Eric's Blog

The other day David downloaded Google's latest marvel: Google Earth. An advanced version of Google Local, Earth is just awesome. It must be downloaded to work, unlike Local. Local is a two-dimensional map of the Earth that can be viewed as a display of streets and states, a terrain map, or a hybrid of the two. Earth is similar, but way cooler. You start zoomed out like you were standing on the moon, with the Earth in the distance and stars twinkling around you. From there you can zoom in if you want, or type in an address. If you type in an address, the camera zooms in in a 3D way, and brings you to a view of that spot from about 10000-1000 feet. Most places look fairly normal from that distance, not too fuzzy or pixilated. If you type in our address for instance, you can almost make out the divided highway next to our house. But when we tried my Dad's old house in Cincinnati, you could make out the tree in his yard, and see the driveway perfectly. The clearness of the picture usually depends on your distance from a major city. We could also see my Dad's old house near St. Louis perfectly. If you go to New York, Earth really starts getting cool. If you type in Empire State building, the camera will zoom out, then go to New York, then zoom in to the building. You can see it perfectly, along with most of the greater metropolitan area of New York. Then you can begin to play with some of Google Earth's more exciting features. When you check the "Buildings" option, everything turns gray, and then becomes three-dimensional. You can tilt and circle the Empire State Building or Trump Tower, and see every outline of the building's shape in a three-dimensional view. This works for all of New York. Now, this option won't do anything for Lakeland, but you can turn on the "Dining" feature almost anywhere. This will show nearly every restaurant in the country (or if you need, the world, though there aren't as many in other countries). This all makes for one cool experience. Unfortunately, there isn't yet a version for Mac (they say they're working on it), but you can still view Local online. Google offers three different versions of Earth, the free version, Plus, and Pro. Plus is $20, and allows you to synchronize with your GPS. Pro is $400, and depicts the entire Earth is high-def and 3D. You can get directions that display in 3D, and even scan blueprints into buildings. It ends up looking like an advance version of Sim City 4. I don't know how Google can afford to offer so many great features for free, but I hope they keep doing it.

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