Google Earth Hacks and Google Earth Blog have gotten together to create a web site to allow people to share and view 3D locations using the Google Earth plugin. We're calling the site EarthSwoop for obvious reasons. Try the tour of NFL Stadiums, or MLB Stadiums and click on the team icons to "swoop" in to each 3D model of a stadium. There are already over a dozen collections to try out. Since the plugin is limited to Windows right now, you won't be able to see the 3D sites with Mac or Linux - but, Google has promised to have a new version in August supporting more browsers/OSes.
Sign up in the EarthSwoop forums and you can easily save and create your own collections with anyone. All you have to do is position the view with the plugin you want to share and click a button to save that location. Mickey did most of the work using tools he's been developing for his site. We wanted to see if you could create ways for people to not only view places, but also create their own tours. Let us know what you think either here or in the forums at the EarthSwoop site.
Here’s a question (with variations of it) we get from the first-timers of Zoho.
I have a document/spreadsheet/presentation that is to be emailed every time to a ‘prospect/client’ or to my ‘boss/peers/co-students/teacher for review’. In the former instance, “I don’t want the doc to stay in my prospect/client’s inbox (as documents soon become obsolete)”. And in the latter instance, “I and my boss/peers/co-students/teacher end up having multiple versions of the file, adding to my/their email clutter”. How can Zoho help me here?
Well, this is one of the fundamental problems solved by Zoho. Let’s say you have a .doc or .odt file. You have a few options in Zoho that would make things easier for you.
- Import your document into Zoho Writer
- Share it by giving the email addresses of your prospect/client, boss,peers, co-students or teacher. They will receive an email with a HTML link (URL) which they can click on to view the document. They can edit the document too, directly inside Zoho Writer if you have given them proper permission
- Make the document public (if it doesn’t contain anything confidential) and give the URL to anyone who would like to view it.
- Upload your document to Zoho Viewer. You get a URL which you email to everyone concerned & they can view it. Use the Zoho Viewer option judiciously - there’s an option where you can choose the URL to expire after a certain time period
Here’s a short screencast (our first attempt. bear with the video/audio quality please!) explaining the above options. For better clarity, view the video in Full Screen mode.
Popout
There are other advantages too.
- No compatibility issues that come with using different types and versions of desktop software
- You can keep updating your document and the latest version’s available for your prospect, client or whoever you want it to be viewed
- Live collaboration is possible - you and your collaborators can work on a document or spreadsheet in real-time
- And, you can chat too (using the embedded Zoho Chat)
Use Zoho. Say NO to email attachments.
EarthSwoop - Share and View 3D Places
Posts
