Five teams from around the world have been selected as finalists from more than 100 entrants in Google’s Model Your Town Competition. Now, it’s up to you to vote for the best entry.
The competition was announced in December 2009 as a way for citizens to show pride in their hometowns by creating detailed 3D models of their communities. The contest also served as a cheap way to add more 3D content to Google Earth and as a nice platform for showcasing the capabilities of two Google 3D modeling tools: SketchUp (a 2006 acquisition) and Building Maker (a Google product launched in fall 2009).
Teams in Barranco, Lima, Peru; Braunschweig, Niedersachsen, Germany; Donostia-San Sebastián, Gipuzkoa, Spain; Dursley, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom; and West Palm Beach, Florida, United States have all made the cut. It’s interesting to note that the Spanish team is the only entrant with multiple contributing members; every other town modeled was a solo project.
Users will have until May 1, 2010, to cast their votes for the best-modeled town. To help you decide, each entry comes with a one-minute demo video, a KML file of models in Google Earth, a showcase of the models in Google’s 3D Warehouse and a gallery of real-world photographs from each team — presumably to allow non-residents to judge the accuracy of the 3D models. The winner will be announced on or around May 15.
For more social media coverage, follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook
Tags: 3D, building maker, Google, Sketchup, social media
