Google Earth: controlling from external application?

May 21, 2008 11:53 AM

Is it possible to track things such as user movement and button clicking in Google Earth?

I am wondering if anyone has come across mashups that do this. I know that if you have html or flash clips that you imbed into popups, that that could easily be tracked, but what about how the users are flying around? - users not directly using your part of the application par se, but Google's?

I am thinking that if this was to be possible, the whole Google earth could have to be controlled from an external application. Is this possible right now? Would this be something that adobe AIR would be capable of? Some other technology?

If this is not possible in GE due to API restrictions is it possible in Google Maps?

posted by figTree to computers & internet (1 answer total)

Two things come to mind: the first is you make a KML file with a NetworkLink that will poll your server every few seconds. You can specify that in GE's URL query string it sends information about your current view. Check out the <viewFormat> on the <Link> element. So then your server script extracts the the lat/lon and zoom-range from these URLs. This is easy and doesn't require the user to do anything but click on a link initially.

The other is that Google Earth does have a COM API (if you're into that sort of thing. Personally, yuck). So, you write a Win32 application that the user downloads & installs & runs alongside GE. It has more powerful ways of manipulating Earth, but I don't know of any compelling apps using this yet.
posted by Xelf at 3:49 PM on May 21, 2008