Google Earth Plugin available for Mac OSX

[kpapp]

Firstly, thank you Google Earth team for finally providing the GE
browser plugin for the Mac...Firefox 3 and Safari! I'm sorry for being
a jerk, but why is the plugin for the Mac 47 Mb! Holy crap! It would
be faster for the user to download Google Earth itself, then get the
KMZ. The plugin for Windows is a few megabytes...what's the scoop?

[Roman N]

Hi kpapp,

Thanks for your support! We've worked very long and hard on this
release. One of the reasons for the large size is the fact that both
PPC and Intel versions of the plugin binaries are packaged in. There
are also some other space-saving changes that we may look into later
on.

BTW, a blog post is coming shortly.

- Roman

[kpapp]

Thanks for the quick reply, Roman. I thought the "dual packaging" was
the culprit. Keep up the good work.

Ken

[Ilgaz]

> Hi kpapp,
>
> Thanks for your support! We've worked very long and hard on this
> release. One of the reasons for the large size is the fact that both
> PPC and Intel versions of the plugin binaries are packaged in. There
> are also some other space-saving changes that we may look into later
> on.
>
> BTW, a blog post is coming shortly.
>
> - Roman

It could be fixed by detecting Browser arch (ppc, intel) in download
page and provide separate ppc/intel plugins and a single universal one
for mixed environments.

On the other hand, I am really grateful that you didn't abandon PPC
users like some other companies.

I don't know if Adobe acquired them or not, iNosso, that company
responsible for 22 MB Adobe reader download which grows to 220 MB can
be contacted too. Smith Micro guys also claims same sort of algorithm
in their latest Stuffit but of course, I am not mad to recommend
a .sitx file :)

[kpapp]

Good idea, Ilgaz. Although I tend to dislike "browser sniffing," on
most sites, I like the use of JavaScript in this case as it minimizes
bandwidth usage on both ends. I could care less about downloading 47
megs here at work, but for many others, who deal with bandwidth caps
by their ISP or have slow internet connections, making the download
smaller would certainly "promote" the spread of the GE browser plugin.

Oh, I almost forgot. Google Earth devs...please don't solve this
problem by asking the Mac user to install a meta-installer which then
downloads and installs the correct architecture plugin. Lame. ;-)