The top 10 ways to embed Google Earth content (trails, footpaths, interactive guide to fishing, walking, biking) on your site blog (special mention to blogger) with or without earth plugin and with/without earth API

A) without coding (no javascript)
3 categories of methods: without the need of plugin install (Google Earth plugin, for browsers) and without the google earth API or with this API (in this case, the client must install the  Google Earth plugin)

A-a) without the need of Google Earth plugin

A-b) without the google earth API 

A-c) with the google earth API 

B) with coding (javascript)

-----------------------------------------------
-----intro (not necessary if you just want a one-click service to directly embed in your site)

The Google Earth plug-in allows you to navigate and explore geographic data on a 3D globe using a web browser: http://www.google.com/earth/explore/products/plugin.html

If you want to embed the Google Earth plug-in on your website, visit the Google Earth API site to learn more: http://code.google.com/apis/earth/

Check out the recently revamped (2011) Earth API Developer's Guide: http://code.google.com/apis/earth/documentation/

This plugin and this API may work correctly on all browsers (Internet Explorer 7.0+, mac and PC: Firefox 3.0+; Google Chrome 5.0+; Safari 3.1+, etc...) that support NPAPI with npruntime extensions (https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Gecko_Plugin_API_Reference:Scripting_plugins).

Plugins (or plug-ins) are shared libraries that users can install to display content that the application itself can't display natively. For example, Adobe Reader plugin (or Google earth plugin) lets the user open PDF files directly inside the browser. Plugins are written using NPAPI, the cross-browser API for plugins: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Plugins

To install the Google Earth Plugin, browse to any page in which the plugin is included or at http://www.google.com/earth/explore/products/plugin.html (at this URL, you can see the version of your plugin).

This plugin and this API offer many services, see these 2 "ex-amples" (trail):

http://earth-api-samples.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/demos/drive-simulator/index.html

(google maps and google earth and a path from one start address and one end address)

http://www.themountainpulse.com/trail-maps-plus/grand-teton-national-park/ (The Mountain Pulse is an online resource for Jackson Hole’s outdoor community: mountain biking, hiking, pathways cycling, fishing, kayaking, lodging and more)

---after this intro, let's start!
from http://code.google.com/apis/earth/documentation/

To load the Google Earth Plugin in your web page, you need to:

1. Load the Google Earth API.
2. Create a DIV element to hold the plugin.
3. Create functions to initialize the plugin.
4. Call the initialization functions once the page has loaded.

try the hello: http://code.google.com/apis/ajax/playground/?exp=earth#hello,_earth



A) without coding (no javascript)

A-a) without the need of Google Earth plugin

A-b) without the google earth API 

A-c) with the google earth API 

B) with coding (javascript)

http://code.google.com/apis/ajax/playground/?exp=earth#hello,_earth

a web front-end that automates the processing of MRI and Diffusion MRI

http://www.chromeexperiments.com/detail/brain-surface-and-tractography-viewer/?f=

The Brain Surface and Tractography Viewer was developed at Children’s Hospital Boston in the Fetal-Neonatal Neuroimaging and Development Science Center as part of a web front-end that automates the processing of MRI and Diffusion MRI. This application allows researchers to very rapidly explore processed MRI data in real-time within the web browser using WebGL. The application renders cortical surface reconstructions and fiber tracts generated by FreeSurfer and the Diffusion Toolkit, two automated brain imaging tools developed at the MGH Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging. The user can view the gray-white surface and pial surface along with various curvature measures. Further, the fiber tracts are registered to the cortical surface and can be viewed inside the brain surfaces.

Technology:
WebGL, JavaScript, jQuery

2 ex-amples; google maps, Fusion Table; trails; heatmap

If you have ever tried to plot a very large number of overlays on an API map you have probably reached a point at which the performance of your application begins to suffer. With one hundred or so markers, most browsers cope just fine, and clustering solutions like Fluster can help support more. But if you have thousands of overlays that you wish to show, rendering them individually can be problematic.

The Maps API v3 now offers two solutions to this problem. If you have a large volume of geospatial data that can be served as KML, the KmlLayer class can render up to 50,000 features as an overlay that does not impact performance on any browser. To support data sets that are structured as tables, such as a database or spreadsheet, we have also now added the FusionTablesLayer class for rendering data stored in Google Fusion Tables.

Google Fusion Tables is a fascinating new experimental Google Research project offering storage, search, and management of large structured data sets in the cloud. Up to 100MB of data can be stored per table, and each row in a table can have an associated location, line, or polygon feature. Using the FusionTablesLayer class you can render features on an API map as a clickable overlay. When a feature is clicked, the application can access a copy of the complete row of data associated with the feature.

Fusion Tables also supports an SQL like query language, which you can use to filter the features shown on a map. The below map visualises mountain biking trails uploaded to Fusion Tables bymtbguru.com. The slider allows you to filter trails by their length, and the trails shown on the map are updated accordingly. If you click on a trail a custom dialog is shown which indicates the elevation profile for the trail concerned.

 

The FusionTablesLayer also supports rendering data sets as a heatmap. The below map of beaches in Brazil illustrates the benefit of this. When rendered as point features it is difficult to tell the relative density of the beaches without zooming in further. However once you switch to displaying the data as a heatmap the high density of beaches west of Rio de Janeiro becomes immediately clear.

 

The combination of Fusion Tables with the Maps API makes it easy to host large sets of data in the cloud, and visualise them in your Maps API application. It is quick and simple to get up and running with Fusion Tables, and the addition of the FusionTableLayer class to Maps API v3 enables Maps applications to be tightly coupled with data hosted in Fusion Tables. Give it a try, and let us know what you think of this experiment in the Groups!

Five Great Fusion Tables and Google Maps Examples

WikiEDdata - Mapping Poverty in Washington School Districts
 
The most powerful maps allow users to quickly understand the significance of large amounts of data. Using Fusion Tables, polygons representing school districts and poverty levels are rendered and colored based on their assigned values in the tables. 

Clicking on a district polygon will bring up an infowindow containing a poverty line data chart, dynamically generated through the Google Chart API. 

Reporting Road Potholes in Spain
 
Fusion Tables makes crowdsourcing easy. Using Fusion Tables, Otrobache.com allows Madrid citizens to log on and report the location of potholes. The newly reported potholes appear on the map in real time (as soon as the map is refreshed). 

The Telegraph - UK Charities Map
 
Fusion Tables is a great way to store and quickly render large amounts of data. The Telegraph used Fusion Tables to catalog and map literally tens of thousands of charities throughout the UK. 

Analyzing Concealed Handgun Licenses in San Antonio
 
From San Antonio Express-News, "The Texas Tribune analyzed a Department of Public Safety database that tracks concealed handgun licenses in Texas. The Tribune's analysis found that the number of gun permits in an area often correlates with income and political beliefs." 

Fusion Tables is used here to overlay the data with boundaries and view possible correlations. The implementation also makes use of Gradient styling. Gradients allows developers to specify a color ramp and a number range; features will be displayed in the color appropriate for where they belong in the range. Much like the built-in Intensity map visualization, but now you can change the colors and use your own boundaries! 

Boris Bikes on Fusion Tables
 
Using geometry styling controls in Fusion tables, this implementation is a live visualization of London Cycle Hire Rank availability using data from the Boris Bikes API. 

new Distance Matrix service; Google Maps AND Google Fusion Tables.

Thanks to the new Distance Matrix service, which we are launching today, I can now relive these moments from my youth. The Distance Matrix service is a simple and efficient way to obtain the travel distance and time between many locations when you do not need the full route details for any individual pair. The below applications generates a distance matrix for walking from major London railway stations to several London landmarks. Roll your mouse over the matrix cells, or tap a cell, to see the relevant route.

The Distance Matrix service is also useful for sorting or filtering search results. For example, let’s say your Maps API application enables users to find nearby grocery stores and you want to present the results sorted by drive time. The locations are stored in a spatial database such as Google Fusion Tables, which can return all stores within a given straight line distance. Using the Distance Matrix service you only need one more query to obtain the drive time from the user's location to each of those stores in order to sort them accordingly.

The Distance Matrix service is available for use directly in the JavaScript Maps API as well as a web service returning JSON or XML. To get started, take a look at the Maps API services documentation, and the Distance Matrix API web service documentation.

Turn up the power of your Fusion Tables with Dynamic Styling; google maps

Fusion Tables allows you to share large tables of spatial data and render them on a map in a way that performs consistently well across all browsers, on desktop and mobile. The way in which the data is styled on the map, the markers used for points, the colours and stroke widths used for polylines and polygons, can be defined by the owner of the table in the Fusion Tables application, or using the newFusion Tables Styling and InfoWindows API. However only the owner of the table can define the styling in this way, and styling for any single table is fixed.

At Google I/O we introduced Dynamic Styling of Fusion Tables layers. This allows the styling rules used for displaying a table in a Maps API application to be defined from JavaScript, and changed dynamically. For example you can use this to switch between rendering different data sets in the same table, or giving users control over which subset of the data is highlighted, as in the below example based on a public table of Chicago Homicides data:

In order to ensure the continued reliability of the Fusion Tables layer, we are also introducing some limits on the number of layers that can be used, and the complexity of styling. The Maps API now permits up to five Fusion Tables layers to be added to a map, one of which can be styled with up to five styling rules.

For information and code samples of how to apply dynamic styling to Fusion Tables, see our documentation, and for further assistance I recommend the Google Maps JavaScript API V3 forum. It’s great to see the creative ways in which Fusion Tables Layer is being used, and we hope this new flexibility will drive even more inspiring and informative Maps API applications.

Ref: http://googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-05-26T12%3A42%3A00-07%3A00&max-results=7

A map published by the Guardian that uses Google Fusion Tables

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/mar/23/fco-travel-advice-map

The U.K. Foreign & Commonwealth Office regularly issues travel advice for British citizens on the safest places to travel. Before you plan your next vacation, it might be worthwhile checking this map published by the Guardian that uses Google Fusion Tables to map out advice from the FCO. This map provides a fascinating snapshot of world travel.

You can download the full data. 
DATA: download the full spreadsheet from Google Fusion tables

Secrets of the Google Geo APIs: a google presentation (59 slides)

http://oa-samples.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/presentations/io-2011/index.html#2


JavaScript Google Maps API is optimized for both desktop and mobile browsers

N°8
http://oa-samples.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/presentations/io-2011/index.html#8


Desktop                          Mobile
Internet Explorer 7+ Android
Firefox 3+                 Safari (iOS)
Safari 4+                         Blackberry 6
Chrome                         Dolfin 2+

45° imagery with OverviewMapControl
http://oa-samples.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/presentations/io-2011/index.html#12

Marker animations, n°14
Layers, n°16
GeoRSS  KML  Traffic  Bicycling  Panoramio

Draggable directions, N°18


Street View: Overlays, N°21


Libraries: AdSense, N°27
How to add ads on a map!


Earth API, N°31


Fusion Tables, N°35
FusionTablesLayer in v3 (toggle between HeatMap and other views)


Earth elevation at points or along a path, N°41


Route optimization, N°44

Bicycling directions

SSL for everyone, N°48

Anyone can send SSL-protected web service requests

Static Maps API, N°50
Map image without interactivity

Google Fusion Tables and geospatial data; managing-and-visualizing-your-geospatial-data-with-fusion-tables

Google Fusion Tables (https://www.google.com/fusiontables) is a modern data management and publishing web application that makes it easy to host, manage, collaborate on, visualize, and publish data tables online. Fusion Tables allows for import of geospatial data to quickly and easily display that data on a Google Map.

The Fusion Tables team has been working hard to enrich what Fusion Tables offers for customization and control of the Google Map visualizations. Two very exciting announcements were made at Google I/O during the Fusion Tables session on Managing and visualizing your geospatial data with Fusion Tables (http://www.google.com/events/io/2011/sessions/managing-and-visualizing-your-geospatial-data-with-fusion-tables.html). These announcements include the release of the Info Window and Styling in the Fusion Tables API and Fusion Table Styling in the Google Maps API.


Fusion Tables Styles in the Google Maps API


http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/javascript/overlays.html#fusion_table_styles


Fusion Tables Styles further increases the possibilities of map customization. Rather than applying a style to a table via the API or UI, styling can now be introduced on the client side using the Google Maps API. There are many benefits to Fusion Tables Styles:
It allows for dynamic styling of map features.
It’s opens up the possibility for styling tables with multiple attributes.
You can give your users the opportunity to decide what range of styles works best for your data.
Third party developers can now generate visualizations of your data that differ from your own, which makes sharing your data more powerful and useful.
Fusion Tables styles are available now! Read more about how to use Fusion Tables Styles in the Fusion Tables Layer section (http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/javascript/overlays.html#FusionTables) of the Google Maps API documentation.

Simon Rogers, who joined us for the Fusion Tables I/O session to talk about how the UK Guardian Datablog uses Fusion Tables, has been making great use of Fusion Tables Styles.
Here’s one of the Guardian’s latest examples (http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/interactive/2011/jun/30/uk-population-mapped).
If you’re interested in creating a map similar to the Guardian’s, we have developed a template for plug-and-play (http://gmaps-samples.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/fusiontables/dynamic_styling_template.html).



Ref.
http://googlegeodevelopers.blogspot.com/2011/07/geo-apis-summer-learning-series.html

map public data using Fusion Tables (google maps); case studies; Geo Developers at Google I/O 2011; location-based gaming using the Latitude API to tools for citizen journalists to map public data using Fusion Tables

From Geo Developers at Google I/O 2011 (July)

The developer sandbox featured eight Geo API partners who engaged directly with I/O attendees. Joining us in the sandbox were HistoryPin, Icon Fitness, Ubisense, The Wall Street Journal, Footprint Feed, The Bay Citizen, Arc2Earth, and Travel Game. The apps on display ranged from location-based gaming using the Latitude API to tools for citizen journalists to map public data using Fusion Tables. You can learn more about two of our sandbox partners in these video case studies:

The Bay Citizen (video) - The Bay Citizen explains the benefits of the Fusion Tables layer with Google Maps API to build infographics for their online newspaper. 


The Bike Accident Tracker visualizes the prevalence of bike accidents across San Francisco.


http://www.baycitizen.org/data/bike-accidents/

some special google charts; Interactive charts;Organizational Chart; use the spreadsheet as a data base; google docs;time-series

http://code.google.com/apis/chart/
http://code.google.com/apis/chart/interactive/docs/more_charts.html

http://code.google.com/apis/chart/image/docs/chart_wizard.html
http://imagecharteditor.appspot.com/
http://code.google.com/apis/chart/interactive/docs/examples.html

http://code.google.com/p/sgvizler/wiki/DesigningQueries
All the major chart types offered by the Google Visualization API are supported by Sgvizler.

http://code.google.com/p/sgvizler/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZtgT4jgnE8

templates:
https://docs.google.com/templates?view=public&authorId=02845897149113753960
https://docs.google.com/templates?type=drawings&sort=user&view=public

just do it:

http://code.google.com/apis/ajax/playground/?type=visualization#chart_editor


Interactive charts
use interactive charts AND use the spreadsheet as a data base (if you change any of the data relevant to this chart in your spreadsheet, the chart will update automatically. You don't need to repeat the steps above to edit this chart).

Organizational Chart
An organizational chart that supports selection.
List all group members in one column of your spreadsheet, and their hierarchical or higher-level relationship in the next column. If you want a tooltip to appear when you point your mouse to each node, you can enter this text in a third column.
https://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=190728&topic=30240

rem: ex-ample http://www.cogmap.com/chart/google
Cogmap is the Wikipedia of organization charts. We are an organization chart wiki! This means that it is a collection of organization charts online that anyone can edit, add to, and help maintain.

http://code.google.com/apis/chart/interactive/docs/gallery/orgchart.html

http://code.google.com/apis/ajax/playground/?type=visualization#org_chart

https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=rCaVQNfFDMhOM6ENNYeYZ9Q
http://code.google.com/apis/chart/interactive/docs/examples.html

https://docs.google.com/previewtemplate?id=1kSqUe1u4oDDZ5MP2Tu43zev0l6kCh-LWcg5TVxRMmsk&mode=public

https://docs.google.com/previewtemplate?id=0AoFkkLP2MB8kdHVCLTBBN3JYV0w0TGswVFNNdXd4MFE&mode=public

help: https://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=91597

-----

controls:
http://code.google.com/apis/chart/interactive/docs/gallery/controls.html

magic-table:
http://magic-table.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/magic-table/google_visualisation/example_1.html


Connectors
Synthesis of Aspirin - Connectors
https://docs.google.com/previewtemplate?id=1sQ3I1eg9lcegcknK_A_BRfVZyjZ7JuvTRHv0rnTFFYI&mode=public

Infographics (QR code, math equations/formulas, balloons)
http://code.google.com/apis/chart/infographics/

--------time
interactive, zoomable charts of time series.
The dygraphs JavaScript library produces interactive, zoomable charts of time series.
http://dygraphs.com/
http://github.com/danvk/dygraphs


Some of the features of dygraphs:

• Plots time series without using an external server or Flash
• ERROR BARS
• Works in Internet Explorer (using excanvas)
• Lightweight (69kb) and responsive
• Displays values on mouseover, making interaction easily discoverable
• Supports error bands around data series
• Interactive zoom
• Displays Annotations on the chart
• Adjustable averaging period
• Can intelligently chart fractions
• Customizable click-through actions
• Compatible with the Google Visualization API
• Intelligent defaults make it easy to use

Motion charts
http://code.google.com/apis/ajax/playground/?type=visualization#motion_chart

web search resuls in spreadsheet
The Web Search gadget allows you to search the Web and display results for specified values.
https://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=99488

-----------drawing

Flowchart
https://docs.google.com/previewtemplate?id=1dIhpLxlbTgVrphUcdtRy1xNk0BHSfD9LH-VRMekCWUY&mode=public

https://docs.google.com/previewtemplate?id=14hr846slPw8CylCFG_qxSNg66oncT_RWrVb52tUuuZg&mode=public

list/map of all newspapers

http://www.newspapermap.com/

very good example of google fusion table.

Change the default width of Blogger posts

The visualizations from Google Fusion Tables are wider than the default width of Blogger. To prevent Blogger from cutting them off on the right, change the default width of Blogger posts.

1. Go into the "Layout" tab
2. Click "Edit HTML" 
3. Download a copy of your current template just for back-up. 
4. Find the editable text box. 
5. Scroll through the content until you see "Outer Wrapper"
6. Under "#outer-wrapper" change "width: 660px" to "width: 1000px"
7. Under "#main-wrapper" change "width: 410px" to "width: 750px"
8. Tip: if the numbers aren't precisely 660px and 410px to start with, don't worry.
9. Click "Save Template" and view your blog post again.

http://www.google.com/support/fusiontables/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=185229

List of popular file formats and filter encoding for Map mashups and Geographic information systems; converters of waypoints, tracks, routes

Some popular file formats:

Latitude and longitude are expressed in decimal degrees using the WGS 84 datum. Elevation is recorded in meters. Dates and times are not local time, but instead are Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) using ISO 8601 format.
Find your references in any number of formats:
http://spatialreference.org/
http://spatialreference.org/ref/ it's a listing of spatial references (EPSG) and an interface to search for spatial references. EPSG codes are numeric codes associated with coordinate system definitions. For instance, EPSG:4326 is geographic WGS84.
Projections (a mathematical transformation of the surface of a sphere (3D) onto a 2D plane) are ordered roughly chronologically by type: http://www.radicalcartography.net/?projectionref
Spherical Mercator (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercator_projection) is used to describe the PROJECTION used by many commercial API providers.
Proj4 is a library for projecting map data (used by MapServer, GDAL and a multitude of other Open Source GIS libraries): http://trac.osgeo.org/proj/

for all standards: http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards


APR – ESRI ArcView 3.3 and earlier project file
MXD – ESRI ArcGIS project file, 8.0 and higher

http://resources.arcgis.com/
http://www.arcgisblog.com/content/2010/01/arcgis-10-package-mxd-and-all-its-data-map-package

http://support.esri.com/en/downloads/samples-and-utilities/view/productid/78/metaid/1682

SHP – ESRI shapefile
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shapefile

Shapefiles spatially describe geometries: points, polylines, and polygons and associated attribute information. A shapefile is a digital vector storage format. It was introduced with ArcView GIS version 2 in the beginning of the 1990s.

DEM – USGS DEM file format:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USGS_DEM
Sources for USGS DEMs:
http://www.geobase.ca/geobase/en/data/cded/index.html Review (in english and french; download and view) a detailed description of the Canadian Digital Elevation Data. Product specifications, metadata and other supporting documentation are also available.
http://dds.cr.usgs.gov/pub/data/DEM/250/
obtain DEM’s via the National Eelevation Dataset(NED) server at: http://ned.usgs.gov

E00 – ARC/INFO interchange file format
http://freegeographytools.com/category/e00

GeoTIFF – Geographically located raster data
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeoTIFF
GeoTIFF is a public domain metadata standard which allows georeferencing information to be embedded within a TIFF file (6.0). http://trac.osgeo.org/geotiff/
World TIFF – Geographically located raster data: text file giving corner coordinate, raster cells per unit, and rotation


TAB – MapInfo Table file format
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MapInfo_TAB_format
It's  a geospatial vector data format.
http://mitab.maptools.org/

DTED – Digital Terrain Elevation Data
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DTED
It's a standard of digital datasets which consists of a matrix of terrain elevation values. This standard was originally developed in the 1970s to support aircraft radar simulation.
http://www.fas.org/irp/program/core/dted.htm
-----------------
-geoJSON
The GeoJSON format specification was finalized in June 2008.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeoJSON
http://geojson.org/geojson-spec.html
GeoJSON is a geospatial data interchange format based on JavaScript Object Notation (JSON).
 In fact, every GeoJSON data structure is also a JSON object, and thus JSON tools can also be used for processing GeoJSON data.
http://www.geowebguru.com/articles/97-technical-overview-geojson
JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), and the terms object, name, value, array, and number, are defined in IETF RTC 4627, at http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4627.txt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSON
JSON is simply a mixture of JavaScript object and array literals without variable definitions.
JSON, is a text-based open standard designed for human-readable data interchange. It is derived from the JavaScript scripting language for representing simple data structures and associative arrays, called objects. Despite its relationship to JavaScript, it is language-independent, with parsers available for most languages.The JSON format is used primarily to transmit data between a server and web application (serving as an alternative to XML;  it is generally more compact than XML).

Spatial data format types supported in GeoJSON include points, polygons, multipolygons, features, geometry collections, and bounding boxes, which are stored along with feature information and attributes. The geometries and their properties will have a parent object.
GeoJSON also allows specifying a geographic coordinate system, using the OGC crs (coordinate reference system) property (preferred) or with an EPSG code. If a crs is not defined, GeoJSON will use the WGS84 geoid by default.
GeoJSON is supported by numerous mapping and GIS software packages. Google maps, google maps api...use JSON


-geoRSS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeoRSS
http://www.georss.org/Main_Page

As RSS and Atom become more prevalent as a way to publish and share information, it becomes increasingly important that location is described in an interoperable manner so that applications can request, aggregate, share and map geographically tagged feeds.

There are currently two encodings of GeoRSS, Simple and GML (GeoRSS Geography Markup Language (GML)):
GeoRSS-Simple is meant as a very lightweight format that developers and users can quickly add to their existing feeds. It supports basic geometries (point, line, box, polygon) and covers the typical use cases when encoding locations.
GeoRSS GML is a formal GML Application Profile, and supports a greater range of features, notably coordinate reference systems other than WGS-84 latitude/longitude.
Both formats are designed for use with Atom 1.0, RSS 2.0 and RSS 1.0.


Blogger and geoRSS: http://bloggerindraft.blogspot.com/2008/12/new-feature-geotagging.html


-XML: SVG - Scalable Vector Graphics is an XML format. I think that this file format must be in this GIS list because may map servers use this format and all modern browsers use this format. 
http://www.mccurley.org/svg/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USA_Oregon_location_map.svg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:SVG_maps
better SVG graphics rendering engine: http://antigrain.com/svg/index.html
(MapServer 5.0+ can use this engine; it supports sub-pixel anti-aliasing, as well as many more features).
look also the "svg" category of this blog ;)



-XML-based interchange format: GPX or GPS eXchange Format
GPX – XML-based interchange format
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_eXchange_Format

It describes waypoints, tracks, and routes. 

A collection of points (with no sequential relationship)  is deemed a collection of individual waypoints.
An ordered collection of points may be expressed as a track or a route.  Tracks are a record of where a person has been (with timestamp (because someone is recording where and when they were there)) and routes are suggestions about where you might go in the future...
View the official site: http://www.topografix.com/gpx.asp

-XML-based interchange format: KML
KML – Keyhole Markup Language, XML-based
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyhole_Markup_Language
The KML file specifies a set of features (place marks, altitude, images, 3D models, polygons, textual descriptions, camera view...).  Each place always has a longitude and a latitude.
KML files are distributed in KMZ files, which are zipped files with a .kmz extension.
http://schemas.opengis.net/kml/2.2.0/
reference: http://code.google.com/apis/kml/documentation/kmlreference.html
Developer's Guide: http://code.google.com/apis/kml/documentation/topicsinkml.html
http://kml-samples.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/interactive/index.html


Google Maps supports the following KML elements (that is, KML queries in the Search box and GGeoXml objects in the Maps API):

• Placemarks
• Icons
• Folders
• Descriptive HTML
• Entity replacement via and
• KMZ (compressed KML, including attached images)
• Polylines and polygons
• Styles for polylines and polygons, including color, fill, and opacity
• Network links to import data dynamically
• Ground overlays and screen overlays

This list does not apply to Google Earth's export to Google Maps, My Maps import, or My Maps export to Google Earth.
differences between maps and earth for KML: http://code.google.com/apis/kml/documentation/kmlelementsinmaps.html


Maximum uncompressed KML file size=10MB.
Maximum number of Network Links=10.

convert GIS data to KML files
You can import GIS Data and file (ESRI Shape, MapInfo .tab data; GeoTIFF, or other raster dataset) into Google Earth Pro so that it can be used as part of your Google Earth visualizations: http://earth.google.com/outreach/tutorial_importgis.html. If you have Google Earth Pro, you can import many kinds of GIS data directly using the methods described in this tutorial. If you are using the free version of Google Earth, there are other tools for converting GIS data to KML.


ESRI ArcGIS and MapInfo, have tools to export GIS data into KML format (for use in Google Earth).

ogr2gui (http://sourceforge.net/projects/ogr2gui/): a free utility that converts many formats, including shapefiles to KML.
shp2kml (http://www.zonums.com/shp2kml.html): a free utility that converts shapefiles to KML.
MapWindow GIS has Shape2Earth (http://shape2earth.com/default.aspx), a tool for converting GIS data to KML.
ESRI ArcGIS contains tools in the ArcToolbox (Conversion Tools > To KML) for converting vector and raster GIS data to KML.
Arc2Earth (http://www.arc2earth.com/) is an extension for ArcGIS that converts GIS data to KML. The Arc2Earth Community Edition (http://www.arc2earth.com/communityedition/) is a free tool that has lower limits than the full version.
MapInfo Professional has a MapInfo Professional Google Earth Link Utility: http://mapinfo-to-google-earth-tm-export-utilit.software.informer.com/


KML and Spreadsheet Mapper
How to enter data in an on-line spreadsheet to generate a set of placemarks in Google Earth and Maps. Google Docs' web-based, collaborative editing allows your team members to simultaneously enter data and instantly publish updates:
http://earth.google.com/outreach/tutorial_spreadsheet.html

KML and Fusion Table
Because Fusion Tables also supports visualizing your data on maps, it is an alternative to Spreadsheet Mapper: http://earth.google.com/outreach/tutorial_fusion_sample.html
http://earth.google.com/outreach/tutorial_fusion_yourowndata.html#comparemappers
Biking and Hiking trails from MTBGuru.com:
http://blog.mtbguru.com/2010/02/24/mtbguru-tracks-as-seen-through-google-fusion-tables/

a scientific paper: Hector Gonzalez, Alon Halevy, Christian S. Jensen, Anno Langen, Jayant Madhavan, Rebecca Shapley, Warren Shen (2010). "Google Fusion Tables: Data Management, Integration and Collaboration in the Cloud". SoCC'10. ACM:
http://www.cse.ohio-state.edu/~agrawal/788-au10/Papers/Oct28/google-fusion-socc10.pdf

Fusion Tables supports a number of data formats:
Comma-separated files (.csv) - Up to 100 MB
Microsoft Excel files (.xls, .xlsx) - Up to 1 MB
OpenDocument Spreadsheet (.ods) - Up to 1 MB
Keyhole Markup Language (.kml) - Up to 100 MB
Data already in a Google Spreadsheet
If you have datasets in Excel or Open Office Spreadsheets that are larger than 1MB, save them as CSV files to take advantage of the larger 100MB limit!

Manage your Data with Open Data Kit Aggregate:
http://earth.google.com/outreach/tutorial_odk_aggregate.html
Open Data Kit (ODK) is a suite of tools that allows data collection using mobile devices and data submission to an online server, even without an Internet connection or mobile carrier service at the time of data collection. Once you've collected data in the field with ODK Collect, you can upload and manage your data using ODK Aggregate. ODK Aggregate is the intermediary server storage platform that accepts the data and can send it on to external applications, if desired. ODK Aggregate also allows you to download your datasets in aggregated formats, such as one .csv file. ODK Aggregate allows you to use Google's AppEngine hosting platform (see many post of this blog) for managing your collected data online.

------------other links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_Markup_Language (GML)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIS_file_formats

------------freeware and set of library (converters; filters)
"data conversion" database:
http://freegis.org/database/?cat=11
"geodata" database:
http://freegis.org/database/?cat=1


MapTools Packaged Tools and Utilities:
http://maptools.org/


a list of bookmarks:
http://www.spatialhydrology.com/freedownload.html


------GDAL
GDAL (Geospatial Data Abstraction Library) is a multi-format raster reading and writing library (it is used as the primary mechanism for reading raster data in MapServer).
It provides a powerful set of libraries for working with vector data:
http://trac.osgeo.org/gdal/
http://code.google.com/apis/kml/articles/vector.html
http://trac.osgeo.org/gdal/wiki/DownloadingGdalBinaries


------GPSBabel

http://www.gpsbabel.org/

GPSBabel converts waypoints, tracks, and routes between popular GPS receivers and mapping programs. It also has powerful manipulation tools for such data.

It contains extensive data manipulation abilities making it a convenient for server-side processing or as the backend for other tools. It does not convert, transfer, send, or manipulate maps. It processes data that may placed on a map, such as waypoints, tracks, and routes...

GPSBabel runs on Microsoft Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, and Vista plus POSIX OSes such as Linux, UnixWare, OpenServer, Solaris, FreeBSD, and OSX.

LIST of file formats: http://www.gpsbabel.org/capabilities.html

File Format	Waypoints		Tracks		Routes
	Read	Write	Read	Write	Read	Write
Alan Map500 tracklogs (.trl) alantrl			yes	yes
Alan Map500 waypoints and routes (.wpr) alanwpr	yes	yes			yes	yes
Brauniger IQ Series Barograph Download baroiq			yes
Bushnell GPS Trail file bushnell_trl			yes	yes
Bushnell GPS Waypoint file bushnell	yes	yes
Cambridge/Winpilot glider software cambridge	yes	yes
CarteSurTable data file cst	yes		yes		yes
Cetus for Palm/OS cetus	yes	yes	yes
CoastalExplorer XML coastexp	yes	yes			yes	yes
Columbus/Visiontac V900 files (.csv) v900	yes		yes
Comma separated values csv	yes	yes
CompeGPS data files (.wpt/.trk/.rte) compegps	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
CoPilot Flight Planner for Palm/OS copilot	yes	yes
cotoGPS for Palm/OS coto	yes	yes	yes
Data Logger iBlue747 csv iblue747			yes	yes
Dell Axim Navigation System (.gpb) file format axim_gpb			yes
DeLorme .an1 (drawing) file an1	yes	yes		yes	yes	yes
DeLorme GPL gpl			yes	yes
DeLorme PN-20/PN-30/PN-40 USB protocol delbin	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
DeLorme Street Atlas Plus saplus	yes	yes
DeLorme Street Atlas Route saroute			yes
DeLorme XMap HH Native .WPT xmap	yes	yes
DeLorme XMap/SAHH 2006 Native .TXT xmap2006	yes	yes
DeLorme XMat HH Street Atlas USA .WPT (PPC) xmapwpt	yes	yes
Destinator Itineraries (.dat) destinator_itn					yes	yes
Destinator Points of Interest (.dat) destinator_poi	yes	yes
Destinator TrackLogs (.dat) destinator_trl			yes	yes
EasyGPS binary format easygps	yes	yes
Embedded Exif-GPS data (.jpg) exif	yes	yes
Enigma binary waypoint file (.ert) enigma	yes	yes			yes	yes
FAI/IGC Flight Recorder Data Format igc			yes	yes	yes	yes
Franson GPSGate Simulation gpssim		yes		yes		yes
Fugawi fugawi	yes	yes
G7ToWin data files (.g7t) g7towin	yes		yes		yes
Garmin 301 Custom position and heartrate garmin301	yes	yes
Garmin Logbook XML glogbook			yes	yes
Garmin MapSource - gdb gdb	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Garmin MapSource - mps mapsource	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Garmin MapSource - txt (tab delimited) garmin_txt	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Garmin PCX5 pcx	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Garmin POI database garmin_poi	yes	yes
Garmin Points of Interest (.gpi) garmin_gpi	yes	yes
Garmin serial/USB protocol garmin	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Garmin Training Center (.tcx) gtrnctr	yes		yes	yes
Geocaching.com .loc geo	yes	yes
GeocachingDB for Palm/OS gcdb	yes	yes
Geogrid-Viewer ascii overlay file (.ovl) ggv_ovl	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Geogrid-Viewer tracklogs (.log) ggv_log			yes	yes
GEOnet Names Server (GNS) geonet	yes	yes
GeoNiche .pdb geoniche	yes	yes
GlobalSat DG-100/BT-335 Download dg-100			yes
Google Earth (Keyhole) Markup Language kml	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Google Maps XML google			yes
Google Navigator Tracklines (.trl) gnav_trl			yes	yes
GoPal GPS track log (.trk) gopal			yes	yes
GpilotS gpilots	yes	yes
GPS TrackMaker gtm	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
GPSBabel arc filter file arc	yes	yes
GpsDrive Format gpsdrive	yes	yes
GpsDrive Format for Tracks gpsdrivetrack	yes	yes
GPSman gpsman	yes	yes
GPSPilot Tracker for Palm/OS gpspilot	yes	yes
gpsutil gpsutil	yes	yes
GPX XML gpx	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
HikeTech hiketech	yes	yes	yes	yes
Holux (gm-100) .wpo Format holux	yes	yes
Holux M-241 (MTK based) Binary File Format m241-bin			yes
Holux M-241 (MTK based) download m241			yes
Honda/Acura Navigation System VP Log File Format vpl			yes
HSA Endeavour Navigator export File hsandv	yes	yes
HTML Output html		yes
Humminbird tracks (.ht) humminbird_ht	yes		yes	yes	yes
Humminbird waypoints and routes (.hwr) humminbird	yes	yes	yes		yes	yes
IGN Rando track files ignrando			yes	yes
iGO2008 points of interest (.upoi) igo2008_poi	yes	yes
IGO8 .trk igo8			yes	yes
Jelbert GeoTagger data file jtr			yes	yes
Jogmap.de XML format jogmap			yes
Kartex 5 Track File ktf2			yes	yes
Kartex 5 Waypoint File kwf2	yes	yes
Kompass (DAV) Track (.tk) kompass_tk			yes	yes
Kompass (DAV) Waypoints (.wp) kompass_wp	yes	yes
KuDaTa PsiTrex text psitrex	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Lowrance USR lowranceusr	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Magellan Explorist Geocaching maggeo	yes	yes
Magellan Mapsend mapsend	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Magellan NAV Companion for Palm/OS magnav	yes	yes
Magellan SD files (as for eXplorist) magellanx	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Magellan SD files (as for Meridian) magellan	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Magellan serial protocol magellan	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
MagicMaps IK3D project file (.ikt) ik3d	yes		yes
Map&Guide 'TourExchangeFormat' XML tef					yes
Map&Guide to Palm/OS exported files (.pdb) mag_pdb	yes				yes
MapAsia track file (.tr7) mapasia_tr7			yes	yes
Mapopolis.com Mapconverter CSV mapconverter	yes	yes
MapTech Exchange Format mxf	yes	yes
Memory-Map Navigator overlay files (.mmo) mmo	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Microsoft AutoRoute 2002 (pin/route reader) msroute					yes
Microsoft Streets and Trips (pin/route reader) msroute					yes
Microsoft Streets and Trips 2002-2007 s_and_t	yes	yes
Motorrad Routenplaner (Map&Guide) .bcr files bcr					yes	yes
MS PocketStreets 2002 Pushpin psp	yes	yes
MTK Logger (iBlue 747,...) Binary File Format mtk-bin			yes
MTK Logger (iBlue 747,Qstarz BT-1000,...) download mtk			yes
National Geographic Topo .tpg (waypoints) tpg	yes	yes
National Geographic Topo 2.x .tpo tpo2			yes
National Geographic Topo 3.x/4.x .tpo tpo3	yes		yes		yes
Navicache.com XML navicache	yes
Navigon Mobile Navigator .rte files nmn4					yes	yes
Navigon Waypoints navigonwpt	yes	yes
NaviGPS GT-11/BGT-11 Download navilink	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
NaviGPS GT-31/BGT-31 datalogger (.sbp) sbp			yes
NaviGPS GT-31/BGT-31 SiRF binary logfile (.sbn) sbn			yes
Naviguide binary route file (.twl) naviguide	yes	yes
Navitel binary track (.bin) navitel_trk			yes	yes
Navitrak DNA marker format dna	yes	yes
NetStumbler Summary File (text) netstumbler	yes
NIMA/GNIS Geographic Names File nima	yes	yes
NMEA 0183 sentences nmea	yes	yes	yes	yes
Nokia Landmark Exchange lmx	yes	yes
OpenStreetMap data files osm	yes	yes		yes	yes	yes
OziExplorer ozi	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
PalmDoc Output palmdoc		yes
PathAway Database for Palm/OS pathaway	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
PocketFMS breadcrumbs pocketfms_bc			yes	yes
PocketFMS flightplan (.xml) pocketfms_fp	yes				yes
PocketFMS waypoints (.txt) pocketfms_wp	yes	yes
Quovadis quovadis	yes	yes
Raymarine Waypoint File (.rwf) raymarine	yes	yes			yes	yes
Ricoh GPS Log File ricoh			yes	yes
See You flight analysis data cup	yes	yes
Skymap / KMD150 ascii files skyforce	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
SkyTraq Venus based loggers (download) skytraq	yes		yes
SkyTraq Venus based loggers Binary File Format skytraq-bin	yes		yes
Sportsim track files (part of zipped .ssz files) sportsim			yes	yes
Suunto Trek Manager (STM) .sdf files stmsdf			yes	yes	yes	yes
Suunto Trek Manager (STM) WaypointPlus files stmwpp	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Swiss Map 25/50/100 (.xol) xol	yes	yes	yes	yes
Tab delimited fields useful for OpenOffice, Ploticus etc. openoffice	yes	yes
Teletype [ Get Jonathon Johnson to describe teletype	yes	yes
Textual Output text		yes
TomTom Itineraries (.itn) tomtom_itn					yes	yes
TomTom Places Itineraries (.itn) tomtom_itn_places					yes	yes
TomTom POI file (.asc) tomtom_asc	yes	yes
TomTom POI file (.ov2) tomtom	yes	yes
TopoMapPro Places File tmpro	yes	yes
TrackLogs digital mapping (.trl) dmtlog	yes	yes	yes	yes
U.S. Census Bureau Tiger Mapping Service tiger	yes	yes
Universal csv with field structure in first line unicsv	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Vcard Output (for iPod) vcard		yes
VidaOne GPS for Pocket PC (.gpb) vidaone			yes	yes
Vito Navigator II tracks vitosmt	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Vito SmartMap tracks (.vtt) vitovtt			yes
WiFiFoFum 2.0 for PocketPC XML wfff	yes
Wintec TES file wintec_tes	yes		yes
Wintec WBT-100/200 Binary File Format wbt-bin			yes
Wintec WBT-100/200 GPS Download wbt	yes		yes
Wintec WBT-201/G-Rays 2 Binary File Format wbt-tk1			yes
XAiOX iTrackU Logger itracku	yes		yes
XAiOX iTrackU Logger Binary File Format itracku-bin	yes	yes	yes	yes
Yahoo Geocode API data yahoo	yes

Filter Encoding is an OGC standard which defines an XML encoding for filter expressions to allow for spatial and attribute querying: http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/filter

some filters:

Filter Function	Filter Name	Waypoints	Tracks	Routes
Points along an arc	arc	yes
Remove unreliable points with high hdop or vdop	discard		yes
Remove duplicates	duplicate	yes
Manipulate altitudes	height	yes
Interpolate between trackpoints	interpolate	yes
Remove waypoints, tracks, or routes from processing.	nuketypes		yes
Remove points around polygon	polygon	yes
Remove points within relative distance	position	yes
Include only points within radius	radius	yes
Reverse a path	reverse		yes	yes
Simplify routes	simplify		yes	yes
Stack operations	stack	yes	no	no
Sort waypoints	sort	yes
Manipulate track lists	track		yes
Transform waypoints, tracks, routes into each other	transform	yes	yes	yes