Hey Look! ArcGIS Explorer FINALLY Available to the Public

Explore the World with ESRI ArcGIS Explorer

ESRI announced today that ArcGIS Explorer is available to the public. This unique lightweight application lets you not only connect directly to a variety of ready-to-use globes hosted by ESRI but also provides tasks that allow you to do more than just visualize a simple map. You can use ArcGIS Explorer to leverage data, services, and applications on the Web by easily connecting to your own ArcGIS services or those published by others. This application helps you extend the power of these Web-based services by fusing them with your local data.

Well there you go, you can freely use AGX. Hooray ArcGIS!

13 Comments

  1. Aaron K. says:

    You crack me up always James….

  2. Yaniv says:

    well…
    what can i say?
    i think that skylineglobe is still the best…

  3. Cellulose says:

    Hopefully a step in the right direction…

    Though now I’ll have to endure the endless “but it doesn’t have GOOD imagery like the ‘FREE’ Google Earth” complaints from all of the ESRI-pundits (i.e. everyone where I work).

    Hopefully this doesn’t backfire or spiral out of control where ESRI ends up having to devote all of their resources to maintaining a vast library of “free” imagery and data.

  4. Joseph Wallis says:

    next time someone complains about imagery do two things:

    First, ask them if that imagery had allowed them to make money saving business decisions or has it just let them see their neighbords back yard.

    Second, ask them to go price the same streaming image service WITH A SLA. Since no REAL company would ever put up with the fickle nature of ‘free’. Remember you always get what you pay for.

    I’ve resorted to a dictatorial stance on GE and all the ‘free’ blah blah. First, I have banned all non pro editions as the free verison of GE is for non commercial use. Second, if a person insists on using it I tell them tough cookies, AGS is the GIS platform here and they can use what we already pay for.

  5. Mike says:

    I downloaded AGX and tried dragging a shapefile into the viewer…I got something like “File Format Not Supported’. AGX can’t even read shapefiles!!!

  6. James Fee says:

    Mike, I’m not sure what to say. My copy loads shapefiles with no issue.

  7. Cellulose says:

    AGX definately can read shapefiles–I do it all the time. Just hit File -> Add Content.

    It’s just not supported through Drag and Drop (put in a feature request with ESRI).

    Supported formats through drag and drop: http://services.arcgisonline.com/380//explorer/help/drag_and_drop.htm

  8. cho says:

    hi i am study

  9. cho says:

    i am know study GIS

  10. David says:

    In reading the FAQ for ArcGIS Online, it looks like the data is only available for ‘non-commercial use’ in AGX. (free for licensed Arc Desktop users).

    So, from an agency standpoint, we are in a similar spot as we are with Google Earth. Our users could still use the application, but would need to add their own worldwide datasets.

    Anyone else have a thought on this?