| There is an underlying language, called KML, that directs Google Earth to do various tasks, such as to apply an overlay in a specific position or to put a placemark on a location. KML gives Google Earth great flexibility. People who are not associated with the Google Earth development team can create their own Google Earth applications and make these available. This means that many people who have good ideas about new Google Earth applications can create new capabilities on their own. KML, in many ways, is very similar to HTML, the language that "runs" the World-Wide Web. HTML and KML differ in that KML has specific geographic capabilities. KML is now a standard and companies other than Google can use it in support of geographic display programs. Files with KML code can reside on your own computer and you can open these in Google Earth. KML files can also be stored on server computers. In this case you can click on a link and the file will be loaded into Google Earth. There are a number of programs that build custom KML files. An example is a program that takes data in Excel files and create graphic display overlay. You will probably never need to look at a KML file. With a bit of study you can probably figure them out (they are "people readable"), but this is more something that programmers and system developers need to know about. At this stage, you just need to know that the approach taken by Google Earth is very supportive of independent developers. |
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KML: The Language |