ESRI’s ArcGIS Explorer Revealed

October 26th, 2005 · 7 Comments · ArcGIS Explorer

Both Ed Parsons and Jeff Thurston give us a quick look at the new ESRI ArcGIS Explorer at the 20th ESRI European User Conference. I’m not one to use the word “Google Earth Killer” until I’ve played with it, but both Ed says:

ArcGIS Explorer will be a free 15Mb download from the ESRI website and will connect to a dedicated ArcWeb server farm at ESRI providing an experience similar to Google Earth, although I was not clear where the imagery is sourced from. What got me excited however, is the ability of ArcGIS Explorer to use other data services including OGC WMS and WFS servers and any ArcIMS server you may already use. ArcGIS can also display local data, File GDB’s,shape files, most image formats and even KML files from your PC’s hard drive.

Rather than the small controlled demo at the 2005 UC, this demo was of the actual product and it appears that it has impressed many GIS professionals. Jeff says:

You are going to love this. This is a 2nd generation GIS product that is Google Maps, Google Earth, Virtual Earth and World Wind and more. ESRI has taken a major leap – a revolutionary leap – into the viewer exploration world.

It is one thing to say that ArcGIS Explorer is a Google Earth competitor, but it would seem that ArcGIS Explorer will change the way people use GIS. I can’t wait to see it.

Tags:

7 responses so far ↓

1 Karen // Oct 26, 2005 at 6:02 pm

Don’t you think that Google has a more mainstream broad appeal where everyone has heard of Google and Google Maps, Google Earth etc, whereas ESRI is mostly known to the geographic community?

Sure, everyone in GIS and geographic-related industries know that ESRI is one of the top GIS companies and will certainly download and play with ArcGIS Explorer, but how big is that community compared to the millions of eyes (and potential dollars) that Google has taken from ESRI?
2 James Fee // Oct 26, 2005 at 6:08 pm

I’d guess if the content and ability to customize ArcGIS Explorer is greater than Google Earth, people will use ArcGIS Explorer especially if KML is supported (which it sounds like it is). Google only controls the viewer, not the content. ESRI has better imagery in ArcWeb (and more coverage of the world than Google has) and if they leverage that, then they will succeed. How much easier would have the Earthquake gone if better imagery was available. Rather than having to use KMZ, you’d just stream it all from ESRI’s sources.

Unlike search, everyone has access to the same data. If ESRI has more of it than Google does (beyond just Imagery), why wouldn’t it be popular? I havne’t even seen this version of ArcGIS Explorer, but I’ve seen what ESRI serves up on ArcWeb. If they push some of them to the ArcGIS Explorer client then we’ll see something impressive. Sure it is cute that people create these KML files for roads and such, but I think people would rather have better coverage out of the box, rather than have to search the internet for the best and latest KML file for what they need.
3 Red_rover1 // Oct 27, 2005 at 8:56 pm

The real question for me is are the going to be able to serve out some useful form of ArcWeb services for free, to millions of users. It’s easy for ArcWeb to have better data when it charges for it. How are they going to do it when users of Google Earth expect a lot for free?
4 James Fee // Oct 27, 2005 at 9:16 pm

That is a big question. Hopefully we’ll know that answer soon, but unless it is equal to GE, people won’t migrate to it.

One thing we do see is KML has become the standard for consumer desktop GIS. All the files created so far will work for both systems. The user will win in the end.
5 Brian Flood // Oct 28, 2005 at 7:22 am

I wonder (I hope ;)) ArcGIS Explorer will support the entire KML spec and not just the geometry stuff (e.g. NetworkLink, nested Folders, GroundOverlay, ScreenOverlay, styleUrl etc.)
6 Geared Up Blog // Oct 28, 2005 at 10:01 am

Google Earth Killer?

Before I get back to work (even though it is friday!) I had better post this one last one;
There’s talk on a number of blogs about the upcoming release of ERSI’s GOOGLE EARTH KILLER! It does look good, but I’ll let…
7 Spatially Adjusted with James Fee » Blog Archive » // Nov 23, 2005 at 3:49 pm

[...] Scoble links to Spatially Adjusted in a non-GYM post. Maybe Public ArcWeb Services 2006 is timed just right to take advantage of this Google Mapping rut people seem to be in. Heck, I bet Scoble doesn’t even know about ArcGIS Explorer, all the fun of Google Earth, but none of the “GYM” baggage. [...]