Google Earth Comes to the Browser

Wow - this is huge! Google Earth is now available in your browser!!



That's right - this screen shot is not from Google Earth but is of a Google Map mash-up I adapted with one line of code.

Today Google announced the release of a new Google Earth Browser Plug-in. This means that Google Earth is now available on the web and is even embeddable within your own web site.

Even better the Google Earth API means that Google Earth features are now available to Google Maps developers.

In short you can:

• show 3D models anywhere on the planet
• access Google Earth's Sky mode
• fetch KML data from the web

And, to top off the good news, the new Google Earth plug-in is very easy to add to an existing Google Map mash-up. All developers need to do is add a single line of JavaScript. If you add the new G_SATELLITE_3D_MAP map type to your MapsAPI initialization code your site will "automagically" support Google Earth via a button in the maps view

Here is quick example I threw together showing 300 videos on the new Google Earth in the browser - Video Earth

Google have put up a number of Google Earth API Examples. My favourite amongst these is this amazing Driving Demo.

Here is the now obligatory Google video of the announcement:

Via: Google LatLong: Google Earth, meet the browser

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