16 October 2009 - Build the world around you with Google Building Maker

Google have released an innovative new addon to the Google Earth plugin which allows you to make buildings. The Google Building Maker lets you use a few simple interactive tools which let you place a simple object over Google's 2D map and shape the building. To make the process easy you are presented with various ariel view images of the same place from different angles.

You are provided with a few tools which allow you to extend the basic cube or add a pitched roof. Textures are taken care of automatically based on the ariel images. You can preview the object at anytime. When you are happy with your object you can also load it into Google SketchUp to make further refinements such as better textures and add more building detail.

Although this sounds fantastic, currently you cannot choose anywhere in the world to place a new object. It is done from a predefined list of cities around the world. Also the object you create has to be checked before being added to Google Earth which means there could be a hundred people creating the same object and then only one being picked after all that hard work.

Saying that it looks pretty good and is really easy to use and will make bringing to life Google Earth something to look forward to.