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Google Earth API Will Be Retired On December 12, 2015
An anonymous reader writes Google [on Friday] announced it plans to retire the Google Earth API on December 12, 2015. The reason is simple: Both Chrome and Firefox are removing support for Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface (NPAPI) plugins due to security reasons, so the API's death was inevitable. The timing makes sense. Last month, Google updated its plan for killing off NPAPI support in Chrome, saying that it would block all plugins by default in January and drop support completely in September. The company also revealed that the Google Earth plugin had dropped in usage from 9.1 percent of Chrome users in October 2013 to 0.1 percent in October 2014. Add dwindling cross-platform support (particularly on mobile devices), and we're frankly surprised the announcement didn't come sooner.
The reason why so relatively few dare putting their long-term stuff on Google App Engine: they suddenly feel the need for a spring cleanup and, boom, your investment goes south.
Yup, I went through the calendar api death amongst other things :(
So what is NPAPI being replaced with across the browsers, please?
And please don't make me laugh with "Javascript and CSS".
It is very wrong for internet freedom that plugins are going to be banned from ALL major browsers. While there is a security risk, they can also provide more user experience. Imagine for example if someone created a plugin that would parse facebook posts and IF there was a certain text that would serve as a link to content, it would replace the content.
Eg.: there would be [image:123456789ABCDEF] and it would be replaced by an image from elsewhere, thus allowing to integrate otherwise banned content like nudity. Such plugin could enable much more freedom, same would go for twitter.
I hope there will be at least some browser with plugin capability, so that users can CHOOSE if they want plugins or not.
Not that I'm complaining, but you really do need to pay attention to Google's plans if you have any applications that make use of their APIs. They do love to cast things adrift on a pretty regular basis. Maybe I don't do enough development to pay the proper attention, but does Google have a single source for announcements like this? Perhaps an RSS feed would work, then I could use Google Reader to keep an eye on things. Oh, right.
My UID is prime!
So as always, using Flash have proven time and time again to be the safe, long-term choice. I'd add in Java applets, but I think most people uninstalled Java plugins during the last security warnings.
Google, what happened? You used to be cool bro...
This is definitely not the first time an Google API bites the bullet --- what I am wondering is, what about the fate of other google APIs?
Will they go "poof!" as well?
Asm.js just about sums up everything that's wrong with Mozilla today (and that's a whole helluva lot!).
Asm.js is just JavaScript. That's all it is. It's JavaScript. Mind you, it's a subset of JavaScript that's awful for humans to work with, but it's still just a subset of JavaScript.
The first problem is, obviously, that asm.js is JavaScript. JavaScript is, by far, the worst mainstream programming language ever to have been created. It's riddled with unjustifiable flaws, from its very foundation to its very peak. I don't give a fuck if Brendan Eich only had a week to get it working, back in 1995. That was almost two decades ago. That's lots of time for these goddamn stupid problems to have been fixed many times over. Mozilla needs to get over their raging hardon for JavaScript. It's a bad language, and it needs to go.
The second problem is, obviously, that asm.js not a proper bytecode-based runtime like Java, .NET, or PNaCl, yet it's intended to be used as if it were a proper bytecode-based runtime. When you try to use some turds as a pair of boots in a storm, your feet will get soaked and smelly. It's the same principle when you try to use JavaScript as a replacement for a proper bytecode-based runtime.
The third problem is, obviously, that Mozilla keeps on pushing this idiocy, even when it's clear that asm.js is a fucking stupid idea and the wrong way of doing things. But that's just how Mozilla works these days. This we're-doing-the-wrong-thing-and-it's-obvious-but-let's-keep-on-doing-it-even-when-our-few-remaining-users-beg-us-not-do philosophy of theirs has extended to all of their projects, and it shows.
Jesus Christ, Mozilla, get rid of asm.js and use PNaCl. PNaCl is sensible, even if it did come from Google.
Asm.js needs to go! It's shit!
One of the things I do with Google Earth is install a GPS tracker on my cell phone and take it on a skydive. I use MyTracks to log my coordinates every second and use a little application I wrote to turn the MyTracks data into a KML file, detect where I deployed my canopy and drop a push-pin there and plot the jump on Google Earth so you can see the jump in 3D. MyTracks actually has an "Export to KML" option, but it doesn't handle altitude very well and just clamps your entire track to the ground. Apparently the developers didn't consider the "I'm 2.5 miles above the surface of the planet" use-case when they wrote the thing heh.
The cell phone isn't a great GPS tracker to use for this -- the GPS hardware in the Samsung Galaxy S5 I'm using now is actually almost usable. The S3 used to regularly lose 2/3rds of the points on my jump. There are custom skydiver GPS units available that have much higher accuracy, and they're used regularly in wingsuit competitions and stuff like that. It'd be really neat to plot an entire load of skydivers together on Google Earth and do a real-time replay of each one's position along their track during the jump. I could pull this off using the socket server method of putting KML into Google Earth and updating a new point for each wingsuit's location every second. It wouldn't even really be all that much work, but I don't really like how I'd have to do the design, and that's kept me from it.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
I've tried Google Earth (via Maps) at work -- maybe it doesn't work anymore... we're having problems because of heavy Google filtering by our IDS (it seems, I'm not with IT).
I wanted to show my 4-year-old... but it didn't work that way on Linux (says browser not supported, though I tried with Chromium not Chrome). I was thinking about using Marble or digging for Google Earth. Will it be discontinued (if it was not already)?
Another solution would be perhaps Celestia (I seem to recall it showed planets with the amount of data we currently have).
Thanks in advance.
So no harm done.
Killing off NPAPI is very bad, for job related reasons, I have to use the Acrobat Reader Plugin 9.5.5 on Linux to submit PDFs., Nothing else under Linux does this.
Adobe's PDF reader actually renders every document properly, unlike native browser PDF readers.
I can't speak to Java applets (what still uses those?) But you can still download PDFs and open them in Adobe Reader. This lets you take advantage of the memory barrier that the operating system already enforces between firefox.exe and acrord32.exe.
First, Adobe can choose to make Adobe Flash Player for PPAPI available only through Google. Second, PPAPI is not frozen. Google can change behaviors behind Mozilla's back.
Then where's the frozen version of the spec that other browser developers can implement to interoperate? Otherwise it's "Chrome ain't done till Firefox don't run."
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