Google is adding new capabilities to Earth, allowing users to create their detailed narratives and presentations utilizing Google’s globe template.
When Google updated Earth in 2017, a section was added to the site called “Voyager,” offering guided tours of parts of the globe. BBC Earth and Sesame Street like hosted the Voyager tours. It was part of a general overhaul to make Earth more useful than it used to be to students and explorers.
Google is now extending it basically to enable anyone to do the same thing. Using street view images, 3D flyovers, text slides, location markers, etc., you bring together a plot, presentation type. Once done, the spectator follows the story of the author on a trip from place to place. It seems like there’s somewhere out there a graduate student who’s about to use this to bring together a kickass re-enactment of the Ten Thousand March of Xenophon.
It sounds like I’m having fun, but it’s not that far from the mark. When Google unveiled the new feature, it displayed a small gallery of user-made creations, including a tour of Renaissance architecture in Italy, an explanation of the importance of the Hudson River, and a re-enactment of the novel Walk Two Moons.
This is more like the initiative by Google to make its location-based services more accessible. It was revealed earlier this week that it allowed users in some cities to follow local guides–users who write in-depth reports and post pictures, offering tourists a more complete picture of their city. It turns Maps into a social network that is larger than it has been before.
This transforms Maps into a social network that is bigger than it has been ever. This switch on Earth does not go so far, but it provides consumers an ability to use Earth and connect with some locations their impressions.
Select “Projects” from the dropdown menu on the left of the web version if you want to try to create a Google Earth project yourself.
Leave a Reply