Google Earth Rocks My Socks Off
June 28th, 2005 by Ethan
I just downloaded Google Earth (yes, it requires a download) and it is pretty cool.
I am impressed by the quantity and quality of the features that are included. You simply enter in a destination and Google Earth flies you there. You can toggle things like 3D terrain, highlighted streets, boundaries, etc. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, there are three dimensional buildings available in select cities. These toggle-able items are called Layers in Google Earth. There are quite a few layers included, even census and crime information and it looks like they have built the program to accept custom Layers in the future.
Other features include driving directions, fully rotating/zooming/tilting maps and compass, city tours, Google Local information (coffee shops, video rentals, pizza joints, etc.) and a whole lot more. This is by no means an exhaustive list of what is included in the Google Earth program. I have only been playing with it for about an hour. I still don’t know what I might use it for, but it is a fun toy nonetheless.
I would absolutely not recommend this program for anyone on anything less than a DSL connection (it would take forever).