GOOGLE ADDS OCEANS IN GOOGLE EARTH 5.0

04 February 2009, 4:27pm

While is it unlikely that adding ocean depths to Google Earth 5.0 will make Google Earth any money, is adds to the overall utility of the software, keeping Google ahead of the competition. For ocean data, there are prestigious users generating high-quality content which all reflects back on Google.

The number of ocean researchers gathered at the Google Earth 5.0 launch on 2 February showed that there is plenty of demand for a way to conveniently display their data somewhere. Not just to share sea surface temperature data with fellow researchers, but to try to educate the public and provide easy-to-use visualisation for non-technical decision makes.

Ken Peterson, of Monterey Bay Aquarium, was excited about his Google Earth layer showing the location of various types of fish, and information about consuming specific varieties or substituting others. Barbara Block (Stanford University) and Patrick Halpin (Duke University) presented tracks of shark movements, recorded by radio transmission to satellites. Ross Swick (University of Colorado-Boulder) showed a Google Earth animation of the shrinking Arctic ice cap over the last 29 years. Philip Renaud (Living Oceans Foundation) offered an underwater video of the Red Sea, highlighting the perilous state of coral reefs there.

Google Earth 5.0

Geo: International