« Brian Benson // Ultrasounds »
Google Earth
Posted on June 28th, 2005 by erik
Several months back, Google purchased a company called Keyhole. Keyhole made a desktop application program which allowed you to zoom around satellite images. Pretty cool stuff. The catch is that Keyhole was charing $40/year for this software, if I recall. Well today, in case you missed it, Google released this product, rebranded as “Google Earth”….for free. It has all the functionality of Keyhole’s application with the addition of Google’s Local search and direction finder.
This seems like maps.google.com with (satellite imagery option on)…?
Yah - it’s like maps.google.com++. The interface is much smoother than the web AJAX application, and Google Earth will do cool things like render 3D buildings, 45° views, etc.
I took a look at this and will be demoing the “Pro” version. There might be a possibility that it could be used in some geography courses offered by Dist. Ed. I’ll need to check their copyright info.
The free version has been fun…when it’s working that is.
What problems have you had with it? The free version has worked flawlessly for me so far.
It’s worked fine for me today. Yesterday there was a time when I would try to “Fly To” a destination and nothing happened. I know Google pulled the free download link for a while. But as you mentioned, it is working flawlessly today :-)
Gotta love beta products!