Google Earth has just added a new layer into the “Geographic Web” folder for the New York Times. This layer updates automatically every 15 minutes and shows news stories on the map.
It’s not an overly exciting addition, but it adds one more bit of great info. Combine this with the Panoramio layer, the YouTube layer, the weather/traffic layers, and any other custom layers that you have, and suddenly you can get quite a lot of information about any particular area.
When I first turned on this layer, I noticed a placemark up near Traverse City, Michigan, so I went to check it out. The placemark is actually in Lake Michigan near South Manitou Island. The problem is that the story is about Bay City, Michigan, hundreds of miles away on the other side of the state. Oops!
It appears to have just been a simple error and not a major bug, as the other stories I checked seem to be placed correctly.
This certainly won’t be a major source of news for me, but it’ll be a fun little addition to have when I’m using Google Earth.
