Google Earth
Welcome to Google Earth.
Google Earth is a 3D globe on your pc. It allows you to type in any address, or coordinates, and it zooms from space down to the address. On my PC (and 4Mbps cable connection) it takes several seconds for the image to come into focus as it streams the data from Google’s vast satellite image aquisitions, but it’s well worth it when done, especially in metropolitan areas where the resolutions allow you to make out the models of some cars on the streets (sort-of…).
With the controls, one can zoom, rotate, and change viewing angle. I personally like to hold down a rotate button and get vertigo until I fall out of my chair.
To get to places, there are Fly To, Location, and Direction searches. Once viewing an area, one can toggle pointers for lodging, road labels, terrain, dining pointers, borders, and building pointers. Once can also set custom placemarks to mark areas of interest for future reference.
Local search lets you search for restaurants, hotels, and driving directions. Layers make it easy to layer multiple searches, save results to folders, and share them with other users. Some current layers show parks, schools, hospitals, airports, and shopping.
Google touts the program as being useful for planning a trip, getting driving directions, finding a house or business, or just exploring the world. I’ve used their satellite imaging on maps.google.com in the past to find NIKE and GLOBECOM sites around Maine, and this will definately make it easier and more fun to do things like that.
These are just a few of the features in the program. I strongly suggest downloading it now (completely free, no registration).
The idea is simple. It’s a globe that sits inside your PC. You point and zoom to anyplace on the planet that you want to explore. Satellite images and local facts zoom into view. Tap into Google search to show local points of interest and facts. Zoom to a specific address to check out an apartment or hotel. View driving directions and even fly along your route. We invite you to try it now.
Google Earth is free for personal use. You may (optionally) choose to upgrade to Google Earth Plus.
Google Earth Plus gets you:
- GPS integration – read tracks and waypoints from your GPS.
- Higher resolution printing (greater than screen resolution).
- Customer support via email (not just web).
- Annotation – adds draw/sketch tools for richer annotations (can be shared as KML).
- Data importer – read address points from .csv files.
Google Earth Plus is aimed more at cartographers and map enthusiests.
Jalbey 9:30 am on 6/30/2005 Permalink
I love how you can get down to street level and “drive” around.
euicho 8:15 pm on 6/30/2005 Permalink
me tooo!