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I wonder what was the reason behind this. Another thing I realised that I never had this API in any of my projects requirements, is there any important apps th

I wonder what was the reason behind this. Another thing I realised that I never had this API in any of my projects requirements, is there any important apps that use it other than information visualisation?

julianpye 12y ago
I think it is clear that Google Maps is taking over the role of Google Earth. There has also been a recent Maps API refresh with Play Services 6.5, that greatly simplifies Google Maps on mobile.
acemarke 12y ago
Per the article, the primary reason is that Firefox and Chrome are both trying to eliminate the use of browser plugins. Plugins are potential security problems, and can also affect browser behavior (from reading Mozilla blogs, a very large percentage of UI hangs are caused by plugins).
untog 12y ago
Probably WebGL. Google Earth was only ever a separate plugin because the browser itself could never render 3D views like that with any speed. Now that we have WebGL, in theory this stuff is possible without a plugin - something that is to be applauded, IMO.
Stratoscope 12y ago
I did most of the Earth API work for an educational application called StrataLogica: http://www.stratalogica.com/ http://www.stratalogica.com/ This marketing video of theirs has some examples of the stuff we did with the Earth API: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl2HWhPEpIU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl2HWhPEpIU One very frustrating thing was that several of the interactive tools I built duplicated features that were available in the Earth desktop client but won't exposed through the API: line drawing, image placement, etc. But it was clear even back then in 2009-2010 that the Earth API wasn't getting much attention within Google - rare updates with few new features added - it felt very much like somebody's 20% project. So we didn't wait for Google to add those features but built them from scratch.

julianpye 12y ago

I think it is clear that Google Maps is taking over the role of Google Earth. There has also been a recent Maps API refresh with Play Services 6.5, that greatly simplifies Google Maps on mobile.

acemarke 12y ago

Per the article, the primary reason is that Firefox and Chrome are both trying to eliminate the use of browser plugins. Plugins are potential security problems, and can also affect browser behavior (from reading Mozilla blogs, a very large percentage of UI hangs are caused by plugins).

untog 12y ago

Probably WebGL. Google Earth was only ever a separate plugin because the browser itself could never render 3D views like that with any speed. Now that we have WebGL, in theory this stuff is possible without a plugin - something that is to be applauded, IMO.

Stratoscope 12y ago

I did most of the Earth API work for an educational application called StrataLogica: http://www.stratalogica.com/ http://www.stratalogica.com/ This marketing video of theirs has some examples of the stuff we did with the Earth API: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl2HWhPEpIU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl2HWhPEpIU One very frustrating thing was that several of the interactive tools I built duplicated features that were available in the Earth desktop client but won't exposed through the API: line drawing, image placement, etc. But it was clear even back then in 2009-2010 that the Earth API wasn't getting much attention within Google - rare updates with few new features added - it felt very much like somebody's 20% project. So we didn't wait for Google to add those features but built them from scratch.