HTML and browsers like IE have come to define what the Internet and the Web are, how data is organized, and how it is presented and navigated by the user. But this understanding of he Web is just a snapshot in its continual evolution. There have been a number of attempts to provide a 3D experience on the web (like early VRML). But most of these occurred before the technology could really support them and they emerged as a single point in the vast digital universe - a hobby shop demo of capabilities rather than a really useful tool. But in the last few years products like Google Earth and Worldwind have emerged as tools for viewing data geographically. It allows us to see the world as it has been in the form of maps, satellite images, and multiple layers of cultural information – including 3D features. Google Earth is a billboard announcing that it is time to try a 3D version of the Web again. But this time the widely available technology can support it and Google Earth begins with an integrated framework of data that already has value and can grow into a much richer space. There is a great deal of information on the web that can be organized geographically and presented via a 3D web browser like Google Earth. For people who need to understand their neighborhoods, vacation locations, combat zones, or other areas of interest it is highly inefficient to have to collect data from many disparate sources in the current web. Instead they should be able to access it geographically. It should be organized and offered up by its location. This would be a great addition, but it does not mean that all information can be organized this way. All of the entries in Wikipedia cannot be plotted on a map – e.g. Chevy Chase may mean a comedy actor, a city in Maryland, a financial corporation, or a large group of neighborhood branch banks. Half of these do not fit well on a 3D map. It seems that Google Earth or something like it needs to merge with the current browser to create a tool that allows people to see data in more forms than just flat HTML pages. Adding a 3D application to the desktop is not a good idea because it splits the data into different silos that have to be navigated independently. Instead the two views need to be interlaced together so that a web surfer sees data in the form that is most natural for it.
Labels: 3D, browser, Google Earth
