Resisting the urge to break out R.E.M.’s It’s The End Of The World, Google’s development team announced today that they are shutting down the Google Earth API. Consistent with Google’s own policies, the API will be supported for a period of one year meaning Google Earth will reach end of life in its current form on December 12, 2015.
According to Google, the primary reason for this move was dwindling support for the NPAPI plugin framework that the Earth API was built on. Both Firefox and Chrome have announced that they are removing support from their browsers for NPAPI due to security concerns.
Google also mentions that developers were finding it increasingly difficult to use the API across platforms, especially on mobile devices. We may have already seen a hint of this a couple months ago when Google released an updated version of Google Earth for Android that uses a new rendering engine. Now other platforms will have to pursue similar paths if they want to build 3D environments using Google’s Earth data.
Google does indicate “3D is in our blood” and they plan to announce some new developments around the Earth product.
source: Geo Developers Blog (Google)
via: Maps Mania
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