Posted on Wednesday, January 10, 2007 11:02 AM
On Tuesday Google released a new version of SketchUp, took Google Earth 4 out of beta, and introduced a new 3D Collections features in Google's 3D Warehouse (see "Google to Bundle "Grizzly" Layout Tool in SketchUp 6 Pro" for details ). Of all the new features in these three products, the Collections feature and the tweaks to Google Earth are what keeps all of this tied to the Google corporate mission. As stated on the Google corporate home page, “Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
Google intends for the world's built environment data to be organized and made accessible in Google Earth and 3D Warehouse; SketchUp is a preferred tool for creating the data. The work will be—is being—done by hundreds of thousands of motivated architects, developers, and hobbyists. Since most AEC CAD products now include either SketchUp or Google Earth compatibility, the work doesn't have to be limited to SketchUp users. Download (or update to) the latest version of Google Earth to see the progress that's already been made. Thousands of buildings are now viewable, and thousands more can be selected from the Google 3D Warehouse for viewing in Google Earth or SketchUp.
I described the phenomenon of user participation as it relates to SketchUp in more detail when I first wrote about Google's acquisition of atLast Software in March 2006.
--RSN