Overview

Why use GeoServer with Google Earth?

GeoServer is useful when one wants to put a lot of data on to Google Earth. GeoServer automatically generates KML that can be easily and quickly served and visualized in Google Earth. GeoServer operates entirely through a Network Link, which allows it to selectively return information for the area being viewed. With GeoServer as a robust and powerful server and Google Earth providing rich visualizations, they are a perfect match for sharing your data.

Standards-based implementation

GeoServer supports Google Earth by providing KML as a Web Map Service (WMS) output format. This means that adding data published by GeoServer is as simple as constructing a standard WMS request and specifying "application/vnd.google-earth.kml+xml" as the outputFormat. Since generating KML is just a WMS request, it fully supports Styling via SLD.

See the next section (Quickstart) to view GeoServer and Google Earth in action.