YouTube Videos Come to Google Earth
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.
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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.
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Posted by: Paul A. Shope | October 11, 2007 8:10 AM
That's a pretty spamming looking comment there, Paul.
Posted by: Marshall Kirkpatrick | October 11, 2007 8:16 AM
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.
Posted by: Martin | October 11, 2007 8:22 AM
Thanks Martin, fixed.
Posted by: Marshall Kirkpatrick | October 11, 2007 8:26 AM
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.
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Posted by: vaspers aka steven e. streight | October 11, 2007 8:55 AM
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.
Posted by: John Kemper | October 11, 2007 10:26 AM
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.
Posted by: shelbinator | October 11, 2007 11:11 AM
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.
Posted by: Kosso | October 11, 2007 4:30 PM
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 ...
Posted by: Sylvie | October 12, 2007 3:23 AM
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 !
Posted by: Sylvie74 | October 16, 2007 8:01 AM