Ever wanted to measure the path length in Google Earth but could never find out how? Turns out, within Google Earth the ruler tool and the path tool are totally separate. You can’t measure a path within Google Earth unless you go through with the ruler and mark out your path again. BUT there is another way! Here’s a step by step guide to marking out a path and then measuring it:

Creating your path

1. Go to Add > Path
   

   Adding a path

2. Enter in a name for your path (you can also add a description)
   

   Naming a path

3. Click the “Style, Color” tab and you can also change the colour of your path along with how thick the line is (can be useful when differentiating between paths you’ve created)
   

   Setting the path colour and width

4. I like to click OK after this just to make sure those settings are saved.
   

   Clicking OK!

Marking out your path

1. To mark out your path, you need to open that path property window again. To do this, go to the list of “My Place” on the left hand side and find your path:
   

   Finding the path you've created

2. Right click your path and go to “Properties”:
   

   Getting back to the properties window

3. This will bring up the properties window which appeared when you first created your path. Move this window away from the map (so you can see it and mark out spots) but don’t close that properties window. To mark out your path:
   1. Click on areas of the map to plot out your path (the latest bit of the path will appear as a blue dot, earlier parts of your path will appear as a red dot)
   2. To remove part of your path if you make a mistake, make sure the spot you want to remove is appearing as a blue dot (if it isn’t click the red dot to make it blue – this is the currently editable spot). Right click it now it is a blue dot and it will be removed. If you right click on a red dot, it will remove the dot marked blue, so you have to make sure the dot you want to remove is selected and blue (confused the crap out of me for a few moments)!
   3. Once you are done, click OK on the properties menu to save the path.

Measuring your path

Okay, so you’ve marked out your path and have it saved. The fun step now is to measure this path! Google Earth does not seem to measure it on its own but there is another website which can measure it for you.

1. Right click on your path and choose Copy.
   

   Copying your path details

2. Go to the E.M.A. GE (Google Earth) Tools page here – http://www.emaltd.net/google/gec/utilities/index.asp?l=en
3. Paste the details you copied from Google Earth into the text field on this page:
   

   Pasting your path details onto the E.M.A GE Tool

4. Click “Calculate” (note if you want it in kilometres and metres, keep “British units” unticked. If you want it in yards and miles, tick “British units”):
   

   Choosing setting and clicking OK

5. The length of your path will then appear in the text field like so:
   

   What we've all been waiting for

That my friends is how you can measure a path you have made in Google Earth! Hopefully Google makes it possible to do this all within Google Earth some day but for now this method seems to work well.

Hope that helps!

Update: It appears that tool is no longer online. According to this page here –http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/earth/thread?tid=4875e41af6b35ebb&hl=en, this site might have similar tools: http://www.sgrillo.net/googleearth/index.htm. I haven’t had a chance to go on another search but if anyone has any luck with it please let me know

Saves Watts logo

Givoogle (for every search they donated money to charity, see my earlier blog post about it here) appears to have been shut down by Google “Don’t Be Evil” Inc. The Givoogle founders have set up a new site which is slightly lame now.

The new site which has been set up, Saves Watts says the following:

“WAIT! What happened to Givoogle? After raising $6,569.89 to fight cancer, Google’s lawyers shut down the site, which, they said, was in violation of Google’s terms of service.

We faced a dilemma – what to do with the more than 1 million monthly Givoogle visitors who want to save the world through searching?

We can’t raise money for charity, but we CAN save energy – SavesWatts has a black background, which uses less energy than white.”

It’s the weirdest replacement site idea I’ve seen for a while. Bit of a stretch. Why not just supply a new theme for Google which switches the colour? Why do you need a new site for that?

So, Google have finally revealed much more about their plans for a new operating system – Chrome OS. As someone who loves the web, bringing an OS which focuses solely on the web is a pretty interesting idea.

I actually had heard Microsoft were looking into doing something similar and found Windows Azure. From what I can tell both focus on cloud computing (pretty much involves having programs and all on the web rather than on PCs, all managed in one central location). They have different uses though and aren’t the same at all.

Google Chrome OS

Google’s OS pretty much involves taking away everything from your computer apart from the web browser. No applications or anything, just a browser. So the sole use of your PC becomes getting onto the internet. Every application you use from creating documents to email are all opened instead through the web browser (e.g. Google Documents, Gmail).

Overall, it’s an interesting idea. Google knows that it’s not for everyone (I can’t see myself being able to work with just a web browser, especially when I’m doing web design or playing games) but it’s brilliant for those who just want a fast and secure computer. For those who only use their PC for Microsoft Office, email and the web – Google’s OS will definitely be a simpler (and I’ll assume cheaper) option.

Here’s Google’s little animation explaining the Chrome OS for anyone who hasn’t seen it:

I also found a concept video which Engadget had on one of their Chrome OS articles, which shows what Chrome OS is likely to be like:

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft’s OS is being released in 2010. It’s mostly a developer release so far, so that developers can begin to develop programs for it. Its idea seems to revolve more around Microsoft hosting applications/data and managing it all for developers. Users then access the programs from the Internet.

Pretty similar to the cloud computing idea of Google’s Chrome OS except Microsoft Azure isn’t an OS for the users, it seems to be an OS that will be running at Microsoft for users to connect to using their own PCs with their own OSes. More like a back end OS from what I understand.

Interestingly, the main similarity is that both OSes use a sketch style video to explain themselves. Here is Microsoft Azure’s:

Personally, I liked Google’s video better. Microsoft’s video is aimed more at developers, whilst Google’s video is aimed at the average person. Google’s video is way more interesting and understandable.

Either way, it looks like we’ll be hearing even more about cloud computing over the next few years (maybe under a different name if the IBM and HP CEOs get their way). Thank goodness Mozilla isn’t looking to create their own operating system just yet.