Google Geo Developer Day

Notes from the Google Geo Developer Day - June 21, 2006

Larry, Sergey, and Eric made some introductory comments and thanked us for using their products. John Hanke, GM for Google Earth, presented product updates, while Mike Pegg, from Google Maps Mania, and Frank Taylor, from the Google Earth blog, presented some interesting uses of Google Maps and Earth.

Google Maps Mania Summary
Google Earth Blog Summary

It was wonderful meeting the people from the Google Earth community as well as folks from Flagr and CommunityWalk. We missed meeting Tagzania. Maybe next time Luixsto and company?

It's no joke that Google is wagering some heavy bets on KML 2.1, and with their simultaneous introduction of Google Earth 4 for Mac, PC and Linux, it could be a good bet. They waffled a bit at the mention of
GeoRSS, which we are fully supporting in our output at Platial.com and aggregating at Placedb.org (note: Placedb.org is an independent project supported by Platial).

Google also announced geocoding support for the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Japan. Platial is working quickly to add this to our arsenal of geocoders. You can expect support next week.

You will also notice updated imagery in satellite view on Platial since Google is providing the same layers in Google Maps as Google Earth. "This makes sub-meter high-resolution imagery available for more than one third of the world's population." Google said this is the biggest image database update since Keyhole was launched.

Great people, great food (enjoy those micro-kitchens!), and fun technology.

Thanks for hosting us Google!

--jake

(this photo was taken before the airplane flew over and took pictures for Google Earth)

Comments

[Dave]

Pleasure meeting you guys as well! Perhaps next time we'll win that scavenger hunt.

[Luistxo]

Maybe, come to the Basque Country, next time. Sorry, our little town still in low G Maps resolution, even with today's big imagery update.