Google Earth Outreach

Embedding YouTube videos into placemarks

There's no better way to show the public what your organization is all about than with YouTube videos. Make a video of an event you've organized, take people to the site of a project you're working on, or get personal testimonials on how your group has impacted people's lives. This tutorial will show you how to do this by using Google Maps and Google Earth to bring the world to your doorstep.

Embedding YouTube videos into Google Maps

Google Maps allows you to take a YouTube video and embed it into a map you've created with My Maps. Take a closer look at this Boulder Creek Cleanup in Colorado as an example. This user embedded text, video, photographs, and used special icons to show what kinds of trash that they found in Boulder Creek in Colorado (including an inner tube!).

Let's begin!

Go to YouTube and sign in with your Google Account. If you don't have a Google Account, sign up here. You can also log in with your YouTube Account. Then, upload your video onto YouTube or choose a video that's already uploaded.

Open the video you wish to embed in your site. Copy the HTML code in the Embed field. The code will look something like this:

<object width="425" height="350">
  <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/2_V-7g0LAZI"></param>
  <param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param>
  <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/2_V-7g0LAZI"
    type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent"
    width="425" height="350">
  </embed>

</object>

Go to Google Maps and click on the "My Maps" tab. Open the map where you'd like to embed the video by clicking on the map's title. Or create a new map using the "My Maps" tab ( how? )
Click the "Edit" button. Select an existing placemark or create a new placemark by clicking on the placemark icon:
The placemark balloon will appear. Select "Edit HTML" and paste the YouTube HTML code that you copied in Step 2 into the Description field. You can also add a description before or after this block of code. You should see something like this:
Click OK, and then click the "Done" button. You can now view the YouTube video in the placemark balloon by simply clicking on the placemark.

If you click on the link "View in Google Earth," you can download a .kml file of your map with the embedded YouTube video which will open in Google Earth.

Embedding YouTube videos into Google Earth

Similar to Google Maps, you can easily embed a YouTube video into a placemark balloon in Google Earth. We'll walk you through the process. Please note that embedding videos into balloons only works on Windows and with Google Earth version 4.2 or newer. If you don't have the most recent version installed, you can download it here.

Let's begin!

Upload your video onto YouTube or choose a video that's already uploaded.

Copy the HTML code in the Embed field. The code looks similar to this:

<object width="425" height="350">
  <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/2_V-7g0LAZI"></param>

  <param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param>
  <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/2_V-7g0LAZI"
    type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent"
    width="425" height="350">
  </embed>
</object>

Open Google Earth.
Choose a placemark you've already created that you'd like to enhance with video, or create a new placemark by using the "Add placemark" tool:
Give your placemark a name. In the Description field, paste the YouTube HTML code which you copied in Step 2.
Click OK. Look in your Places list on the left and notice that you have a new placemark under the My Places folder. If you wish to further edit the placemark, right-click on its title and select "Properties" from the drop-down menu.

Your finished placemark with the embedded video should look something like this. We titled ours "Google Earth Outreach" and only entered the YouTube HTML code in the description.

Share your embedded videos with others

You can share the map you created with its new video by copying the text in the Link to this page field and pasting it in an email. You can also embed a map into your website or blog (see the Embedding Maps into a Website tutorial).

Additionally, Google Earth allows you to save a simple placemark to your hard drive in the .kmz file format. To do so, right-click over the placemark in Google Earth and Select Save As. You can attach that .kmz file in an email.

What's next?

Now that you can embed videos into maps and Google Earth placemarks, the next step is to create more custom placemarks and manage multiple placemarks using Google Spreadsheets. Learn how to do both these tasks with these tutorials: