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The Lingo and Basics of Google Earth

The Google Earth Lingo

  • Keyhole Markup Language (KML) – format for files used to display geographical information in virtual globes such as Google Earth
  • Layer – spatial data involving a particular type of information which is overlain onto the virtual globe
  • Web 3.0 – the next generation of the World Wide Web, which involves the semantic tagging of information
  • Web Mash-ups – programs that present information from unrelated sources creating a new type of application
  • Geo-tagging – adding geographic information to different types of information such as photographs, videos, podcasts, or web pages

Using Coordinates

Google Earth users can use geographic coordinates involving latitude and longitude to locate the position of the identified point on the virtual globe. Google Earth allows for the coordinates to be input in three way:

  1. Degrees, minutes, seconds (DMS)
  2. Decimal degrees (DDD)
  3. Degrees, minutes, with decimal seconds (DMM)

To learn more regarding the use of coordinates go to: http://earth.google.com/support/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=guide.cs&guide=22373&topic=23749&answer=148106

Marking locations

Users of Google Earth may use placemarks to mark any specific location, which appears as a pin. This marked position then appears in the My Places folder in the Places panel. This allows the user to quickly “fly” to the marked position by simply double clicking on the placemark in the My Places folder.

To learn more regarding placemarks go to: http://earth.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=guide.cs&guide=22364&topic=22367&answer=148142

~ by Cameron Kim on December 3, 2010. Tagged:

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