Last week a reader emailed me to ask for help inserting videos into placemarks in Google Earth Pro. His students had recorded videos and saved them in Google Drive. They wanted to use them in their Google Earth Pro placemarks. I was happy to help. 

Before giving you the directions for how to add Google Drive videos into Google Earth placemarks, I should remind you that Google Earth Pro is the free, desktop version of Google Earth that you can install on Mac and Windows computers. (Don’t the let the “pro” fool you, Google Earth Pro is free). 
I should also point out that the process of adding videos into placemarks in Google Earth Pro is different from the process of doing the same thing in the web browser version of Google Earth. 
To add a video stored in your Google Drive into a placemark in Google Earth Pro you first need to make sure that the video sharing permissions are set to “anyone with the link can view.” Then you need to copy that link. Paste the link into “URL” field in the placemark that you are editing in Google Earth Pro. A video of the process is embedded below. 

Applications for Education

This topic came up because the reader who emailed me was having his students complete an Around the World With Google Earth activity. That activity was based on using the web version of Google Earth which is why they needed directions for adding videos into placemarks in Google Earth Pro.