The Good news: It’s out.
The Bad news: its HUGE!

Six months after Google released their amazing Google Earth plugin for Windows, they have now released the Mac version.

The plugin, for the non-geeks, is a small piece of software that enables your web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari etc) to show 3D Google Earth images in a normal 2D website.

In short: Full Google Earth use, without Google Earth having to download and install Google Earth.

There is no way to describe the coolness though – you have to experience it for yourself.
Simply click on the earth button on one of our enabled maps and follow the instructions to install the plugin. Try this map of the Richtersveld World Heritage Site.

The bad news is that while the Windows plugin is about 500 KB the Mac plugin is 47 MB !!!!

That is bigger than the stand-alone Google Earth application and really bad news for South African users who always struggle with bandwidth costs and limitations.

Anyway, it’s a first step.

I’m sure our friends at Google Earth will bring the size down in the coming months, because a 47MB plugin does not really lower the barrier of entry to 3D virtual globes – now does it?

Update:

First experience

After posting above, I’ve spent a few minutes downloading, installing and testing the plugin.

There is some more bad news though. It does not seem to work!

Not even close!

It might be because our maps are at the top-end of complexity, but the Windows plugin (the small one) does work with our maps (with some minor issues).

I’ll keep on testing and get back to you, but at this (very) early stage: it’s a HUGE plugin that doesn’t work.

Anyone else with better luck – let me know….

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