Google Earth gets geotagged YouTube videos
Watch YouTube videos in Google Earth with a new layer.
If you were waiting for YouTube to roll out a maps feature to browse geotagged videos, the solution has come in the form of a new Google Earth layer released today. With the layer enabled, videos will pop up anywhere you are on the map and play on the video's page on YouTube if you click the thumbnail. PC users get a slightly better experience than Mac or and Linux users, as the videos will play right inside the application.
Like other layers in Google Earth, you need to turn this one on to start seeing videos. You'll find it under the "featured content" section. Once enabled, each video shows up as a little YouTube logo that can be clicked for more information, such as a video thumbnail preview, how many views it has, and a community rating.
If you're a YouTube user with submitted videos, you might have noticed that the geotagging feature hasn't always been there. The option was soft-launched in mid-June, but nothing had really come of it until now. The good news is that you can go back and to add geographical locations to any of your old videos by going to the "date and map options" settings of an uploaded clip. There's also handy search box, which will let you hunt for the city or street address, and see it on a map.
It's not clear if Google's showing every geotagged video submitted to the service, but certainly quite a few are on there at the moment. In some cases, clicking one icon will pull up multiple videos and let you choose which you'd like to see. I wouldn't mind seeing a similar feature on YouTube (sans the neat 3D effects or need for the application), similar to what Flickr has done with their geomapped photos.
