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Leave it to Google Earth to create a 3-D tour of pretty much anything that is current or happening in sports or popular culture. So, with the World Cup around the corner, guess what they are up to? If you said, developing a 3-D tour of all 10 World Cup stadiums and the nine host cities on Google Earth or Earth View in Google Maps, you are correct. Google is also providing Street View images of seven of the 10 stadiums. So, for all of you rabid soccer fans out there who can’t make it to South Africa for the World Cup, you can at least see all the stadiums in 3-D. And, be sure to check out the video from Google we have embedded into this post. Oh, and go USA!

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The National Sept. 11 Memorial & Museum and Google Earth have partnered to allow online visitors to the World Trade Center site will be able to explore the actual site via 3-D. Museum officials announced today that the 3-D model will help the public visualize the memorial and its lower Manhattan setting. With the new tool, visitors will be able to zoom in and look at each tree and cobblestone or zoom out and look at the entire project. “The ability to visualize the memorial in its geographic context even before it is constructed is key to understanding its place in New York City’s landscape,” Bruce Polderman, product manager for Google, said in a news release. Check out the Google Earth tool here. And, read more from the NY Times here.

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Did you know that May is Bike to Work month? Neither did we. But the smart folks over at Google decided to celebrate this momentum occasion by announce their Google Maps for Android biking directions capability. Previously launched on the desktop, the new Android application is way cooler (and useful) because you can physically mount the device to your bike. Now Android users will see a bicycling layer on the map that shows bike-only trails in dark green, roads with bike lanes in light green, or roads that are good for biking but lack a dedicated lane in a dashed green representation. On top of that, users who want to meet up with friends can also now click the “Share this place” icon to send an address and phone number of a meeting place. Very cool. Now if only the Beltway had a biking lane….

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Here’s a word to the wise when it comes to ditching an old boat, or car for that matter. Think twice. Google Earth is now being used by law enforcement for collecting evidence when it comes to dumping old “assets.” Last month, it was reported that a Florida deputy sheriff used a satellite image from Google Earth to track down the owner of a 1-ton boat who had illegally dumped it in a vacant lot. The suspect was arrested on a felony charge of littering more than 500 pounds of waste and faces a maximum penalty of $5,000 and five years in prison. So, if you are thinking about offloading that old broken down barnacle barge, rather than ditching it in a vacant lot, perhaps just give it to your brother-in-law?

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Once again, Google Earth is breaking boundaries, and it ties in well with our recent FFT post about the history of GEOINT. Google Earth has now made available historical aerial images taken during the Second World War depicting the extent of the devastation in several European Cities caused by bombing raids during World War II. The Google Earth mapping software has been uploaded with the wartime images from 35 European cities and towns such as Berlin, Bordeaux, Hamburg, Cologne and Dresden, showing the effect of the extensive bombing campaigns on the old continent. These images clearly display the destruction of allied bombing raids, then offers current satellite photos for comparison. Check out the Google blog here for more information, and also be sure to check out the actual images here.

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It has been a busy summer for the Google Earth Enterprise (GEE) team — thanks for giving us the chance to tell you a bit about what we’ve been working on. There have been some interesting product updates to speak of and some cool customer uses for GEE this summer — especially in the government sector.

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We applaud any opportunity to promote the use of mapping technology in the nonprofit sector. As such, we wanted to highlight an innovative grant program from Google that is aimed that fostering the use of mapping technologies on the non-profit level.

The Google Geo Challenge grant program presents an opportunity for non-profits to receive grants from $5,000 and $100,000, either directly from Google.org, or through grant recommendations from the Google.org Fund of Tides Foundation. The application process is open right now and closes on December 22. Click here to apply.

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