TurnHere Tricks Out Google Terra

Local short film production firm TurnHere has a new integration with Google Earth that’s kinda neat. When users map a city or neighborhood that TurnHere has a short film about, an icon tags it as such. Clicking the icon launches a pop-up window displaying a still from the film and brief description. There are a whole bunch of them up there — from Punxsutawney to Seoul. If you’ve got Google Earth, you can download the app.

At the moment, all the films are of the “neighborhood” variety, as opposed to the advertorial films TurnHere creates for paying advertisers (lots of restaurants and shops). According to the company’s director of business development, Keith Louie, getting the ad films into Google Earth is something he’ll “definitely have some conversations” with Google about. However, he’s not so sure that will fly with the Web behemoth because “the thing about Google Earth is it’s very editorial driven.”

Still, Google makes its money through advertising; I’d bet it’s only a matter of time before the company integrates Google Local, Google Base and ads into its Earth app.

I spoke with TurnHere’s CEO Brad Inman the other day about the project, and he told me, “We worked hard to do it…. These things seem so simple and they’re not.”