Google Is Hiring You To Create Buildings For Google Earth

Google is launching their version of Sim City today, Google Building Maker. The tool lets you create buildings for Google Earth. Building Maker lets you pick any building and construct a 3D version of it using photos and building blocks provided by Google. Google says that buildings are relatively fast to construct using their tool, taking only a matter of minutes.

Building Maker runs within your web browser and connect with your Google Account so you can get credit for your building. You can also use Google SketchUp to edit or modify your creation.

Google Earth Is Creating Virtual World

When your building is finished, you submit it to Google, where it will be deposited in a giant 3D warehouse. If yours is the best version of the building, Google will add it to the 3D building layer in Google Earth. Google Building Maker, which is available in 14 languages, lets you make buildings in only 50 cities at the moment, but will be rolling out the feature to other cities in the future.

While Building Maker is definitely a fun tool, Google gets some benefit out of this. They are crowdsourcing building making to their users, in addition to doing this internally. Google is also crowdsourcing to help update Google Maps, letting users report changes to a particular location, destination or roads.

Here are some more things you should know about Building Maker:

• Building Maker is an online tool, and it runs entirely in your web browser (Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, etc.)
• Before you can add a building to Google Earth, you need to sign in to your Google Account (so you get credit for what you contribute).
• Models you create with Building Maker “live” in the Google 3D Warehouse (a giant, online repository of 3D models).
• You can use Google SketchUp (our free, general-purpose 3D modeling tool) to edit or otherwise modify anything you make with Building Maker.
• Make sure you have the latest version of Google Earth installed on your computer.
• If you’re on a Mac, you need to download the Google Earth plug-in directly.

Building Maker is free and available in 14 languages. Go to www.google.com/buildingmaker to join the worldwide mapping community. Have fun!