Google Earth Plug-in: Powerful drag-and-drop capabilities with HTML5

HTML5 and the Google Earth Plug-in both have some powerful tools for web developers, and Googler Sean Maday has put together a great demonstration showing how they can work together.

Watch the short video below to see how he built an application that allows you to drag a KML file onto on web page and have it automatically parse the KML and display the data on a map. Even better, he shows an example where he drops a CSV file on the map, which is then geocoded line-by-line with the output being displayed on the map. It’s a very simple yet very impressive demonstration.

Better still, Sean has made all of the code available for you to download and play with. Grab it at sigacts.com/html5/ and see what you can do.

Google Earth: High-resolution imagery of the Mississippi River flooding

GeoEye has just released some brand new high-res imagery of the flooding that is happening near Cairo, Illinois, due to the rising Mississippi and Ohio rivers.

 

flooding.jpg 

You can view it yourself using this KML file, or read more on the GeoEye blog.

Based on text in the KML file, the image was captured two days ago, on May 8. That’s quick work to get it published so quickly! Fortunately for residents of the area, the river appears to have crested and should begin receding in the next 24 hours or so. Let’s hope it does.