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Embed Voice Annotation In Google Earth Placemarks



Digital Geography suggests a neat way to quickly add voice annotation to Google Earth placemarks. Record your message at Vocaroo.com, and when you’re done, click on the “Post on the internet” link. You can then copy and paste the HTML code directly into the placemark Description section: right-click on the placemark, choose Properties, click on the Description if it isn’t showing, then directly paste the Vocaroo code there. When you click on the placemark, the pop-up balloon will display a Flash player for your audio message.

For more advanced annotation, it would probably be better to record and edit your message in MP3 format, upload it to a web location, then try one of the free embeddable Flash MP3 players described on this page. For example, for the Google Reader MP3 player, take the code:

<embed type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” src=”http://www.google.com/reader/ui/3247397568-audio-player.swf?audioUrl=MP3_FILE_URL” width=”400″ height=”27″ allowscriptaccess=”never” quality=”best” bgcolor=”#ffffff” wmode=”window” flashvars=”playerMode=embedded” />

Note: Don’t copy and paste the above code, as that doesn’t work – copy and paste it from the code box on this website. Replace the “MP3_FILE_URL” section with the full link to your uploaded MP3 file, and then copy and paste the code into your placemark’s description section (same as above). Clicking on the placemark will bring up the balloon showing the MP3 player:

12-1-2008-9.50.34 AM

Just click on the play button to hear the message.

Other posts in the Google Earth Data Tools series

  1. KML Editors
  2. Diagramming In Google Maps And Google Earth With Smoot
  3. Plotting Data In Google Earth Using GE-Graph
  4. Drawing Grids, Paths And Polygons In Google Earth Using GE-Path
  5. Online Google Earth Utilities For Buffering And Area Calculations
  6. Easy Display Of Thematic Data In Google Maps And Google Earth
  7. Using GIF/PNG Transparency In Displaying Raster Graphics In Google Earth
  8. Adding Vector Graphic Objects To Google Earth
  9. Animated GIFs In Google Earth
  10. Creating A Network KML Link To A Google Spreadsheet
  11. LIDAR Tools
  12. EarthPlot Software Tools For Google Earth
  13. Geographic Time Animations
  14. Convert TIGER Polygons To KML Files
  15. Putting Time Data Into A KML File
  16. Using The KML Time Embedder To Stamp Time Data Into A Google Earth File
  17. Using The KML Time Embedder, Concluded
  18. KML Time Embedder Improved With Hour-Minute-Second Ability
  19. Grid Creation And Path/Polygon Measurements: Two New Online KML Tools
  20. Google Earth PhotoOverlay Tool
  21. KML Random Placemark Generator
  22. Update For Online Google Earth Utilities
  23. KML Time Code Utility
  24. Screen Overlays In Google Earth
  25. The KML Screen Overlay Maker Utility
  26. KML Screen Overlay Maker Utility, Concluded
  27. KML Circle Generator
  28. Creating Google Earth Screen Overlays With EarthPaint
  29. Text Editor With KML Validation
  30. Online Spreadsheet To KML Converter
  31. Version 2.0 Of Google’s Online KML Spreadsheet Mapper Tool Released
  32. Creating Google Earth Ground Overlays From Georeferenced Images
  33. Google Earth Ground Overlays With GIF Transparency
  34. Creating "Transparent" Topo Map Overlays For Google Earth
  35. Using Google Earth Ground Overlays To Display Shapefile Data
  36. Converting 3D Objects Into Google Earth Format
  37. Thematic Mapping In Google Earth
  38. An Online KML Validator

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6 Responses to “Embed Voice Annotation In Google Earth Placemarks”


  1. 1 silvia

    i tried to use your instructions but if i paste the code it deosnt work at all

    could you help me please!
    i’m running an art project using googlemaps and i’d like to add vocarro files

    cheers

    silvia

  2. 2 Leszek Pawlowicz

    Did you go to the website linked in my post, and copy the code text from there? As I note in my post, copying the code directly from my post won’t work.

  3. 3 jasper

    Neat trick. Works fine in Google Earth. However when I try exporting as kml and importing into Google Maps it leaves out the code. I have the same problem when trying to embed an audio file into a marker in Google Maps directly. Any suggestions or work arounds?

    Thx,
    Jasper

  4. 4 Leszek Pawlowicz

    Try saving it as a KMZ file, and see if that works.

  5. 5 jasper

    Tried that as well… even though I knew it wouldn’t make a difference :-) Within the kmz/kml file is the following code which calls the mp3 player:

    <![CDATA[]]>

    However this part is taken out of the description when importing into Google Maps. I know I can achieve this using the Google Maps API, however I want to make it part of a tutorial for students and so want to keep the workflow as easy as possible. Google Maps only seems to allow embedding Google Video or YouTube. Now all the media I would like to be able to add is photos (link from Picasa, Flickr is no problem), video (YouTube will do), audio (could turn into movie and use YouTube but looking for something better) and slideshows (like from SlideShare, for which I can really not think of an alternative)…
    So more suggestion? ;-)

  6. 6 jasper

    Sorry, didn’t correctly add code snippet:

    < ![CDATA[ ]] >

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