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One of the images returned by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter–coming soon to Google Earth?

(Credit: NASA)

At least the residents of the moon are unlikely to be annoyed by the Google Street View car.

Google announced plans Thursday to hold a press conference on July 20 in Washington, D.C., to discuss “a very special announcement about the newest addition to Google Earth,” according to an invitation sent to reporters. Further details were not included, but it’s not too hard to guess what Google might be up to here.

July 20 is the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. One of the men who set foot on the moon that day, Buzz Aldrin, will speak at the event, as will Andrew Chaikin, author of “A Man on the Moon.” And NASA’s launch of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in June has yielded all kinds of new detailed images of the moon’s surface.

Google already offers a limited overhead view of the moon that highlights the sites of the Apollo landings, but it seems more detailed maps could be in the works as part of the ongoing partnership between Google and NASA. All kidding aside, Street View for the moon is probably not on the agenda, although those lunar rovers are still up there.

Excerpted from:
Google Earth event hints at moon mapping

(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET Networks)

There is now a lot more about Mars to view in Google Earth than there was just a month ago.

Google announced Friday a major update to show more details of Mars both in its history and the present day. Originally the 3D maps of Mars were available with the release of Google Earth 5.0, just a little more than a month ago. The update shows how our knowledge of Mars, and our study of astronomy, has evolved over time.

According to Google, the new update allows us to travel back in time to see the antique maps originally drawn by astronomers Giovanni Schiaparelli, Percival Lowell, and others. It also show present-day Mars with a “Live from Mars” layer, which is a continuous stream of the latest imagery, including those from NASA’s THEMIS camera aboard the Mars Odyssey spacecraft.

Users can have the feel of flying along with Odyssey as well as the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to see what the two crafts have been observing lately and where they are headed next.

Without having used the original release of Mars 3D map, I tried the new update and loved it. After selecting Mars from the toolbar in Google Earth, I could do a 3D flight around the Red Planet.

The new update now makes the surface of Mars covered with informational layers, imagery, and terrain. I could also zoom in and out, change the camera view, or click on icon to read more about certain locations and events, most of which I didn’t know that they exist before.

What I haven’t been able to find, however, is Dr. Manhattan’s girlfriend, Silk Spectre, but that would probably take more than just one update.

Click here for more stories, and images, on Google Earth 5.0.

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Google Earth updates maps of Mars

Google has fixed a disconnect between two of its software products, its Chrome browser and the plug-in version of Google Earth.

This Google Earth flight simulator works in Chrome now.

(Credit: screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET Networks)

“As of ~4 p.m. PST today, Google Chrome 1.0+ on Windows is an officially supported browser,” a Google employee said on a Google Earth mailing list on Thursday. “That means Chrome users will no longer get the unsupported browser message, and the plugin and API should work just as they would in other supported browsers.”

Google Earth is generally used as standalone software, but the plug-in version can be mashed up with Web pages such as James Stafford’s Mini Flight Sim and Thatcher Ulrich’s Monster Milk Truck.

Ultimately, Google believes Google Maps and Google Earth will converge into a single product; the plug-in is one step in that direction.

The update is also noted on the Google Earth API page from which the plug-in can be downloaded.

In other Google geography news, the company also announced a new batch of public transit map updates Thursday. Houston, Calgary in Canada, and 21 agencies in Virginia include maps and schedules, while Atlanta, Bonn in Germany, and Sacramento, Calif., among others, got maps visible through Google Transit.

(Via the unofficial Google Earth Blog.)

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Google Earth plug-in now works with Chrome

Is this Atlantis? Apparently not, according to those meanies at Google.

(Credit: Google Earth)

Google is officially denying widespread Internet rumors that its Google Earth software located the mythical sunken city of Atlantis off the coast of Africa. Either that, or Google is totally trying to hide something. Since I always appreciate a nice juicy conspiracy theory, I’m going to go with the latter.

From what it sounds like, a British aeronautical engineer was playing around with the new Google Earth 5.0, which includes undersea data, and noticed something funny off the coast of Africa, about 600 miles west of the Canary Islands, that resembled a pattern of a street grid. According to the U.K.’s Press Association, the pattern of streets equated to an area the size of Wales.

In case you’ve had more important things to read about for the past few thousand years, Atlantis was a legendary island city first mentioned by Plato, allegedly a hardcore naval power located somewhere near North Africa that disappeared when it sank into the ocean. Guess global warming was a problem back then, too. Anyway, most people think Plato made it up, kind of like how those guys in Georgia made up the story about shooting Bigfoot, but others just won’t stop believin’.

So this guy is trawling the ocean floor with Google Earth–ah, if only we had that kind of free time on our hands–and was quick to announce his discovery. It looks like The Telegraph reported the story first, adding that the exact coordinates are 31 15′15.53N, 24 15′30.53W.

Recently, Google’s mapping products have revealed everything from a creepy dude walking around with a sniper rifle to what appear to be U.S. drones in Pakistan.

But when it comes to Atlantis, Google totally had to rain on everyone’s parade. “It’s true that many amazing discoveries have been made in Google Earth including a pristine forest in Mozambique that is home to previously unknown species and the remains of an ancient Roman villa,” a statement from Google read. “In this case, however, what users are seeing is an artifact of the data collection process. Bathymetric (or sea floor terrain) data is often collected from boats using sonar to take measurements of the sea floor. The lines reflect the path of the boat as it gathers the data.”

I smell a cover-up!

In other news, that pendulum map on last week’s Lost was totally awesome.

OMG! Did Google Earth find Atlantis?

Google Earth upped the cartographic ante again today with Google Earth 5 for Windows and Mac. As CNET News reported back in April 2008, the latest version incorporates even more data from NASA, the BBC, National Geographic, and other proprietary sources to create one of the most unique map offerings ever, meshing comprehensive real-time data on Earth’s surface with information on the oceans, the stars that we see, historical maps, and topographical information on Mars.

Google Earth's new Ocean feature includes a downloadable layer to view global chlorophyll levels.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Conceptually, the oceanic maps are great. It is beyond cool to be able to see ocean-related points of interest like shipwrecks, and have cross-referenced content like undersea explorations. The interface remains flexible in the new version, too. Hot keys CTRL+ALT+B and CTRL+ALT+T toggle the sidebar and toolbar, respectively, making it simple to maximize screen real estate. Meanwhile, Google’s use of scientific content from multiple oceanographic concerns makes this one of the few places that the public can access such an incredible range of facts, figures, and true stories of the sea from one place.

Clicking the busted plug-in icon doesn't take you to the plug-in you need, nor does it tell you what the plug-in is.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

However, it shouldn’t surprise many that the execution of the new features leaves much to be desired.

Searching in Google Earth is still atrocious. Even when you have Oceans activated, typing in “Titanic” into the search field will get you nowhere. If you adjust the term to “Titanic shipwreck,” your results seem to depend on your most recently searched locations. After looking at San Francisco, searching for “Titanic shipwreck” showed me a list of shops and restaurants that had “Titanic” in the name. After closing and re-starting Google Earth, and searching for “Titanic shipwreck” again, the globe panned over to the correct part of the North Atlantic but did not zoom in.

For Google to fail so hard with its search algorithms is like Ford failing to stay on top of developing car tech.

Even once I found what I was looking for, Google Earth was not always free from failure. There is a feature with which you can click on a white and blue circle icon to learn more about the part of the ocean you’re exploring. Sometimes this results in a picture, a bit of text, and links to more content online. Other times I was rewarded with a blue puzzle-piece icon. Clicking on this missing plug-in icon resulted in nothing–no jump to download the plug-in, not even a message telling me what the plug-in is called.

The new historical maps feature lets you compare Las Vegas in 1990…

(Credit: CNET Networks)

These mistakes are more than frustrating; they’re the kind of basic problems that an outfit like Google should have nailed down by now. Despite these problems, though, the oceanic maps are pretty cool.

Sticking with Earth for a moment, Google Earth 5 also introduces historical maps. Accessible from the clock icon on the toolbar, they’re neat to peruse but aren’t useful for in-depth data mining. The time-lapse imagery of recent decades in specific urban areas, like documenting the growth of Las Vegas, is fun but somewhat counter-intuitive to the real-world relationship that Google Earth attempts to perpetuate.

Many of the older black and white maps awkwardly overlay the colorful ground beneath them, too. Having access to the images is better than not at all, but I’d like to see future versions of Google Earth improve on the historic map display and rendering.

…to the Las Vegas of 2009.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Thanks to information supplied by NASA and other fact-based sources such as A Traveler’s Guide to Mars–not to be confused with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy–the Mars map is surprisingly rich with information. From the well-known Olympus Mons to the recent discoveries that indicate the presence of water on the Red Planet, Google Earth’s Mars maps are an entertaining, educational delight.

Compiling all this information into one easily navigable place is no small feat, but there is definitely room for improvement. The Mars maps suffer from the same search flaws that plague their earthly siblings, and rendering is often sluggish.

This map of the Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the solar system, hints at the depth of information on Mars that's available.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

You should find that the OpenGL engine is faster than the DirectX version, but if not, you can switch from the second start-up icon loaded in your Start menu. Why you’re not able to change this setting from the Options menu is yet another simple fix that would improve the Google Earth experience. Some of the problems that plague Google Earth are long-standing. Let’s hope they get addressed before it reaches version 6.0.

Read more:
Hands on: Google Earth 5 delightful but imperfect