Google Earth Minigames
The idea of using Google Earth as a platform for games is one that I’ve been fascinated with for a long time. Think Google Earth-equivalents to those browser-based, Flash-powered time-killers you might play during your lunchbreak! Think massive multiplayer! Think merging digital globes with online virtual worlds! (See some previous posts about it here, here, here or here).
Well, it seems that with the just-released Google Earth browser plugin and its (much more important!) full JavaScript API (another thing I wrote about some time ago) the time has finally come.
The Google people themselves have given a nice peek into what we might come to expect from developers all over the world in the next weeks and months with their awesome little Monster Milk Truck demo presented at the Google I/O conference yesterday.
More info on the Google Earth browser plugin is at Ogle Earth here or the Google Earth blog here and here. I say: bring on those Google Earth Minigames. I wanna play Tetris on the Red Square again 
UPDATE: Regarding a technological marriage of Google Earth and Second Life, Keyhole co-founder Avi Bar-Zeev already has a compelling and concrete look into a possible approach. Involves embedding a browser control into a Windows native or .NET application, talking to the Google Earth plugin via COM instead of JavaScript, and using the now open-source Second Life client to pull the strings in the application part. Neat.
Filed under: Google Earth | 1 Comment
Tags: Google Earth API, JavaScript
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I have just been playing Monster Milk Truck that uses the Google Earth Plugin its a great example, I even made a few videos.. It’s a shame that they didn’t use a more famous setting. I see the API been used in loads of web services as soon as it becomes multi platform. Could this even mean Google coming closer to its own version of second life?