So I'm lurking in a forum somewhere yesterday trying my best not to do any actual work, when a poster mentions "Google SketchUp". Now, I thought I was quite the Google junkie, as evidenced by the fact that I use Gmail, Google Calendar, Google News, have a custom Google homepage/RSS reader, have experimented with Google Pages and Google Spreadsheets, rely on Google Maps for directions, and spend far too much time playing with Google Earth than one person should (although, to be fair, Google Earth is basically the definition of my field of interest: computers and geospatial technology brought together).
So how is it that there was a Google tool that I hadn't heard of before? Especially because it's not a new tool, it's been around for a little bit. I check the homepage for Google SketchUp, download it, and am immediately blown away. Within 10 minutes, without having read any documentation, I had created a three dimensional model of a house from scratch. Now, granted, I have no immediate use for this tool, but it would be wicked for anyone who does design work. I have no idea how precise it is or anything, but simply as a conceptual modelling tool, it's very powerful. Check it out.
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My boss' son told him about GoogleEarth and he told me. The pictures aren't very up to date because when we were looking up his house, you could see the yellow Aztec he used to own...3 yrs ago!! However, kind of scary, thinking about big brother watching you.
I've been using sketchup to design a future arbor for our deck. It is very intuitive to work with and you can apply textures. You can also import your creations to google earth. It's sweet.
Elaine - they've updated the imagery within the last 3-4 months if memory serves me. They don't use the most recent stuff as it's just too much to have to update...that's a lot of data. If I remember from my remote sensing class, I think they get a new world-wide set of imagery every 18-19 days...that could have been for a different satellite though
Scott - if there's one thing google does best, it's making things intuitive. And some of the models that people have made for it are really cool. I was playing with it when my supervisor came in the lab, and he was quite impressed as well. Now I just need a reason to use it :)
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