Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Major mapping upgrades from Google
Google's been releasing a whole load of new mapping features all at once:
- Version 4 (beta) of Google Earth, which is now available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. This has an improved UI that give lots more space to the photo data, and allows textured 3D models
- A new version of the KML file format, that supports the new 3D model changes, improves network links, adds regions for different details at different zoom levels, adds radio buttons
- A new version of SketchUp, now available for Windows and Mac, that produces textured 3D models
- Geocoding in the Google Maps API - available for US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Japan, with data returned as xml, kml, or JSON
- Support for KML in Google Maps
- why no UK geocoding suport? - Google claim that "More countries will be added as Google Maps launches in new countries", but the UK was the first country after the USA to get comprehensive Google Maps coverage
- Supporting KML for Google Maps as well as Google Earth is great, but it looks as if the Maps version is severely limited - for example loading my Countries of the World KML file gives corrupted balloons, just 67 data points, and a message that "Parts ... could not be displayed because it is too large"
# posted by zmarties @ 6/13/2006 11:13:00 pm 
Comments:
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Regarding your Countries of the World example, your balloons get corrupted because your <description>s aren't valid KML. According to the specification, they need to be wrapped in <
: 14/6/06 1:21 am
: 14/6/06 1:21 am << Home
