Real Player Ad-on Breaks Google Map Search

Ad-onsfor browsers are great, but sometimes they throw up problems. While the RealPlayer Browser ad-on for Fire Fox browsers allows you to automatically find downloadable content on a page it has an unfortunate side effect - it prevents search in Google Maps. So if you have this ad-on active in Fire Fox, then you may only be able to search Google Maps once before you have to refresh the entire page, a pain for those who spend their time go-locating places. We have noticed that this is not the only web function that is affected by the RealPlayer Browser Ad-on. If you are facing this problem then try de-activating this ad-on.

• Select Tools > Ad-ons
• Select the RealPlayer Browser form the list
• Click on Disable
• Restart Fire Fox and see if the problem has been resolved.

More information from the Google Maps Usergroup. Fire Fox is still reported by most of those who use it to be more stable, more friendly and more adaptable than any of Microsoft's IE family.

Klaus Mayer - Panoramas from Australia

It has been fantastic to watch a number of panoramas from rural places in Australia being added to Panoramic Earth in the last few days. A new member, Klaus Mayer, has been adding images from both the The Grampians and from Kangaroo Island. Given the vast distances between the two, this represents quite a lot of time in a car.

Klaus emigrated to Australia in 2000 and claims that photography is just a hobby. One, it seems, to which he is committed. He started creating panoramas when coming across Helmut Dersch’s PTViewer a couple of years ago, at a time when he was still using film.

He recently brought a K10D, is now ‘hooked on panos’ as he put it, and started sharing some on a personal home page. His favourite destinations are in the outback, which means that a lot of driving is required, and time is limited to weekends and holidays. Thankfully, being in Australia, sun is often not a problem.

Klaus started adding Australian images to Panoramic Earth in April 2008. A full list of Klaus’s panoramas is available from his profile, and those interested in his work can follow him via his own RSS feed. About the site, Klaus says ‘I like panoramicearth.com because it shows visitors where the photo was taken and which direction they are facing when viewing the pano’.

Google Maps Loss of Satellite Images

Just over the last few days, the presentation of the satellite images on Google maps has been temperamental, which will cause problems for people wanting to accurately geo-locate pins on maps. For those submitting images to Panoramic Earth, this causes problems both in locating the image and setting the true north point of the panorama. There is not a lot that we can do except hope that this problem, beyond the control of anyone except Google, will be shortly resolved.

Most Popular Panoramas in April 2008

It is always interesting to see what people are looking at. Here is a list of the top 16 most popular and most frequently viewed panoramas from Panoramic Earth in April. Places in Mallorca are popular at the moment, this may be a reflection of the weather in the UK (Mallorca is a very popular destination for people in England), and the fact that the time to book summer holidays is with us.

1. La Pergola Aparthotel in Mallorca
2. Scotts Hotel in Mallorca
3. Es Canet Parc Agroturismo in Mallorca
4. Puerto de Sóller Beach outside Hotel Esplendido in Mallorca
5. Hotel Son Borguny in Mallorca
6. City Hall in Singapore
7. St. Peter's Basilica in Rome
8. Colosseum of Rome in Rome
9. Millennium Bridge in London
10. Ketteringham Hall in Ketteringham
11. The Monument to the Fire of London in London
12. Westminster Cathedral in London
13. Tower Bridge in London
14. The London Eye in London
15. London Bridge in London
16. Circus Maximus in Rome

Personal Photographer RSS

There are now individual contributor feeds for all the photographers that add 360 panoramas to Panoramic Earth. These are found in the photographer's profile, and are a great way of keeping up to date with what your favourite panoramic photographer has been up to. It is quite possible to add the RSS feed to a blog, as has been done in in80clicks where the RSS has been placed into the side of the blog allowing visitors to quickly see what has been going on. Naturally, the best way to use these is to add them to an RSS reader. For those new to RSS, the video below is a good introduction.

Panoramic Earth RSS Feeds

Panoramic Earth now has an RSS feed, which lists the most recent images added to the site. The feed is available from the home page, or simply click on the RSS button shown above. Now you can easily be kept up to date with all the fantastic new 360° panoramas that are added to the site as and when they happen.

For the future, we are planning RSS feeds for each photographer, and are considering whether it would be useful to have them linked to each country.

Panorama of Dalai Lama's Monastery

Though co-incidental, the timing of this could not have been better planned. As there are protests and arrests in London and Paris over the Chinese treatment of Tibet and their own people as try to carry the Olympic torch to Beijing, a user of Panoramic Earth has uploaded a 360° panorama taken from the personal monastery of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Here is the Namgyal Monastery panorama. The Namgyal Monastery is found in Himachal Pradesh, Dharamshala, part of India. The Dalai Lama moved the monastery here when the Chinese red army invaded Tibet in 1959.

Thanks to Malcolm Etherington for this unique and timely contribution to the site.