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Google Earth Redesigned

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Re: Google Earth Redesigned

#221

Post by spankalee »

elldoubleyew wrote: post #208
callahad wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like the first hurdle is that it's relying on the deprecated document.registerElement API from an early draft of the Web Components specs, which prevents the app from booting in Firefox. Edit: Paul Kinlan reports that Earth is using PNaCl ( https://twitter.com/Paul_Kinlan/status/854351477506277378 ), which means it fundamentally can't run outside of Blink.

Just curious on why they would use PNaCl over WASM here? Wasn't WASM on track to becoming standard for native-speeds in the browser?

Timelines. WASM just shipped. I'm sure Earth has been working on this for years.

Re: Google Earth Redesigned

#223

Post by TheHippo »

ClassyJacket wrote: post #60
therealmarv wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems this is the Google way. They kill one product (especially a desktop product) and it takes years till the new one is on every feature on the same level as the old one... look at Picasa vs. Google Photos. Even today Picasa can do many more things that Google Photos cannot do today. I'm sure the native/old Google Earth has a ton of stuff which is not ported to the web version. Good they cannot convert Chrome it…

I find it interesting that they recently introduced location sharing to Google Maps as a new feature... which it had back in 2009, until they got rid of it.

It was part of Google+ until very recently. So my guess is, that they just moved it.

Re: Google Earth Redesigned

#224

Post by manigandham »

futurix wrote: post #176

"Google Chrome required" - sure, because current crop of web developers are too young to remember dark age of Internet Explorer domination.

Chrome is a voluntary install, open source and keeps pushing web tech forward. 1 site using advanced features that aren't supported elsewhere is not a big deal and not comparable to IE's history.

Re: Google Earth Redesigned

#225

Post by lern_too_spel »

elldoubleyew wrote: post #208
callahad wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like the first hurdle is that it's relying on the deprecated document.registerElement API from an early draft of the Web Components specs, which prevents the app from booting in Firefox. Edit: Paul Kinlan reports that Earth is using PNaCl ( https://twitter.com/Paul_Kinlan/status/854351477506277378 ), which means it fundamentally can't run outside of Blink.

Just curious on why they would use PNaCl over WASM here? Wasn't WASM on track to becoming standard for native-speeds in the browser?

Probably because PNaCl is available now and was available two years ago when they say they started.

Re: Google Earth Redesigned

#227

Post by flavor8 »

noir_lord wrote: post #141

They where knocking a large building down near the office recently, this has that building in a partial state of demolition and has modeled the girders that where exposed. I admit to looking at it slightly slack-jawed, that wasn't so much future shock as the future punching me square in the face. https://earth.google.com/web/@53.74539679,-0.32722384,18.713...

It's interesting that the cars on the motorway to the south of the building are pancaked (not 3D) whereas the cars in the parking lot next door are 3D. It makes sense, since I guess they need objects to be in multiple frames from a flyover to project them into 3D. It must be a bitch to deal with moving objects and figure out which position to put them in, since the rest of the imagery is generated from multiple frames.

Re: Google Earth Redesigned

#228

Post by cptskippy »

dublinben wrote: post #175
cptskippy wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They had tons of handy features in Google Maps before it was redesigned using Material Design. We used the route elevation data often to plan hiking trips with our parents to determine if they would be able to make a trek. The map scale was absent from the first couple releases and when they reintroduced it, it would only appear on zoom and then vanish. It took 3 or 4 more releases for them to finally add an option b…

If you'd like to plan trips that have elevation data, I highly recommend komoot.com. It uses OpenStreetMap, and is a great tool for planning hiking or cycling trips.

I'll check it out, thanks. We were using Maps in a more adhoc manner when touring Scotland. It was great, now not so much.

Re: Google Earth Redesigned

#229

Post by jonknee »

rocky1138 wrote: post #214
problems wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not - they just stopped developing the desktop one because now they're all about web-only. It sucks too because we use the desktop one all the time at work - though we're slowly replacing it with custom Cesium-based stuff.

Do you think they will ever go back to building what people want?

Who's to say they aren't? I bet the web version has an order of magnitude more users than the desktop version.

Re: Google Earth Redesigned

#230

Post by joshuamorton »

phkahler wrote: post #212
VMG wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What happened to the old rule of thumb People realized it's a stupid and impractical rule and ignored it.

>> People realized it's a stupid and impractical rule and ignored it. If by "people" you mean developers, and by "stupid and impractical" you mean inconvenient.

Given that your rule of thumb is one that only developers would know or care about, yes...exactly.

Developers realized that their rule was stupid and impractical (not just inconvenient, but actively impractical: async interaction is faster and requires js), and so ignored it.

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