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The official Google Lat Long blog announced the Help Model a City initiative. From the blog entry: "This was in response to cities like San Jose, California, that don't have the resources to model a city on their own and who are hoping to enlist the help of 3D modeling ethusiasts. So far a few cities have published 3D "massing models" along with digital photos, making it easy for 3D modelers anywhere in the world to create visually accurate 3D textured buildings." Google is very brilliant in making people willfully and happily work for them. This is the case with Google's 3D Warehouse, but you can find similar examples such as Google's Image Labeler. In the same entry, about 2D GIS it is said: "While they may be very effective analysis tools, these applications often fail to impart knowledge in a format that the average citizen can easily grasp."

From the Google Earth Blog : "Google has released a big upgrade to Google SketchUp 7 - their 3D modeling tool. SketchUp 7 is available in a free version, and a Pro version which includes a number of features helpful to professional modelers (such as a presentation tool, more model making features, printing, and e-mail support - see comparison). The Pro version costs $495, but is available for free to educators and only $49 for students." Update: 11/17 17:34 GMT by S : The announcement from the official Google Lat Long blog.

There is currently a discussion on slashdot about this. Here is their summary : "Microsoft recently updated ESP, a virtual reality modeling platform that until now has primarily been used to model aircraft and flight simulations. Microsoft has plans to expand it to other industries such as real estate and urban planning, but one of the most interesting possibilities could be what one observer refers to as a "simulation of everything," based on Virtual Earth and perhaps even user-generated content. Indeed, Microsoft's research chief has been promoting the idea of commerce applications and other tools built on top of what he calls the 'Spatial Web', a blend of 3D, video, and location-aware technologies. He gave an example of a shopkeeper creating 3D models of his store's interior and goods with Photosynth and then uploading the results into a large 3D model of local shopping district. Customers could 'visit' the area, browse products, and order them for real-world delivery."/

The Google Earth Blog brings us the following news : "Google has updated the 3D buildings in Google Earth for New York City! This is a HUGE update with at least hundreds (if not thousands) of new 3D buildings with photo textures applied. Basically, Google has completed nearly every building in Manhattan Island for Google Earth. Just fly to "New York City" and turn on the 3D Buildings layer in Google Earth. Tilt your view so you can see the buildings in all their glory. This is the largest city i've seen done with photo-realistic textures to date."

The Google Geo Developers Blog offers an entry named TimeMap: Helping you add the 4th dimension to your maps [screenshots and batteries included]. The introduction: "Hi, I'm Nick Rabinowitz, guest poster. I'm a grad student at the UC Berkeley School of Information and the creator of TimeMap, a Javascript library that helps the Google Maps API play nicely with the SIMILE Timeline API to create maps and timelines that work together. Readers of the Google LatLong blog may have seen TimeMap in action already, in the Maps API's 3rd birthday post. That post promised an eventual technical explanation of how to make such map-timeline mashups. Well, exhale your bated breath: Here it is!" See also our Time topic.