Comments for YouTube Videos Come to Google Earth

YouTube Videos Come to Google Earth

2007-10-11T14:47:13Z

Google announced this morning that geotagged YouTube videos will now be viewable in a featured content layer of Google Earth. The company quietly added the ability to easily associate a geographic location with your videos at upload over the summer. At least in my part of the world, there's quite a few videos that have been geotagged already. This new layer sounds like a lot of fun and could be quite an educational experience as well, depending on video selection (see below).

As far as I can tell video is not yet integrated with Google Maps, so that would be the next logical step. Video is one of the most compelling mediums in existence and its inclusion in local search could really bring some zing to a search field everyone expects to be huge. Google Earth is likely another service with the bulk of its impact still far ahead of it.

The company didn't discuss whether there was any kind of filtering of the videos, though up until now there has been little incentive for video spammers to geotag their content. Now that geotags will take on a new relevance for searchers it will be interesting to see if existing filtering tools or perhaps simple popularity will be sufficient criteria to vet this content for inclusion in Google Earth. YouTube cynics who think nothing on the site is worth watching should spend some time on the community filtered StumbleUpon Video.

The Google Maps team says the YouTube layer is similar to its Google Book Search layer added in August.

Comment from Paul A. Shope on 2007-10-11

2007-10-11T15:10:58Z

Thanks for filling us in on the changes with You Tube. Videos continue to explode in popularity. When I visit my local library in San Antonio, Texas I see people flocking to the video shelves not the bookshelves.
http://www.SuccessCurrent.com

Comment from Marshall Kirkpatrick on 2007-10-11

2007-10-11T15:16:55Z

That's a pretty spamming looking comment there, Paul.

Comment from Martin on 2007-10-11

2007-10-11T15:22:51Z

Marshall: Great post, as always.
I came here 'cos I noticed there's a typo in the link to stumpleupon and it leads to a typosquatting domain, please correct it.

Comment from Marshall Kirkpatrick on 2007-10-11

2007-10-11T15:26:44Z

Thanks Martin, fixed.

Comment from vaspers aka steven e. streight on 2007-10-11

2007-10-11T15:55:22Z

Video is a compelling format for presenting a human warmth and identity to a blog or website. It's great for product demos.

Unfortunately, videos are not parseable.

I hate it when information is available only in a video, and there is no textual summary or transcript. Often, I am not able to view video (like at work) or the information is buried in introductions and other silly crap.

Video is a slow, problematic way to deliver information, though it may be the best way to convey personality and product features/benefits.

Video should be auxillary, and not primary tool of marketing and education.

Just started Following you on Twitter.

http://twitter.com/vaspers

Comment from John Kemper on 2007-10-11

2007-10-11T17:26:53Z

Hi,

There is a website that does something similar on the browser, it integrates google-maps with youtube geotagged videos. http://mappeo.net
But in this case, i'm pretty sure they don't do any filtering.

Comment from shelbinator on 2007-10-11

2007-10-11T18:11:19Z

Adding a timespan filter to the videos would make this fantastically useful from a news perspective. Say some big event takes place and everyone busts out their cellphone and starts shooting video; you could get all angles of the event from eyes on the ground by selecting the day of interest once focused on the location.

Comment from Kosso on 2007-10-11

2007-10-11T23:30:32Z

If certain mobile phone companies got their act together and made a few things happen when suggested to, we'd have gotten here a long time ago by ourselves ;)

our phones. our location. our content.

their network. their devices.

Comment from Sylvie on 2007-10-12

2007-10-12T10:23:29Z

a similar tool already exists since several month, on top of google maps
except that the videos are selected according to minimum quality/relevance

http://www.VeniVidiWiki.eu
(meaning: I came, I saw, .. I share !)

points of interest are classified in 50 categories (capitals, events, natural/cultural places, outdoors activities ...)
it can show videos from youtube, dailymotion, google video, turnhere ...

Comment from Sylvie74 on 2007-10-16

2007-10-16T15:01:42Z

another alternative:
with Google Earth 4.2, it is also possible to open .kmz files containing videos about specific topics.
As an example, here are some videos about world capitals: http://www.VeniVidiWiki.eu/kmz/Capitals-V1.0.kmz
feedback is welcome !