Google Reseller Program sets new standards of excellence for partners

Posted by Jim Chow, Global Partner Programs, Google Enterprise

Resellers are one of the key drivers of customer adoption of Google Apps, Earth, Maps, and Enterprise Search. Over the last few years, the Google Reseller Program has grown to include over 3,000 resellers across 70 countries. We are excited to see our partners share our commitment to customer success. We will continue investing in our Reseller Program to ensure that all of our partners have the support and technical expertise they need to enable successful customer deployments.

Beginning today, we will start to recognize high-performing partners as Premier Resellers. Authorized Resellers remain a core focus for our Reseller program, and we will continue to invest in resources, tools and training to help Authorized Resellers succeed. For Authorized Resellers to become Premier Resellers, we have an objective set of eligibility criteria based on revenue, technical expertise and customer success. We are committed to working with each of our resellers to help them meet these specific qualifications.

We're also introducing additional categorizations to help customers identify resellers who focus on specific Google products and specific size companies.

As our reseller partners continue to help customers succeed, we hope these new standards will help them strengthen their business by providing clear benchmarks for them to strive for and meet. Current and prospective Google Resellers can learn more about the different categories and about becoming a Premier Reseller, including eligibility criteria and benefits, by visiting our Google Reseller Program website.

Announcing Google Earth Enterprise 4.1

Back in August we announced Google Earth Enterprise 4.0. This version introduced the new Google Earth Portable Solution, and a Google Earth Android Client, for enterprise use. Since then, we’ve been speaking with numerous customers about the release, learning all about the compelling ways they’re using our portable and mobile technologies and listening to their helpful feedback. We’ve made additional developments based on that feedback, and today we’re pleased to announce an update to Google Earth Enterprise (GEE). The new version 4.1 brings with it:

2D Map Cutting and 2D Map Portable Serving: Google Earth now supports cutting and serving 2D (Mercator) maps.

Google Maps API V3 on Google Earth Enterprise Solution: Developers can now use the Maps API V3 to build and serve mapping applications.

Customized search services for Google Earth: Search tabs on the portable server can be extended via Python search scripts that you bundle with the server for distribution.


Thanks again to all our customers and partners who provided us with great feedback over the past few months and we look forward to more of your feedback.

Posted by Dylan Lorimer, Enterprise Earth/Maps Product Manager

Google Earth Enterprise customer honored for government IT achievement

Editor’s note: From time to time, the Google Earth and Maps Enterprise Team likes to show off our users who have created useful and timely applications with our products. Marty Kitrell, from the Information Technology Laboratory of the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center, explains how many agencies organized to build the Google Earth Enterprise powered project called NIPRNet Globe Service (NGS), which is one of the 10 award winners for 2010 Outstanding Information Technology Achievement in Government by the Government Computer News.

Google Earth has revolutionized how people see the world. Through simple clicks of a button, a user can zoom to any part of the world and quickly access information about any place on earth. It’s technology that millions use to plan vacations and business trips, map routes from one place to another and learn about where they are going and what they will encounter along the way. It provides an effortless window to all parts of the globe.

How can those same capabilities be given to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers?

It hasn’t been possible — until now. The Information Technology Laboratory at the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center in Vicksburg, MS, and Program Director Transportation Information Systems (PD TIS) and Program Manager Joint-Automatic Identification Technology (PM-JAIT), have collaborated to combine Google Earth Technology and the Non-Classified Internet Protocol Router Network (NIPRNet) Global Services (NGS) project. It solves the two main problems that have precluded the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from using Google’s state-of-the-art technology — security and customization.

NIPRNet Globe Services is the result of three years of research and development in building and deploying a fully operational decision-support system based on Google Earth Enterprise technology. Through NGS, the Corps of Engineers can now quickly access customized globes containing detailed information of specific geographical areas following a natural or man-made disaster required for decision support, including satellite imagery, maps, terrain and made-to-order data fields. With customizable layers, the Corps can quickly access as much or as little information as needed for emergency planning and management. And, importantly, the data is secure. No commercial servers have to be accessed because NGS has custom-written geocodes and auto-update servers that run on NIPR behind the .mil firewall.


Because of its ground-breaking technology, NGS been named as one of 10 award winners for 2010 Outstanding Information Technology Achievement in Government by the Government Computer News. Team members of NGS were formally honored at the GCN Awards Gala on Oct. 27 at the Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner in McLean, VA. If you want to know more about NGS, please contact NGS applications manager Robert Walker at robert.s.walker@usace.army.mil.

Posted by Natasha Wyatt, Product Marketing Manager, Google Earth and Maps Enterprise

You Can Be Lost in Data Without A Map

Editor's note: From time to time, Google likes to highlight partners and customers who have developed interesting and unique applications using our products. Peter Rossiter is a founder and CEO of Integeo, a company whose product leverages Google Maps API Premier. With over thirty years experience in the IT industry, Peter has led many innovative commercial ventures and research projects.

Location-based services have quickly become pervasive in our everyday lives and maps are now widely used as a convenient and useful visual tool to present data in ways that people can easily relate to.

Business Intelligence (BI) covers a collection of techniques and tools that support an organization’s decision making process. The advent of Google Maps familiarized people with the concept of data points on a map and progressively more and more BI customers are expecting fully integrated maps and spatial analytics with their tools of choice. Seeing data in the context of its location often exposes information previously hidden in the raw data.

But a tool is only useful if it’s usable. You need to focus on solving your business problems not technology. Avoiding the need for specialist programming resources is a good start followed by ensuring the BI skills of a dashboard or report designer are sufficient even if the underlying spatial analysis is quite complex.


Google Maps API Premier is a solid platform for presenting a rich background context of street and satellite data for analysis of business data. The Google API also enables us to dynamically geocode address data and users can zoom to particular areas of interest using our enhanced Google Search facility.



There is a lot more to visualizing data on maps than just plotting points and icons. Integeo’s Map Intelligence comes out of the box with an extensible, easy to use palette of spatial analytical functions. These enable clear and immediate perception of data relationships, groupings, classifications, patterns, trends and variations that stand out when mapped. A summary of the features of Map Intelligence can be found on our website.

At the click of a button, the analytics currently being viewed by a user can be interactively viewed on Google Earth. The dynamic map layers are generated by Map Intelligence from the “facts and dimensions” in the dashboard or spreadsheet, offering the choice to either use KML (KMZ including images, legend, etc.) or a network link that will update from the Map Intelligence server whenever the user changes their Google Earth view. All the information and data relationship layers are dynamically available so that as filters are applied in the BI environment they are automatically applied to the view in Google Earth.

Please visit www.integeo.com if you would like to learn more about Integeo and see why Map Intelligence is the only BI product to rank top 10 among purpose built GIS solutions (Ovum Research 2009). We offer integrated mapping analytics incorporating Google Maps API Premier as an “off the shelf” solution for users of all the major BI platforms - currently these include (but are not restricted to) BI products from Cognos (IBM), Business Objects (SAP), Oracle, MicroStrategy, QlikView, Actuate, BIRT, Microsoft Excel and SQL Reporting Services.

Posted By Natasha Wyatt, Google Earth and Maps Team

Google Earth Enterprise 4.0 now available

The Google Earth Enterprise team has long focused on bringing the innovative features of Google Earth and Maps to businesses, enabling them to create their own mapping applications from their existing data archives. Over the years we’ve released new features that have expanded the options for rapid, secure dissemination of geospatial data with Google Earth Enterprise (GEE), and with today’s release of GEE 4.0, we’re happy to announce support for two more important capabilities: mobile-based access to GEE systems, and Google Earth Enterprise Portable Solution. We’re also excited to let you know about the latest versions of the Google Earth Enterprise Client and Plug-in.


Mobile Access to your Globes
In February we released a native Google Earth client for Android
to the Android Market. With GEE 4.0, the Android Google Earth client has been updated to support direct connections to customers’ globes, which permits their end-users to view their organization’s 3D globe, including all imagery, terrain, and vector layers, with support for custom vector search.


Google Earth Enterprise Un-Plugged
Some of you might have heard during a recent Directions Media Webinar that many of our GEE customers need to provide their end users with access to geospatial data for situational awareness, even when those users are in environments with limited or no Internet connectivity. To support this, GEE 4.0 introduces a new feature that permits authenticated end users to extract portions of a published GEE globe -- including all imagery, terrain, vectors, KMLs, and search -- and serve the data locally from their own laptops or other storage devices using a native, cross-platform, light-weight Portable Earth System.

Check out this video to see how the portable capability works.





Google Earth Enterprise Client 5.2
GEE 4.0 also has full support for the new Google Earth 5.2 client, with its many great new features, such as elevation profiles, native MGRS support, client-side data regionation, and the new embedded web-browser.

Google Earth Plug-in Updates
In addition to performance improvements, the latest release of the Google Earth Plugin includes support for historical imagery databases and the ability to connect to multiple globes simultaneously.

Existing customers can find GEE 4.0 upgrade information by logging into the Google Enterprise Support Portal.

Posted by Dylan Lorimer, Google Earth and Maps Product Manager

Preparing for emergencies with Google Earth Enterprise

Editor’s Note: Brant Mitchell is Associate Deputy Director of the State of Louisiana Department of Homeland Security. The state of Louisiana Department of Homeland Security is a Google Earth Enterprise customer that leverages Google Earth Enterprise for emergency preparedness and now becomes the first Google Earth Enterprise customer to create a Google Earth Enterprise globe specifically for the public.

For the last three years the State of Louisiana has provided our first responder community a secured access to Federal, State and local geospatial data and high resolution imagery of Louisiana through a Google Earth Enterprise client. In preparation of hurricane season, Louisiana is pleased to announce that we have launched the first public version of a Google Earth Enterprise platform.

Louisiana Earth was released as part of the state's "Get a Game Plan" campaign, to assist citizens in creating evacuation plans by providing access to all of the states evacuation routes, sheltering points historical hazard data and other information that is essential during an evacuation such as locations of and available occupancy of hotels, gas stations, pharmacies, grocery stores, veterinary clinics and banks.

Louisiana Earth will also serve as a mechanism to relay critical data during disasters to help inform the public on the status of response and recovery efforts. Using the Deepwater Horizon Rig incident as an example, there is existing data that Louisiana is making available which includes the latest oil sightings from aerial observations, oyster bed closures, as well as critical environmental data such as bird nesting areas.

During hurricanes and other natural disasters, Louisiana will be able to provide information such as the location of points of distribution (PODs), food stamp offices, unemployment claims offices, disaster recovery centers as well as the status of parishes' power outages as an example.

Finally, while the primary purpose is to utilize Louisiana Earth as a mechanism to provide critical data during emergencies, it will also be utilized to promote Louisiana. We will constantly be adding data that the public can use to take advantage of the many activities and events, such as festivals, that are available in Louisiana.

Louisiana Earth already has information on all of the state parks which consists of lodging accommodations, hiking trails, and camping sites. Historical data and cultural events will also be included and will continue to be updated.

To access Louisiana Earth, go to laearth.la.gov.

Posted by Natasha Wyatt, Google Earth and Maps team

BlueSpace and Google Earth Enterprise: taking visualization to the skies

Editor's Note: Justin Marston is the CEO of BlueSpace, an enterprise software company focused on the defense and intelligence communities. BlueSpace has built a next generation command and control application using their security middleware and Google Earth Enterprise. They are currently showcasing it as part of the Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (an international "war game" exercise) with support from a government agency. The BlueSpace app showcases just how far you can take Google Earth Enterprise as a visualization environment.

Geospatial visualization of multiple streams of data has been critical to the defense and intelligence communities for a long time. Whether it’s showing aircraft flying around, soldiers taking a hill or different types of intelligence – seeing it on a map has been key to understanding a conflict.

In the second World War, the allies used maps with little models to show units, and moved them with poles to update their locations. With modern radar and GPS systems, things are a bit more sophisticated, but much of the mapping functionality has lagged behind. Many of the currently deployed command and control (C2) systems use flat, two-color vector maps with triangles showing units.

Visualization of AWACS plane in Google Earth

BlueSpace and AWACS

Before BlueSpace engaged them, AWACS was already actively working with 3D visualization. AWACS is the US Air Force Airborne Warning and Control System: a forward deployed radar platform (the planes with big spinning discs on top). The vision of the AWACS program has been to move away from a black screen with green triangles on it, and move towards a more visually rich C2 environment for operators that can show the terrain in which they are working.

How has BlueSpace helped? Well, we have focused on two problems – high quality, real-time visualizations and creating a Unified Operating Picture.

High Quality, Real-time Visualizations

The first problem is creating a much more "real" view of the battle theater, with 3D models moving around in real-time based on input data feeds giving latitude and longitude references for units. Our design goal was to create something more like a real-time video game using Google Earth's richness of graphics and capabilities.

BlueSpace is demonstrating its Multi-Level Security Command and Control (MLS C2) application at 5 different locations for the Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (CWID), a joint exercise between the US, UK, Canada, Australia and NATO (among others) to help find and prove technologies and systems that can help better orchestrate coalition warfare. For the exercise, BlueSpace worked with its partners to model around 100 units including aircraft, ground units and boats and of these units move around in real-time based on data feeds being fed to the application.

You can take a look at some of the interface, captured from Google Earth in this unclassified video: http://www.bluespace.com/mlsc2.html

A Unified Operating Picture

Wars used to be fought by relatively small numbers of allies, with each nation focused on a particular theater. As warfare has evolved over the last two decades, the reach of aircraft, missiles, satellites etc. have blurred lines between the different services and often between nations.

MLS C2 User Interface using Google Earth Enterprise

for geospatial visualization of ground, air and sea units

Right now, the NATO configuration of the AWACS planes can have up to 14 different screens on each AWACS aircraft – one for the US aircraft, one for the British, one for the Canadian, one for the German, etc. So when something new comes up on radar, operators may have to look at up to 14 screens to figure out what is going on.

BlueSpace has taken these separate pictures and consolidated them into a single Unified Operating Picture (UOP) that spans all the different networks, providing one Google Earth environment, with all the units in that environment, no matter which nation or service they serve. This means an operator on an AWACS plane only has to look at one screen to see what is happening – a vast improvement.

Google Earth's extensive capabilities allow an operator to fully utilize this unified operating picture to see terrain, roads, etc. in their relation to the plotted units. In addition, Google Earth's full camera controls provide the viewing flexibility necessary to interact with those units.

BlueSpace and Google

We see a great future for Google Earth Enterprise in our C2 system. Being able to see the helicopter, visually recognize its type immediately and see which mountains are next to it when the pilot calls in, “I’m taking fire from the ridge on the left” makes a big difference in a real fight. Doing all of that across many different security domains in a Unified Operating Picture that spans multiple networks – that’s a game changing capability.

Posted by Natasha Wyatt, Google Earth Enterprise team

Reinventing classroom geography with Google Earth API

Editor’s note: Every now and then we like to showcase innovative uses of Google Maps and Earth. Today we’re excited to welcome Don Rescigno, who is the Director of Marketing for NYSTROM Herff Jones Education, which has implemented the Google Earth and Maps API into educational software to make learning more interactive.

School Maps & Globes 2.0

NYSTROM Herff Jones Education Division & Roundarch use the Google Earth API to reinvent the classroom map and globe

Technology is changing the face of what today’s classrooms look like. In the United States alone, roughly one out of every five classrooms has an interactive whiteboard, like this:

These are steadily replacing the chalkboard and leave little to no room for traditional wall maps and charts.

As the leading producer of maps and globes for schools, NYSTROM Herff Jones Education Division saw an opportunity to deliver geographic information to educators – a market we’ve served more more than 100 years – through innovative technology. We partnered with Roundarch, a leader in digital design and technology, to help. Ultimately, we chose to use the Google Earth API to power our educational content and reinvent our products in ways never before possible. The result of our work is StrataLogica(TM).

Released late September 2009, StrataLogica is a revolutionary web-based product that delivers layers of age-appropriate, curriculum-based content for use in the classroom, school library, or at home. To meet grade-level curriculum standards, Nystrom mapped the world in many ways to illustrate various themes including physical features, political divisions, land cover, elevation, and U.S. and World history.

StrataLogica geo-references the content and presents it wrapped on the 3-D Earth allowing users to navigate and interact with our multi-layered world beyond the scope of traditional maps and globes.

Using the StrataLogica dual-map viewer, teachers and students can compare and contrast a variety of topics side by side. They can examine “then and now” by comparing, say, a World War II history map with a current political view (see image) of the same place.

Students can consider why people live where they do by creating side-by-side mash-ups of population, rainfall, and land use. They can also take advantage of Google Earth’s 3-D imagery by zooming down to satellite view to explore terrain or cities and communities around the world while keeping one globe view locked to provide context.

With the intuitive tool bar built on top of the API teachers and students can interact in numerous ways with content. They can add their own placemark pop-ups and include explanatory text, videos, or photos. They can use a ruler tool to measure distance. They can add their own text labels or drop in symbols to highlight land use, transportation, weather, and more. Each user can save this information to his or her account.

Nystrom and Roundarch have recently announced the addition of new StrataLogica features and functions that include collaboration, sharing, projects, and presentations. With these new capabilities students and teachers can work together to map curriculum content—exploration routes, famous battles, immigration patterns—in this online environment so learning to continue outside the confines of the classroom.

It’s our belief that with the release of StrataLogica, Nystrom is redefining the way schools will think about and provide this fundamental, relevant content. Today’s students are so technically savvy – they deserve resources that will feed their appetite for information while improving their educational lives. Though it was introduced only months ago, StrataLogica is already being adopted by schools and districts around the country. The overwhelming response has been that it inspires teachers and students in an entirely new way.

We invite you to see videos of StrataLogica in action and encourage educators to get a free trial at www.stratalogica.com. You can also follow Nystrom’s StrataLogica on Twitter at twitter.com/stratalogica.

Don Rescigno, Director of Marketing

NYSTROM Herff Jones Education Division

Representatives from both Nystrom and Roundarch will be participating at the annual Google I/O Conference this May in San Francisco, California.

Posted by Natasha Wyatt, Google Earth and Maps team

Collaborative mapping for major disasters

Editor’s Note: Today's guest author is A.J. Clark, President of Thermopylae Sciences and Technology, which helps developers build new applications with the Google Earth browser plug-in on Google Earth Enterprise through the iSpatial framework. A.J. works on the visualization, analysis, and dissemination of disaster/post-conflict data with a focus on emerging technologies that support participatory, collaborative approaches to spatial content creation and infrastructure development.

In the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake, an urgent need for geospatial data sharing arose. As aid organizations and governments rushed to help, the collection and sharing of large amounts of geographic information among many sources and users presented a daunting challenge.

In response, the United States Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) made information and tools available through an interactive mapping website which they call a User Defined Operational Picture (UDOP), built on the Google Earth Enterprise platform to make visualizing the map and overlaid data easy and clear. Public sites are now available both for the Haiti earthquake and the Chile earthquake, where thousands of users can view, create, and edit spatial data (please note that you will be prompted to download the Google Earth plugin to view this data through these links.)


The system was rapidly deployed using an enterprise geospatial framework called iSpatial, which provides an open platform for the integration of dynamic data and the development of interactive applications. The data is displayed using the Google Earth browser plug-in and API, which enables the visualization of geographic data layers in the rich, 3D Google Earth environment, on any web page.

The breadth of data sources and content producers contributing to and making use of the UDOP reflected the global community supporting the relief effort. The combination of participatory geospatial content, the collaborative nature of the UDOP and the ability to integrate mobile applications as direct content producers is available for ongoing relief efforts. This is an evolving capability within SOUTHCOM as we break new ground in providing collaborative tools for humanitarian aid and disaster relief efforts.

Note: to see imagery and maps in Google Earth, you can also download the Google Crisis Response KML files for Haiti and Chile.

Posted by Jeff Martin, Google Crisis Response team