Chapter 17 — History and Planning with Google Earth 343
FIGURE17-13: An alternative view.Unfortunately, I am no 3D artist, but you can find numerous other examples of 3D structures
defined within the Google Earth application when you add the Buildings overlay to your map.Wrapping Up
The facilities in Google Earth can turn the basic principles learned in Google Maps into a
much richer environment for showing information. Because the map can be rotated and
manipulated, unlike the flat model used by Google Maps, you can develop much more interest-
ing views of data and information, such as holiday photos. Because direction and orientation
are implied in the display, the photos are given much more context than simple pushpoints on
the map.Using built-in 3D modeling, you can represent offices, buildings, and other elements in a way
that provides a much easier-to-understand representation of a structure. With some manipula-
tion of the camera, you could even give a representation of what a buyer could expect to see
through the windows of stores in the buildings.