Google Inc. today announced the launch of Google Earth, Google's new satellite imagery-based mapping product that combines 3D buildings and terrain with mapping capability and Google search. Based on Keyhole technology, Google Earth enables users to fly from space to street level views to find geographic information and explore places around the world.

Key features of Google Earth include:

• Free software download available at http://earth.google.com/
• 3D buildings in major cities across the United States
• 3D terrain showing mountains, valleys, and canyons around the world
• Integrated Google Local search to find local information such as hotels, restaurants, schools, parks, and transportation
• Fast, dynamic navigation
• Video playback of driving directions
• Tilt, rotate, and activate 3D terrain and buildings for a different perspective on a location
• Easy creation and sharing of annotations among users

"Google Earth utilizes broadband streaming technology and 3D graphics, much like a videogame, enabling users to interactively explore the world-- either their own neighborhood or the far corners of the globe," said John Hanke, general manager, Keyhole, Google Inc. "With many ways to access geographic information, Google provides a very rich local search experience for users worldwide."

Google Earth is the latest innovation within Google's local search product suite, which currently includes Google Local and Google Maps for web users and mobile phone users. With Google Earth, users have the tools to dive deeper into local information, whether they're exploring a vacation destination or researching a new home or apartment. They can combine multiple layers of information, such as cross-referencing school districts with address look-ups of available homes, business listings and public transportation, and save their results for later use.

For users interested in more advanced mapping capabilities, Google Earth Plus ($20/year) offers additional features including GPS compatibility, data import, and annotation. Google Earth Pro ($400/year), for commercial use, offers high-resolution printing and GIS data import capabilities.

View: Google Earth
View: Google Earth Press Release
News source: Google Press Center

So apparently my paid version is now only a little bit better. At least they extended my subscription a year for free.

i'm using it now, and it's fuckin awesome! warning though, you MUST have a decent PC and a good 'net connection (broadband or better). i tried it on an older pc with dial-up.....um.....'nuf said.

no more new downloads for now

My school has this !! I didn't even know untill some guy infront of me was lookin up Sahara Desert!!! This thing it soo coool!!! Having a 100mbit line helps aswell lol.

10Mbit here, working great (My ISP just upgraded to 10Mbit from 5Mbit last weekend, free )

Off topic: Hey Scott what ISP are you using and if you dont mind how much for your service, I got to get after telus on the west coast to improve the service up to your level.

anyone else having connection issues? I peeked with ethereal and found that the google server is reporting a Bad Gateway error

working fine here

this is the sort of progran that will be common in the future thanks to the new google maps api... i might even try and make something my self

If you want to check out a video of google earth in action, I've screen-video'd it using CamStudio.

http://board.iexbeta.com/index.php?showtopic=56079

It's really amazing and I'm hooked. Notice how the whitehouse and capitol are blurred out.

This program rocks! Another funny thing about the block outs: Disney World is blocked out yet Epcot is wide open for viewing of most of it

I have a question. Who uses this? We just use it to have fun, but who would use this and have the need to pay 400 for the pro version?

We should start naming the cool things too search.

Great wall.

Companies use it for all sorts of reasons. You could read more about the pro version here:

http://earth.google.com/earth_pro.html

I subscribed to the Plus version about a year ago because the program was not free. Since Google released the free version, they extended my subscription another year, but I don't really have much use for the few extra Plus features.

If you want to discuss places to search, you should check out the Keyhole message board:

http://bbs.keyhole.com/

In fact, in the "Layers" section of the program, if you check "Keyhole Community BBS", the program will automatically mark places that were posted on that message board.

I see. Thanks Chug for the info.

I can't believe how good this is. I downloaded NASA's worldwind a month before this, and it was a huge (over 100mb) file that was constantly downloading more and more... And its non-us mapping was pretty poor. This 10mb download lets me see my house in the UK, where before i could only just make out my town!

An excellent program, the direction/location finder is great too