Google Earth integration

I want to see couches available as a Google Earth layer.

Motivation

Google Earth layers are a great way of getting the word out about couchsurfing. We could appear as a community layer, similar to the way that confluence.org's confluence points are already mapped onto Google Earth and available within the Google Earth interface.

Google Earth is the hottest possible interface. No matter how snazzy and maps-integrated we make the main couchsurfing.com site, it cannot approach the OpenGL sexiness of Google Earth. A CouchSearch that takes place via Google Earth will always look better than anything we can put on the site.

The same KMZ file can now be shown also on google maps (for folks who prefer 2D). See this FAQ. This means that a quick way to deploy this feature would be to write a piece of code that export some information about CSsers in KMZ file. Of course there are important issues of privacy (see the discussion page) that should be discussed but an early prototype is possible, the only requirement is having access to the portion of the database containing geo information.

KMZ files about a wide range of interests could be added. Surfes could plan their trips on a world map, conntected with a whole range of different additional information. For example somebody interested in cycling could add the Tour de France route and plan their hosts along the way.

http://www.googleearthcoolplaces.com/ http://www.googleearthhacks.com/

To Do

This means periodically extracting the entire couches-available database, pulling out lat/long, randomizing it a bit perhaps, and segmenting/formatting it as Google Earth KML, and making it available at a public URL. We don't need to even put user names in, just links back to our site for further inquiries.

We should also make a nifty little 3D couch graphic that can appear on the Earth where a couch is available.

See Also

See also Adding maps and Which maps features are already available

See also Drive More Traffic to Your Maps API Site - Include KML Files in Your Sitemap from Google Maps blog