Google Building Maker

[Lunican]

Introducing Google Building Maker
10/13/2009 08:00:00 AM
(Cross-posted on the Google Lat Long Blog)

Some of us here at Google spend almost all of our time thinking about one thing: How do we create a three-dimensional model of every built structure on Earth? How do we make sure it's accurate, that it stays current and that it's useful to everyone who might want to use it?

One of the best ways to get a big project done â€" and done well â€" is to open it up to the world. As such, today we're announcing the launch of Google Building Maker, a fun and simple (and crazy addictive, it turns out) tool for creating buildings for Google Earth.

We like to think of Building Maker as a cross between Google Maps and a gigantic bin of building blocks. Basically, you pick a building and construct a model of it using aerial photos and simple 3D shapes â€" both of which we provide. When you're done, we take a look at your model. If it looks right, and if a better model doesn't already exist, we add it to the 3D Buildings layer in Google Earth. You can make a whole building in a few minutes.

Our early beta testers insist that Building Maker is more like a game than a tool. Check out this video to see Building Maker in action:

http://www.youtube.com/v/JI6wVtCY99E&hl=en&fs=1&hd=1

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/10/introducing-google-building-maker.html

[BridgeTroll]

Very cool... Lets get the Jax skyline on the map!

[subro]

Google Earth already has the Jax skyline in 3D.

[Sportmotor]

I wanna play with it O_O

[Lunican]

It looks like Google has updated their maps and satellite images of Jacksonville.

[Jason]

Damn!  Another Google toy to consume all of my free time.

[Lunican]

3D buildings combined with Google Streetview data.

http://www.youtube.com/v/bLYFTSOwxK0&hl=en_US&fs=1&hd=1

[Timkin]

Sweet!