Nov 18 2007
Google Earth
So I installed Google Earth today, and am now addicted. Google Earth is a program you install on your Mac or PC which connects to vast databases of maps, satellite imagery, documents, and photos of damn near every place on Earth. It is much richer, a lot more detailed, and has far more capabilities than Google Maps.
The screen capture above of Central Park in New York City does not do justice to what you can do with Google Earth. You can zoom in and get almost frightening detail at street level, zoom out to see the entire globe, pan every which way, look at photos people have taken and uploaded, read Wikipedia articles about places on the map, etc. You can also upload your own photos of places you have been and post them to Google Earth.
The blue dots on the map are the locations where people took pictures. When you click on the dot you can see the picture and read and add comments about it. The orange dots are links to posts on the Google Earth Community about those locations, which you can click on and read. The purple dots are links to Wikipedia pages about those locations.
The only criticism I have is that to post pictures to Google Earth, you have to join a photo sharing site called Panoramio, which is a separate site from Picasa, Google’s in-house photo sharing site, and requires a separate login from the rest of Google’s services. Panoramio, the brainchild of a couple of guys from Spain, was acquired by Google in July, 2007, so maybe Google will eventually merge Panoramio with Picasa.
This is going to be a major time sink.
Regarding ‘frightening detail’ on Google Earth:
I had the opportunity to interview a NASA scientist a dozen years ago for an article I was writing on digital imaging for client Eastman Kodak. I learned that surveillance satellites two miles high had the ability, way back then, to read the face of a dime on the ground. If that isn’t frightening, nothing is!
Google Earth is a blast. You can check out all sorts of neat stuff. People having sex in their back yards, North Korean submarine bases. There is a whole web site devoted to discoveriung the hidden jewels of the world through Google Earth !!!