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Google Geonews: More on GE 4.3, New Beating Traffic Tool and More

posted by Satri on Tuesday April 22, @02:28PM        Permalink  Trackback URI  Slashdotthis  Diggthis  Del.icio.us
from the everybody-has-their-share-of-geonews-now dept.

Here's the recent Google geonews that caught my attention. Google's Micheal Jones replied to the kml being the html of geographic content discussion, related to KML now an official OGC standard. Following the significant release of Google Earth 4.3, the official Lat Long blog explains the new 3D buidlings, StreetView manipulation, the sun lighting effects and more on dynamic data in Google Earth. There's also new layers for Google Sky (the GEB entry). TMR has a nice entry on Google and disputed place names. And finally, Google informs us of the new Transit cities added (again!) and their new feature to beat traffic with Google Maps (some say it's a direct competitor to Microsoft's recently announced ClearFlow). From the LL entry: "Now you can see what the traffic is typically like at any given day and time, making planning a drive easier than ever by helping you avoid likely congestion. [...] We also now display accidents, construction, and road closures in most areas where we have traffic coverage."

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Google News: Sky and Transit Updated, WarViews, Swiss Alps Comparison and More [+]

Here's the most interesting Google related geonews I found for January so far. Google significantly updated Google Sky (a little more on the GEB), with many new layers and associated data. Still from the Official Google blog, some news an discussion about Google Transit. Not to miss is the impressive comparison of a real flight and a Google Earth flight in the Swiss Alps. Amongst the other GE news, there's the WarViews animated conflict geodata (via OE) and surface-to-air missile sites and range dataset for GE. The 3D Route Builder which uses GE which reached version 1.0. Here's a 3D-mouse working with GE. And finally, a few navigation shortcuts for Google Earth 4. See also the numerous related stories below.

Application Domains: Microsoft Launches ClearFlow Traffic Tool for Live Maps [+]

Several geoblogs mentioned the launch of Microsoft ClearFlow, a traffic avoidance tool for their Live Maps. Slashdot also discusses the news, here's their summary: "Microsoft announced plans to introduce a Web-based service for driving directions that incorporates complex software models to help users avoid traffic jams. The system is intended to reflect the complex traffic interactions that occur as traffic backs up on freeways and spills over onto city streets and will be freely available as part of the company's Live.com site for 72 cities in the US. Microsoft researchers designed algorithms that modeled traffic behavior by collecting trip data from Microsoft employees who volunteered to carry GPS units in their cars. In the end they were able to build a model for predicting traffic based on four years of data, effectively creating individual 'personalities' for over 800,000 road segments in the Seattle region. In all the system tracks about 60 million road segments in the US." The DEB blog also have interesting comments on the future of this new offer: "Here’s what needs happen next: - Microsoft releases a version of Live Maps Mobile, with similar features to Google Maps Mobile. - One of them steps up and includes turn-by-turn GPS into their mobile software. GMM is so close to being the killer mobile app. I can get turn-by-turn directions. It can see/follow my GPS. It just won’t tell me how far until my next turn!" I added previous traffic-related stories below.

KML Approved As OGC Standard [+]

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.

On the Release of Google Earth 4.3 and More 3 comments [+]

Mentioned earlier this week, here's the official announcement and a description of a new feature, 3D building swooping. The release provoked a lot of reactions and writings in the geoblogs. Here's the GEB entries on his first impressions [with screenshots], a video demonstration, well worth the 6 minutes (really), a short explanation of the new navigation widgets and some final thoughts on GE 4.3. Ogle Earth also shares his comments and discuss the differences between atlases and mirror worlds. Interesting to note that not everyone is pleased with some of the changes, with GE being dubbed the AOL of the Geoweb. APB also links to a IW article on the practical uses of Google StreetView.

In other related Google geonews, there's new Google Transit cities and YouTube videos in Google Maps.

• Flying across the river

  (Score:2, Funny)

  by SEWilco (1540) on Wednesday April 23, @01:59PM (#2323)

  Wow, today they're really flying across the Mississippi. The traffic across the collapsed I-35W bridge in Minneapolis was flowing at 55 MPH several days ago, but now they're up to 78 MPH. I would have thought they'd have to be moving faster than that to jump the gap. The drivers south of the bridge are doing pretty well, too, moving at over 50 MPH around all the construction materials stacked on the highway.

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