Google announced yesterday Thursday 11th October, through their Lat Long Blog, that they have added a layer to their Google Earth application for YouTube video clips.
This means that anyone who uploads a video to YouTube can now have their clip found through Google Earth if they remember to geotag it. The individual that finds the video while browsing Google Earth, having clicked on the YouTube button in the Featured Content section, then has the option of playing it in Google Earth or YouTube itself.
Having researched/played with this new layer prior to putting finger to keyboard, we can confirm that it's a very compelling tool. The commercial sector that could most obviously benefit from this resource is the travel industry. Indeed many of the comments already posted online about this development are by tourism related companies that have previously utilised Google Earth's capabilities (since the 4.2 release) to provide a similar service, just on a much smaller scale.
It's an ideal way to explore the globe as a pre holiday warm-up or as a means of researching where you might like to travel to this year. When using it to explore Sydney Harbour we came across a video of the Manly Ferry, one of the most scenic ferry trips on earth, battling waves that would sink a cork. Not sure what this will do for Manly tourism but it certainly makes for interesting viewing!
As Amin Charaniya, Google Earth Software Engineer, states in the Lat Long Blog: "We should warn you that if you do turn on this layer, you might not get any work done today!" Too true!
