online in seconds with one-click web upload directly from Picasa or your web browser, you can even use your Mac to upload photos. It will view and save your friends’ photos, allowing you to keep track of your favorite people and family and see when they’ve added something new. You can download entire albums to Picasa in just one click. You can see photos in large formats, scroll through them quickly, and rotate and zoom. Share the joy with captions and comments. It’s really a great photo tool, and compliments Picasa very well.

Picasa, and you can use the Picasa Web Albums to do all kinds of great stuff, Google just added at least four new features:

Uploading videos. Until today, only users that paid for extra storage could upload videos. Now anyone can do that, but only using Picasa.

Prints. You can now order prints for your photos, but number of options is small.

Tags. Picasa Web Albums lets you tag your photos. You’ll find the option in the sidebar.

Search. You can search your photos, a certain gallery and your friends’ public photos. Google indexes captions, tags, album titles, album descriptions, and album locations. Source: Google Operating System

Picasa, and all of these great features to manage and store all your photos. Lifehacker says,

Upload videos, order prints and more with the latest additions to Picasa Web Albums, the online element of Google’s popular Picasa photo organizer.

The service now allows you to upload videos to your albums; add tags to your photos; search tags in your albums and your friends’ albums; add “bulk” captions to all the photos in an album; and order prints and photo products. Alas, for the moment you’re limited to PhotoWorks or Shutterfly; hopefully they’ll add more services soon. In the meantime, watch out, Flickr: Google’s definitely gunning for ya. Source: LifeHacker

It’s part of the Google Pack as well, you can download the whole Google Pack by clicking here.

More Google Earth Layers

I was going to post on a couple more Google Earth Layers but that just keeps leading to more and more layers, so I thought I would just do one big post on all of the great Google layers I ran into today. Oh, and here is a link to the last post, Wikipedia and Panoramio Layers for Google Earth I posted earlier.

Click this link here to download Google Earth, it’s part of the Google Pack, you get to pick what you want, so if you just want Google Earth, you can download just Google Earth!

Here is a Real Estate guide for Google Earth. So, now you can use Google Earth to make your real estate search in 3D! Plus, you can receive daily updates of the homes that match your search right in Google Earth.

How does it work? First, you need you have Google Earth installed on your computer. If you don’t have it, download it here. Now you can just go to the RSS pull down menu on the top right of any Trulia search results screen and select “Google Earth” to view your search results. When your results load to Google Earth, you’ll find it in the “Places” section; click on the results to zoom on in. Google Earth will automatically update (much like an RSS feed) with the newest listings that match your search criteria once a day. Truliablog

Google has added some new overlays that allow you to view very detailed historical maps, to view them go to the layers section and look for Featured Content > Rumsey Historical Maps. Note: You will need the latest version of Google Earth.

See the world as history’s cartographers once saw it. A new batch of Google Earth overlays covers the globe with richly detailed historical maps.

The Rumsey collection includes 16 maps. Among them you’ll find a 1790 world globe, a 1680 map of Tokyo, and an 1814 map spanning the Pacific Ocean to the Mississippi–courtesy of Lewis and Clark. Source: Lifehacker

While it’s not a layer, at least I don’t think it is, you can spell out messages using geogreeting.com, check out the Tipsdr Rules message and create your own Google Greeting.

Google has added a couple elections related layers, a U.S. Election Guide and Congressional Districts layer, access them by going to the layers section and enabling them.

Go to aeroseek.com and you can Track commercial and general aviation flights, you can track by airline, track by departure/arrival airport, airport activity display, and it has a zoom function.

London: A Life in Maps has been made into a Google Earth layer, it is available here, where you can view London as you have never seen it before, including maps from the 1600′s, 1700′s and 1800′s.

Wikipedia and Panoramio Layers for Google Earth

I tell you what, if you haven’t downloaded Google Earth by now, you are missing out, not only are they getting ready to release a new version, they also have layers, a great way for others to add content to Google Earth, just like these great new Geographic layers Google released with location-specific Wikipedia content, Panoramio photos, and community comments. Click here for a screenshot.

Click this link to download Google Earth, it’s part of the Google Pack, you get to pick what you want, so if you just want Google Earth, you can download just Google Earth!

The new Geographic Web layer we released today is one of those features. We’ve taken the rich data of Wikipedia, Panoramio, and the Google Earth Community and made a browsable layer in Google Earth. Now you can fly anywhere in the world and see what people have written about it, photographed, or posted. I went hopping around from the southern tip of South America to the mosques in the Middle East to the Maldives Islands, immersed in a wealth of information, and I really felt like I was visiting each place through eyes of people who had been there. It was really engaging to compare, say, the Grand Canyon through the photos in Panoramio to the view from Google Earth, where I could follow the Colorado River through each.

To experience this for yourself, all you need to do is start Google Earth and explore the world. As of today you will see new icons – the Wikipedia globe, the Panoramio star, or the information “i” of the Google Earth Community – so just click on any of them to explore information about a place. You can also easily turn it off in the Layers panel on the lower left. Source: Google Blog via Lifehacker

I will be posting more links to great Google Earth Layers shortly.

Free Photo Screensaver

Click here to get the Google Photo Screensaver for free. It is part of the Google Pack and you can download all of it or just the screensaver, it’s up to you. Picassa is also included and can help you organize and locate all of your image files for you.

The Google Photo Screensaver will allow you to enjoy photos from your personal collection in full screen or as a collage. To configure your screensaver:

Right-click on your desktop and select “Properties” from the menu that appears
Select the “Screen Saver” tab from the “Display Properties” dialog
From the “Screen saver” drop-down, select “Google Pack Screensaver” then click the “Settings” button
From the settings window, you can select the transition, timing, and selection of photos in your screensaver.

The Google Pack Photo Screensaver makes it easy to display your favorite photos when your screen is idle. To enable it, go to Start menu > Settings > Control Panel > Display and select the “Screen Saver” tab. From the “Screen saver” drop-down, select “Google Pack Screen Saver” then click the “Settings” button. From the settings window, you can select the transition, timing, and selection of photos in your screensaver. At this time, the Google Pack Photo Screensaver is only available through Google Pack. Source: Google Pack Help