When Google came onto the scene no one expected that this little upstart would someday take over the world. To say they’ve conquered the location data market is an understatement. Google Earth and Google Maps are the undisputed rulers of geographical data display.
So who’s not using Google Earth these days? If you’re in the minority then you may now bow your head in shame, immediately download GE and get with it. In short, and I’ve said this in other blogs, that this is the single most useful and time consuming free software you’ll ever install on your computer, Mac or PC.
GE is so mind boggling fascinating that describing it in a blog to any satisfying degree is an insult. Just get it, look up where you live, your work, fly around your city or neighborhood and get used to the controls. Go visit Area 51 or any other location in the world and do a fly through. You can get real funky with this program.
Google Maps, the baby brother of GE is simply the best direction finder on the market. By simply typing in any address it will show you were it is located in either map or topographic or even a hybrid view of both. You can get detailed driving directions from where you are to where you want to go, find the nearest pub, restaurant or any other service closest to the point you’ve chosen, or you can take any point in GM and view it in GE and vice versa.
My prediction, one day these two applications will join forces into one. In the meantime, they are only able to share map points, lines and areas. When in GM there is a “View in Google Maps” button over top of the map. Click this and GE will open and show you these. When in GE you can choose to view the information you’re seeing in GM. Doing so will open the browser window right inside GE.
Here’s a starting point for you. Open this Google Map file by clicking here. Okay, this link may be a bit of self promotion but hey, you’re getting free advice. Once you have this page loaded, click on the “View on Google Earth” button over top of the map. I’m guessing you have GE installed by now so if you do then these will be listed in the “Temporary Places” section on the left side of the screen. Click on them and you will zoom down into that area. Here is a link to all of my Google Maps.
To create your own GM you’ll need to get a Google account, log in and then visit GM “My Maps” tab. Create your own map here but keep in mind that you can’t change the order of the map items once they’re created. If it’s alphabetical you want displayed then that’s the way you’ll need to create them. Add your own photos, html code or even import GE .kml or .kmz files to it.
This last part was isn’t as easy as it should be, in fact, it’s partially broken. Alas, GM has a glitch. There is a import button available when you are editing your maps. It asks if you want to import from a file on your local machine or one already somewhere on the internet. Pointing it to a local .kml or .kmz file gives the error “We could not finish uploading your file…”. This has the GM forums all abuzz. You’ll need to have these files existing on the internet and point the import tool to be successful.
Be forewarned, importing lines or areas to GM slows it down to a crawl, and I’m using a fast computer with a good internet connection. You may get script errors when you try to view these in GM. You’re better off sticking to single points in GM and using GE for the displaying points, lines and areas.
I’m all about Digital Tourism these days. Check out our other blogs or visit our website for more information and free downloads.
