Slashgeo

Green Palolo writes "http://www.gcn.com/online/vol1_no1/44454-1.html The Open Geospatial Consortium has dubbed Google’s Keyhole Markup Language – the language used for developing Google Earth – a best practice and is working with Google and other OGC members including ESRI and Autodesk to make sure KML integrates well with such other standards as the Geographic Markup Language. Microsoft — which is continuing development of its Web-based mapping product, Microsoft Virtual Earth — is not currently an OGC member, though it is expected to join soon. Google offered KML 2.1 to the consortium last April and is working closely with OGC in further development of the language. An OGC official said the main advantages of making KML a standard are that it speeds development of Web-based mapping applications, encourages greater interoperability of products and ensures easier movement of data between applications. OGC expects KML 3.0 to be released as a standard early next year." See the several related stories below, this has been covered previously.

The Geothough blog informs us Microsoft has plan to support Google's kml format in Virtual Earth. From the blog: "[...] in the Microsoft "vendor spotlight" presentation which just finished, the speaker said that Virtual Earth will support the ability to display KML in a September / October release this year. [...] so I think this is a very welcome announcement (assuming it's correct), which can only cement KML's position as a de facto standard (I don't think Microsoft could have stopped KML's momentum, but if they had released a competing format it would have been an unfortunate distraction)." Don't forget Google's KML is slowly becoming an OGC standard.

Andrew Turner from High Earth Orbit scoops this announcement from Google's presentation at an OGC Technical Committee meeting: "The big ‘announcement’ was that Google will be releasing an open-source KML library in C++ that implements and tracks the standard as it progresses. By providing a reference library it allows developers to more easily keep up to date with KML without having to maintain their own library and track standards changes...The library is expected to be available the first quarter of 2008 - and available under an as yet to be determined open-source license."
Permalink to Andrew's post

Andrew has been blogging about the development of KML3 within the OGC at Mapufacture giving us an insider's view and insightful commentary on the standards process.

A few Microsoft-related stories. Let's start with 10 reasons why to love the new Microsoft Live Search Maps. There's an entry on Virtual Earth embedded in ArcGIS using Arc2Earth (with screenshot). And finally, even if we told you, the official bits about Microsoft rejoining the Open Geospatial Consortium as a Principal Member. From the 10 reasons introduction: "Now I present to you my list of the top 10 improvements aimed at delighting you; features that quietly improve your daily experience and at the same time make the more talked about features really shine. To go with another sports analogy, I present to you the starting offensive line of Live Search Maps :-)" See also related stories below.

Slashgeo was down last Friday night, thus the majority of our 1400+ registered users which receive the daily headlines or newsletter by email haven't got it. Here's the stories you missed: The OGC Membership and KML and a Little More, NASA World Wind 0.4.1 Released and Moon and Mars Layers and Géoportail Gets 3D Buildings. Meanwhile, I added the NAVTEQ topic to our topics selection, they're very useful as a way to find specific stories.

Google made the geoheadlines again today. First they announced a new layer featuring the beautiful work of Yann Arthus-Bertrand named "Earth From Above". Second, they announced 8 new cities with Street View: "Check out full spherical views of Boston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Detroit, and Providence.", but in the same announcement, they also announced the possibility to embed panoramas in any website: "You can take any Street View panorama visible in Google Maps and embed it in your website or blog with a few simple steps. The panorama works just like it does in Google Maps, allowing visitors to your site to pan, zoom, and move between panoramas as they travel down a street." This is a nice new feature. Ed Parsons discuss a new set of resources for educators: "Google in the UK this week announced a set of resources for use by teachers and many of them make use of Maps and Google Earth. These resources include lesson plans and links to additional resources which are really useful for Teachers, and potentially something you as a geospatial professional could offer to help out with at your children’s school." And APB links to a BBC article on the latter. Finally, the Free Geography Tools website links to a text editor with KML validation. A few related previous stories copied below.

The Google Earth Blog is reporting that KML has finally been approved as an OGC/ISO standard. From their summary : "The file format developed initially for Google Earth to exchange geographic information and mapping presentations is now an international standard. The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) will now take control over the KML standard."

For more information and the links to the relative announcements, please visit the Google Earth Blog.
Update: 04/15 19:34 GMT by S : Here's the official announcement.