Google Earth

Freeware (see text)

Current Version: 4.3.7204.836 (May 1, 2008)

Google Earth is a free program from Google that combines satellite imagery, maps and the Google search to a huge amount of geographic information at your fingertips. Features include:

• Fly from space to your neighborhood. Type in an address and zoom right in.
• Search for schools, parks, restaurants, and hotels. Get driving directions.
• Tilt and rotate the view to see 3D terrain and buildings.
• Save and share your searches and favorites. Even add your own annotations.

Version 4 added/changed the following:

• Less Is More - A New UI: The most obvious change is a new and simpler user interface. Google has reorganized the data layers to make it easier to find layers and turn them on and off. The nav panel at the bottom of the screen is gone, freeing up more real estate for actual imagery. The nav panel tools are still accessible, though; the nav controllers are now in the upper right and the tools (measure, print, email) are in the new tools bar along the top.
• Free Feel To Change Your World: Seeing buildings in 3D is one of the coolest things about Google Earth. And with this release, this feature is even better. For the first time, we support "textured" 3D buildings, meaning the bricks look like real bricks, the glass like real glass, and overall, the world looks more like, well, the real world. It's just one more step on the path of creating a life-like 3D model of the whole planet. There's just one catch - there aren't many photorealistic 3D building models out there. Yet. That's where Google Sketchup comes in.
• Creating and Sharing Geographic Information - A New Type Of KML: The best thing Google Earth's got going for it is the creativity of the millions of users who are adding and sharing geographic information. And with Google Earth (Release 4 BETA), we've expanded that capability in "KML," the file format Google Earth uses to add and share data. One of the reasons that Google Earth is so fast is that when you're flying around, you're only streaming in the pieces of the imagery that you need. But until now, importing KML meant loading everything - it was either all on or all off. This meant that loading, for instance, the topographic maps for all of Yosemite would grind Google Earth to a halt. For this new release, we've built the same smart loading techniques into KML, which means you can overlay large data sets without sacrificing performance.
• We've released versions of Google Earth in French, Italian, German, and Spanish.
• We've made improvements to our GPS support (Google Earth Plus only).
• We've improved the terrain, so peaks and valleys are more realistic.
• For the Mac, Universal Binary support as well as availability of Google Earth Plus and Google Earth Pro.

Version 4.3 adds the following incremental features:

• Street view
• Imagery dates
• New navigation controls
• More 3D buildings, with faster rendering
• Day / night lighting
• Flash support for Macs
• Added the following languages: Danish, English(UK), Spanish (Latin American), Finnish, Hebrew, Indonesian, Norwegian, Portuguese(PT), Romanian, Swedish, Thai, and Turkish
• Significantly improved performance for 3D building layer
• Vast increase in 3D building content
• Building picking and highlight on hover
• New on-screen navigator, including Look around control
• Mapping of Look around to Ctrl-arrow keys
• Mapping of zoom in/out to PgUp/PgDn keys
• Pan movement now follows terrain at low altitude
• Automatic tilt when zooming close to ground (configurable in options)
• Right mouse motion now relative to pick point
• New sunlight feature to simulate position of sun at various times of day
• New, more realistic atmospheric rendering
• New drag/drop behavior in left panel
• Faster entry/exit to Sky mode
• Improved performance of region rendering
• Significant improvements in PhotoOverlay rendering to allow for Street View layer
• Image acquisition date on status bar
• Flash support in the balloon for Mac
• New streaming indicator on status bar
• Flight simulator now enabled by default
• Many layout fixes for right-to-left languages
• Hosting KML on IIS no longer gives HTTP "Not acceptable" errors
• Emit <Link> instead of <URL> in KML
• Use operating system's default units
• Eliminate dialog storm on bad network links
• Pan speed now relative to terrain and not sea level

The recommended configuration for this release is as follows

• Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4.5
• CPU: G4 1.2Ghz
• System Memory (RAM): 512MB
• Hard Disk: 2GB free space
• Network Speed: 768 Kbits/sec
• Graphics Card: 3D-capable with 32MB of VRAM
• Screen: 1280x1024, "Millions of Colors"

The "Pro" version is available as a 7-day trial, and may be purchased online for $400 per year. It adds the following enhancements:

• Fastest performance - enhanced network access
• Improved printing and saving capabilities (2400 pixels)
• Additional annotation tools (draw polygons with height)
• Spreadsheet import - ingest up to 2,500 locations by address or lat/lon
• Additional measurement tools (square feet, miles, acreage, radius, etc.)
• Technical Support assistance (email and phone) during business hours (PST)
• Optional premium features including: Movie Maker, Premium Printing and GIS Data Importer

Google Earth is not a typical Mac OS X "Cocoa" or "Carbon" application, but rather it was written using the portable Qt/Mac framework. This means that the application is a little larger than you might expect, and it also helps explain why it uses rather old-fashioned looking tabs and controls. That said, it functions quite well, and it's worth a download.