John Hanke Talks Google Earth Stats and Numbers + iPhone

Rumors have run long and hard about what Google may be doing in the virtual worlds space with its Google Earth and Sketchup products. VirtualWorldsNews attended South by Southwest (SXSW) yesterday and sat in on the "Living in a Spatial Reality" panel. John Hanke, Product Director, Earth/Maps/Sketchup, Google sat on the panel and gave some Google Earth stats and details.  While he didn't reveal any virtual worlds expansion plans for Google Earth specifically, he did shed some light on what they've built to date or actually - more importantly - what users have built on top of Google Earth to date and some other interesting details - including the fact that Google Earth will be on the Apple's iPhone. Given that published reports say the iPhone will be a closed system but Google Earth could be considered an open system it begs the question as to whether Google Earth holds an opportunity for developers to develop with the iPhone in mind. 30,000 developers are creating mashups and other stuff on top of Google Earth, says Hanke - more details below:

- Google Earth will be on the Apple's iPhone. 
- 30,000 developers are creating mashups and other stuff on top of Google Earth.
- In Google Earth approx. 1/3 of Earth's land surface has been covered by high resolution photos.
- Users have mapped and tagged 1.5 million places.  Google does not map anything itself. 
- 1 million geo referenced photos currently tied to Google Earth. 
- Wikipedia links have been integrated (no details on how many)
- 1000s of models have been submitted by users.  Cities and govs are getting involved.
- City of Berlin has created 40,000 3D models that overlay over Berlin in Google Earth.