The latest integration comes to Google Earth, as with the latest version (6.2), users can easily share screenshots to Google+ circles. When the user is logged in and clicks “share,” they can send snapshots of 3D views to Google+.

“We’ve already seen fantastic Google Earth land and cityscapes shared on Google+, not to mention solar systems, ocean topography, Street View scenes, weather forecasts, gigapixel photography and more,” says community manager Mark Harrision. “If you can find it in Google Earth, you can share it on Google+.”

“And if you’re looking to engage with like-minded cartographers, add the new Google Earth +Page to your Google+ circles and share your own Google Earth snapshots with us,” he adds. “Use the hashtag #GoogleEarthSnapshot in your image description and we could include your photo in a community album on Google+!”

The Google Earth Page already has quite a few cool images in its posts.

That exciting non-discovery illustrates how much fun you can have (and how famous you can almost be) exploring the underwater parts of our world, and after today we might be in for more potentially amazing oceanic discoveries. In a post on their Lat Long blog, Google announced that, to mark the third anniversary of Google Earth implementing a fully navigable map of the ocean floor, they have released a “major update” that promises to give users a “clearer view” of Earth’s subterranean landscape.

The new update, which they’re calling bathymetry, is the product of Google’s collaboration with Scripps Institution of Oceanography, NOAA, the US Navy, NGA and GEBCO (along with contributions from a few other organization) that promises Google’s “most accurate view of the seafloor to date.” To get the clearer imagery, though, Google had to get away from Earth-based technology and rely on “spacecraft measurements of bumps and dips in the ocean surface.”

But let’s get back to what we really care about: Atlantis. Given the story I mentioned above, for any of you persistent believers who aren’t buying Google’s explanation, take a look at the before and after of that same area near Greece’s coast where Atlantis was “found.” The image on the left was captured using Google Earth’s earlier technology and the image on the right was captured using the updated technology. Brace your tinfoil hats, readers:

Yikes. No more “Atlantis.” You can still see faint lines that were once more pronounced before Google Earth’s update, but a few odd lines does not a city of legend make.

Here’s a few more before-and-afters to give you a sample of the improved quality to Google Earth’s map of the ocean floor so you naysayers out there will hopefully not dismiss the disappearance of “Atlantis” as a conspiracy.

The Mediterranean Sea (before is left, after is right):

The Mariana Trench (before is left, after is right):

But some of you just aren’t going to be convinced by this evidence, are you? Incorrigible, you lot are.

From the official Google Blog:

The Google Earth globe is made from a mosaic of satellite and aerial photographs taken on different dates and under different lighting and weather conditions. Because of this variance, views of the Earth from high altitude can sometimes appear patchy.

Also, there is now a feature that allows you to share an image from within Google Earth.

Evan Parker, a software engineer working on Google Maps, made the announcement today. Screenshots were posted on the official Google Blog, including some side-by-side before-and-after shots of the old Google Earth vs the new.

Join me now in celebrating views from outer space courtesy of the 1978 Science Fiction Film Awards.

Take Google Maps, for example. Because of the street view feature, you can get a ground floor, rotational view of giant Santas in various areas. On the Google Sightseeing blog, a number of these were documented, but Google took it one step farther, offering a KML file that can be installed on your copy of Google Earth, giving you access to various giant Santas in an assortment of locations.

Apparently, the Google Sightseeing blog documented many, if not all of the giant Santa locations, which Google then converted to an add-on file, simplifying the location process an exponential amount. Whatever the case, it’s for a good cause, because who doesn’t enjoy looking at the various versions of giant Santa Claus statues in the United States? If you’re one of the folks who wouldn’t, try enjoying yourself a little more.

It should be noted that Google Sightseeing’s giant Santa findings were not only located in the United States. There’s also mention of a giant Santa in Norway, complete with coordinate links.

As for Google, they also mention a few other sites that incorporate the Christmas theme with Google Maps. There’s one service that allows you to create a custom Christmas message, using a snow-covered image of your house and/or current location. It’s an awesome feature that allows you to send personalized messages using the data from Google Maps, and some snow added in for good measure.

The resulting animation offers a link which takes the receiver to the personalized message. Be sure you have a WebGL-capable browser before you try to view it. Here’s one from us at WebProNews to you, our readers:

Merry Christmas from WebProNews, thanks to Google Maps and It’sAMessage.com.

Thanks to details provided by the Google Lat Long blog, what we have is an awesome representation of Google Earth based on Google’s own Liquid Galaxy feature the mapping service. It should be noted Liquid Galaxy was designed with home computer screens in mind, and not displays that feature 100 million pixels across 48 individual displays that are working in unison.

Nevertheless, Google pulled it off, thanks to a partnership with Le Pavillon de l’Arsenal. The development of the display was done in conjunction with JCDecaux, which, according to their Wikipedia profile, ” is the largest outdoor advertising corporation in the world.”

Besides bringing Google Maps to a 48-screen setup, the goal of the project was also to give Parisans a look at what Paris might look like in the future. Google’s blog post explains further:

Late last year, the Paris Center for Architecture and Urbanism: Le Pavillon de l’Arsenal, approached us asking if they could use Google Earth to power a new interactive display highlighting the Paris metropolitan area in 2020 with upcoming buildings in 3D. Naturally, we were excited about the project, especially when they shared that the display would be 40 square meters – posing a fun and unique challenge.

The larger version of Google Earth is controlled by four touchscreens that can both pinch and zoom on the Google Earth image/area being viewed. Be sure and check out the video if you haven’t already, if, for nothing else, the incredible amount of wiring it took for the project to come to life.

Either way, there are some incredibly mysterious structures in the area that have been captured by Google Earth. From concentric circles to grids to irregular metallic-looking patterns, the Chinese desert looks to be hiding some sort of secret on the border of the Gansu province, near Jiuquan.

Let’s go ahead and get to the evidence. First, we have this pattern, that appears to consist of pathways with a metallic origin. According to Google Maps, it’s at least 5000 feet long and 2500 feet wide.

Here are some thoughts from the internet, more specifically reddit, on the possible purpose of this irregular grid:

• Street map of a U.S. city – possibly Washington D.C.
• A grid for Chinese spy satellites
• An alien QR code

In a similar vein, here’s another irregular grid spotted in the Gobi desert. According to Google Maps, it’s a little under a square mile.

Here’s we have a Stonehenge-like set of concentric circles. In the center, there appears to be three planes.

Then we have these two structures, both resembling runways – but one is an almost glowing metallic blue color:

Nearby, here are some metallic looking squares arranged in a grid, many of which appear to have been destroyed:

What does this all mean? What could all of these structures signify? According to the Telegraph, it’s most likely part of China’s space program and/or military testing.

The two reflective rectangles lie 70 miles from the nearest main road and there is no sign of any surrounding activity. However, Ding Xin military airbase, where China carries out its secret aircraft testing programme, is relatively nearby, at a distance of some 400 miles.

400 miles in the other direction is Lop Nur, the salt lakes where China tested 45 nuclear bombs between 1967 and 1995.

The planes with the concentric circles, and the destroyed grids sure seem to scream target practice. As far as the irregular grids are concerned, could they be “optical test ranges for missiles?” And could they resemble street grids? The fact that all of these mysterious structures are relatively close to each other suggest that it could be some sort of giant test site:

There’s enough visual evidence here to satisfy conspiracy theorists and/or alien hunters for weeks. Is it the Chinese military? Is it visitors from outer space? Is it a clever artist who has overlain the patterns and trolled everyone? Discuss.

“In Córdoba, the third largest town in the Spanish region of Andalucia, you can now explore in highly resolved images from four directions,” explains Google Geo Data Specialist Bernd Steinert. “Check out the world famous Mezquita-Catedral, a former mosque from the times when that part of Spain was ruled by the Moors, now a Roman Catholic Cathedral. Its construction as a mosque began around 800 and it was turned into a church after 1200.”

This is pictured above.

“A major update in the U.S. comprises Houston, the largest city of Texas and fourth largest of the United States,” adds Steinert. “Take a look at the Houston Ship Channel with all its refineries and oil tanks alongside, erected for one Million Dollars in 1902 when oil was first discovered in the area.” Below.

Here’s the full list of updated cities:

Augsburg, Germany
Barstow, CA
Bartlett, TX
Big Bear, CA
Blackstone, VA
Catalina Foothills, AZ
Córdoba, Spain
Delano, CA
Desert Hot Springs, CA
Richmond, VA. Elgin, TX
Healdsburg, CA
Helendale, CA
Hemet, CA
Houston, TX
Mendoza, Argentina
Midlothian, VA
Napa Valley, CA
New Braunfels, TX
Ojai, CA
Ottawa, Canada
Pensacola, FL
Porterville, CA
Plant City, FL
Rancho Del Lago, AZ
Rosario, Argentina
Santa Clarita, CA
Sarasota, FL
Taylor, TX
Temecula, CA
Treasure Island, CA
Troy, IL
Twentynine Palms, CA
Wakefield, VA
Yucca Valley, CA.

Today Google also shared a “land art” tour of Google Earth, which is pretty interesting.

As reported earlier, a Millennium Falcon-shaped school property has been spotted on Google Maps.

On a side note, WebProNews reporter Abby Johnson spotted a Google Street View car here in Lexington this afternoon.

“Using location-based intelligence, customers can slice-and-dice large volumes of information against Google Maps/Earth to get a better understanding of the ‘when’ and ‘where’ of their business,” a representative for SAP tells WebProNews. “For example, with SAP StreamWork, a team of customer support representatives in a consumer packaged goods company could collaborate and pinpoint the location of consumer complaints within specific geographies and make a decision regarding how to address and prioritize resolution.

“We’re excited to work with SAP to help enterprise customers use Google’s cloud mapping tools with SAP software,” said Dave Girouard, president of Google Enterprise. “This integration will allow our customers to more easily visualize geographic data and make better business decisions.”

“Today, more and more information is being geo-tagged, and it is unlocking an entirely new dimension for enterprise data,” said Sanjay Poonen, president, Global Solutions at SAP. “SAP’s work with Google marries powerful enterprise software with the world’s most popular mapping platform to create entirely new ways for people to understand and interact with business information. We aim to provide our customers the opportunity to tap into the power of business analytics combined with location intelligence through a geographic view and use rich, interactive analytics to respond to events as they unfold in real time.”

Running down some examples of how organizations might be able to take advantage of the partnership between these two companies, SAP suggests that a telecom operator could use Google Earth and SAP BusinessObjects Explorer to perform dropped-call analysis and pinpoint geo-coordinates of faulty towers. A state department of revenue might overlay household tax income info on a map and group it al the country level to track the highest/lowest tax bases. A mortgage bank might perform risk assessment on its portfolio by overlaying foreclosure and default data with the location of loans on Google Maps. You get the idea.

Based on data collected over 20 years from Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Google Earth allows you to explore half the area of the ocean floor that has ever been mapped. That’s roughly 5% of the total area, a segment bigger than North America.

A post on the Lamont-Doherty Observatory site lets us know how they obtained all this data:

The imagery is the result of hundreds of cruises by scientific research vessels from many institutions traveling roughly 3 million miles across the oceans over the past two decades. To create the new maps, the team combined multi-beam sonar measurements into Lamont-Doherty’s Global Multi-Resolution Topography system. This same database feeds the recently released EarthObserver, Lamont’s global scientific mapping application for iPads and other mobile devices. The ocean synthesis was begun in the early 2000s, with funding from the National Science Foundation. It is ongoing, with the team continually adding new data. While most of the data assembled so far has come from U.S. institutions, many foreign institutions hold troves of mapping data, which the team hopes to tap in the future.

Google Earth is truly some awesome technology and this demonstration of its capabilities is impressive, as usual. Google Earth recently let users explore sports stadiums and arenas from around the world. Google Earth currently has data on the Moon, Mars and Constellations as well.

The first video below explores some interesting ocean floor spots, such as the Lamont Seamounts and the Mendocino Ridge, the site of major plate shifts. California State University also provided some data of the Cordell Bank and the Gulf of the Farallones near California. And the University of Hawaii provided synthesis of the Hawaiian Islands.

The “Deep Sea Vents” video combines the new mapping data with info about hydrothermal vents. It also shows the deepest volcanic eruption ever – the Wast Mata volcano off the coast of Fiji.

Enjoy, science geeks!

When you’re looking at a location on Google Earth, you’ll see photo icons scattered around (as pictured above). There are larger ones that show when there is a cluster to browse. You can click on any of the icons to view photos in a new window.

From there, you can navigate with your arrow keys.

“Whether you’re deciding between Paris, Beijing or Venice for a nice vacation or simply want to go on a quick virtual getaway after a long day, we hope this new way of viewing photos in Google Earth helps bring places around the world to your fingertips,” says Google’s Wei Luo.

Users can of course contribute photos by uploading them to Google’s Panoramio.com service.

It has been a busy week in the Google Maps/Google Earth department. Aside from this, Google launched Google Earth Builder for businesses. This lets businesses use Google’s cloud to manage geospatial data, create custom map layers, and share Google Earth/Maps layers.

Google also launched Map Maker in the U.S. This lets users add and update locations in Google Maps. According to Google, 30% of the world now has accurate online maps of their communities thanks to Map Maker submissions.

Google Earth and Google Maps are interesting elements of Google’s overall strategy, and are not immune to competition from the company’s main competitor Bing.

Bing has been doing some pretty interesting things in this department as well, particularly with Maps apps. Of course Facebook takes advantage of Bing Maps. Interestingly enough, the Nokia/Microsoft deal is involves Nokia Maps through Ovi.