It's Google Earth: Putting South Africa on the Map

by Tim Shier

Finally, I can talk about the exciting project that has been keeping me up late and in the office early.

Introducing: The South African Tourism layer in Google Earth (downloadable here).

About 8 months ago Rob came bouncing over to my desk, as he does, with a rather cheeky (read scary) look in his eye. The words which were “Tim, I know you have project management experience but do you know anything about Google Earth?” Needless to say I was moderately concerned and responded something along the lines of “I know what it is but have no idea how it works”. This began my exploration of the elements required to make a Google Earth layer, and the trials and tribulations that followed.

Ok, maybe I should go back a step – what is Google Earth?

“Google Earth maps the earth by the superimposition of images obtained from satellite imagery, aerial photography and GIS 3D globe.” (Wikipedia.org/googleearth)

Alternatively, Google Earth is “A really cool program by Google, it allows you to explore the world from your PC” (define: Google earth).

More importantly, Google Earth is a trend setting system which looks to take all the Geo-location data which is currently being kept by Google, and applying it to a 3D model of the earth. For example, if you zoom into Cape Town and search for something, then items from that area will appear but items from other cities won’t.

“If you build it they will come”, is a philosophy which Google seems to have embraced in the absolute. Philipp Hirtz of Google Zurich was very proud to tell me this morning that there have been 350 million unique Google Earth activations (an increase of roughly 70% since January 2008). It’s clear that the market Google Earth attracts like what they see and need the system which is provided.

This fresh approach to browsing content provides a much higher level of engagement and overall utility for users – thus providing for higher conversion rates and the ability to really close the loop. With the layer we have developed we are making the most of this. We’ve provided Google Earth content which is fully Geo-located, has full content write-ups, links to virtual tours (nicely done VirtualAfrica), links and contact details allowing users to engage with their destinations while having the necessary resources to explore further, make the booking or plan their itinerary.

We have also included a number of other firsts and have used Google Earth a little differently in some instances.



I first had to deal with the shock of having to learn another markup language, (I graduated from UCT (with a BSC in Computer Science and Psychology and never wanted to code again). I quickly moved on though, and the dev team got to work with a number of in-house tools which got Ooh’s and Aaah’s from members of the Google California GIS (read: Google Earth) teams. We were off to a flying start.

And then … it came to a grinding halt. While the KML is simple in itself, getting the styles to do what was needed is rather complicated. As a result Grant spent MANY hours pacing the office trying to work out what to try next (something which Google Earth are busy updating – so not to worry, we have paved the way).

With the team working feverishly on getting the content completed, I increasingly found myself spending weekends looking for some obscure place in South Africa – and I can now say with authority that “Danielskull” “Griquatown” and “Kathu” are 47, 57 and 67 Km from “Postmansburg” – I mean, who would have thought! (See for yourself: Roaring Kalahari Route).

While the Google Earth development was a major part of the project, the development of a supporting site and material was equally important.

The Google Earth Help videos are proving to be a vital part of the user experience and it was most amusing to find Garrick and Kat (them Oompa Loompas) innocently cuddled under a blanket in the office doing their best to record the voice-over for the videos (nice work on the end result).

The supporting site was a fundamental part of the project. While Website development is something we have got down to a fine art - serious points are due to Grant and Jean for the development, Kelly for the copy and the rest of the teams for putting up with them while they met the deadly deadlines.

All in all we have upward of 120 place marks around South Africa, making this the largest Google endorsed Tourism layer with the best user experience (disclaimer: my personal opinion). The South African Tourism Google Earth layer does the best job of empowering tourists to book their travels with all the relevant information – without leaving the comfort of their living rooms. 

2008/05/14 | permalink | comments (4) | trackbacks (0)
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This is some awesome stuff, well done guys!

Posted by Fredrik Erasmus on 2008/05/14

Rob and team ... a wonderful piece of magic you've created. Perhaps you can encourage others to add to your layer(s). About 18 months ago we created about 20 individual layers showing for example all golf courses, hotels & guesthouses, battlefields, historical monuments in Beaufort West, and more. You can see these layers and download to Google Earth from the web page as follows

http://www.vuvuzela.com/category/maps/

There was a South African layer on Google Earth about 2 years ago and then it disappeared so I'm looking forward to see the worldwide release of your product. Let us all know when it happens

Fantastic work, well done.

Posted by Tony Roocroft on 2008/05/14

God Bless the Oompa Loompas...without them the chocolate would never have been made!

Posted by Skippy on 2008/05/15

Thanks Tony and Fredrik - its a great project to have been part of and I'm very proud of the end product.

@skippy - indeed. Actually, I heard a great quote: "Save the earth, its the only place in the whole universe with chocolate..." :p

Posted by Tim Shier on 2008/05/19

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