14 DAY TRIAL // If you ever asked yourselves where the Google 3D imagery comes from, then you should know that the Mountain View company tries anything it can to encourage users design their own drawings. Because of that, the search giant also offers a 3D modeling tool in order to allow the participants to build powerful designs.
The interesting fact is that Google also organizes contests and special campaigns with attractive prizes, luring users to produce 3D drawings of their houses, streets, buildings and cities. The last contest, Build Your Campus in 3D Competition, is now over after approximately 4000 creations fought for the first position. According to Allyson McDuffie, Education Program Development, no less than 7 teams with 41 members will visit the Googleplex in August for a 3-day trip.
As we expected, most of the drawings are available for download in KMZ format which allows the Google Earth fans to import the imagery into the downloadable application and view it with ease.
"To the finalists: In the coming weeks, as these campus models are added to Google Earth's 3D Buildings layer, we hope that people will see them, learn from your creativity and appreciate the time, effort and pride you put into your submissions," the judges said. "We're sure that your work will be extraordinarily useful in college recruiting efforts and campus planning activities, and we look forward to seeing what else you will do with your new found SketchUp and Google Earth skills. You've set a very high standard and hopefully inspired those that will follow you."
Since the release of Google SketchUp 6, the Mountain View company also added interoperability with Google Earth in order to require users' help and let them build their own 3D creations. The consumers were then able to upload the drawings on Google Warehouse, a special website meant to host these files and pray that some of them will be implemented into the mapping tool.