Google Earth… WOW!!
Just got done playing with Google Earth and all I can say is “wow!”
Since most won’t know what it is, Google Earth is a program you can download (just released today) that allows you to enter any location on the planet (of course the US will have MUCH greater detail) and zoom into it from way out in space like you see in movies. It uses satelite photography to populate what you see (so naturally some will have better quality then others, as NY, NY is going to have more details pics then Ephraim Utah), and then you can click and drag around to other places… so… much… fun…!!
Every time I ran into a new cool feature my jaw would drop a little farther. The fluid zoom, rotate, and angle can be played with for hours. Adding in the other features such as 3D buildings, earthquakes, etc. are even more fun. It’s got a whole section of local businesses that you can turn on to see where they are in whatever city, that hooks into the Google Local database (food, banks, schools, pharmacies, movie rentals, etc). It even has other funky things like Crime Stats, Census data, Postal Code boundries and more… although I didn’t run into any of those that worked in my local area (Utah) so that may be only available in certain places.
It is so much fun I am seriously considering upgrading to the Google Earth Plus to be able to get the cool extra features.
I know that hundreds of people will be writing about this today, but I was so impressed I just had to add my .02. Go download it and have some fun… it’s awesome!
June 28th, 2005