Josie Wernecke,senior technical writer at Google, works with the experts who created KML’s first releases.  She wrote The Inventor Mentor and The Inventor Toolmaker and coauthored The VRML 2.0 Handbook (with Jed Hartman), all published by Addison-Wesley.

Foreword     xiii
Preface     xv

Chapter 1: A Quick Tour       1
KML: An International Standard     2
Is the KML Specification Complete?     3
A Wealth of Resources      4
Creating and Sharing KML.       4
Tell Your Story with KML.      4
Sky in KML          8
“Hello, Earth”       9
The Copy-and-Paste Trick.      13
What’s Next?      13

Chapter 2: Placemarks and Balloons               15
X Marks the Spot 16
Customizing Your KML Presentation     17
Placemarks with Points      18
Default Balloon.     18
Modifying the Balloon      19
Specifying a Viewpoint       31
Flying to a Placemark in Google Earth      35
Other Children of Placemark      39
Syntax for        39
Related Feature Elements      40
Packaging Up KML Files into KMZ Archives           40
What’s Next?       43

Chapter 3: Geometry       45
Chapter Overview      46
Coordinates: A Closer Look     46
Line Strings      48
Polygons      55
MultiGeometry        62
Models       64
Including Author and Source Information      70
What’s Next?      70

Chapter 4: Styles and Icons         71
Chapter Overview     72
Travels through Literature     72
Building Blocks for Styles     73
Shared versus Inline Styles     96
Style Maps for Rollover Behavior      100
What’s Next?     107

Chapter 5: Overlays      109
Chapter Overview      110
What Is an Overlay?      110
Tools for Creating Overlays     112
Basic Concepts      113
Another Way to Specify the Viewpoint: Camera       116
Ground Overlay     123
Screen Overlay      128
PhotoOverlay       133
What’s Next?      143

Chapter 6: Network Link     145
Chapter Overview      146
What Is a Network Link?      147
Why Use Network Links?      149
Client/Server Basics      149
Syntax for         153
Simple Network Link Example      157
Refreshing Network Links     159
Advanced Example: Puff Volcanic Ash Tracking Model      160
Sending Information from Client-Side to Server-Side     164
Network Link Controls     171
What’s Next?     176

Chapter 7: Dynamic KML     177
Chapter Overview     178
Key Concepts     178
Updating KML     180
Time and Animation in KML     195
What’s Next?     211

Chapter 8: Dealing with Large Data Sets           213
Chapter Overview      214
Key Concepts      215
Regions     223
Super-Overlays     235
Extended Data      245
What’s Next?     259

Appendix A: KML Reference       261

Appendix B: Sky Data in KML     321

Index      331