User Reviews

"EarthBrowser is a way cool example of what's next in Internet applications: special-purpose programs that focus on a specific kind of information, which they gather from sites across the net and integrate for you. Today's browsers are all about gathering information: which information you gather, and how you put it together is up to you. Earth Browser is all about the weather: you don't need to know it's using the Internet: it just does -- all you need is an interest in weather, earthquakes, volcanoes and the like. Earth Browser gathers raw data and images from public and private web sites around the world (including recent satellite cloud-cover images) and integrates them into a very nicely-rendered 3D view of current conditions around the world. Think of it as a personal version of your weatherman's workstation -- right down to those happy little animated icons for current conditions in selected cities. There are plenty of display and customization options, including which cities get those happy little icons at various zoom levels: show New York, LA, Paris and London in the big view, and Pittsburgh, Paga-Pago and Timbuktu in the close-ups. Clicking the weather icon for a city pops up a window showing current conditions and a five-day forecast. Clicking on the optional markers for recent volcanoes, earthquakes, and webcams (the only disappointment of the whole package was the small number of webcams shown) pops up special windows or opens a browser window to show more info. I'm not sure how many people will spend $20 to get rid of the annoying banner that floats across the screen periodically, but anyone who's interested in what a next-generation web-enabled application looks like -- or has a healthy curiosity about the world and the weather -- would be well rewarded by doing so."
—Dave Land

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