Google Earth

So the Google mapping people have been pretty busy lately, and released a beta of Google Earth a week or so a go.

This seems to combine the Google Maps stuff with the Keyhole application they bought a while a go.

Unlike Google Maps this is a downloaded application (windows only I think), however I recommend everybody tries it out - you will be impressed. The ability to zoom into places all over the world is very neat.
This application seems to have more data than the web system, and even goes as far as to have 3D building models for a lot of US cities!


There is no doubt that this is a very cool application and you'll spend hours just looking at different places, but you have to wonder what you will use it for long-term!

• If you want road maps or driving directions, then Google Maps is a lot clearer.
• If you're out and about and what to look stuff up it will be hard as you need to install the application - I cant see web cafes letting you do that, and there's no way it will run on a phone, unlike Goggle Maps.
• The local search information is also provided by the web application, and so again this isn't a reason to continue to use GE.

I think it will be interesting to see how Google develop GE, and how they plan to keep people using it and how they are gonna make money from it!