Fergie's Tech Blog

"Google Earth: We're trippin', and its only 9am"

Shucks, the guys here at work agree with the folks over at Silicon Beat, who said, basically,"It's awesome." To wit:

We took our own advice, and played with Google Earth. Mistake, we've just spent an hour or so tripping all over. Our conclusion: Download it now. We'll try to hold back on sappy enthusiasm, but...this is awesome!

Matt did it it, and it took two minutes. First, he asked for directions -- complete with full satellite images -- to his home in Fremont, and then directed himself along the trail he jogs to Mission Peak in Fremont. As if on a flying carpet (there's a console, and you just use the mouse to direct you), he followed the trail to the peak, watching Google track his elevation, from 400 feet to 2,400 feet.

And over on /. we find out that it's free. :-)

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday June 28, @02:23PM
from the yay-free-planet dept.
Nathan Weinberg writes "Google launches Keyhole 3 today, rebranded Google Earth, and are dumping the subscription rate (except for a $20/year "plus" versions with prettier pictures) available soon at earth.google.com. The program lets you fly around a 3D globe, with overhead satellite photos, tilted 45-degree photos, 3D rendered buildings, and overlays that display everything from roads to hotels to bike routes. I have a lot of info and screenshots at InsideGoogle, and Search Engine Watch has a big writeup. With yesterday's Google Video release, this is shaping up to be a major week for the search giant."

Wow. I'll say.

Oh, yeah. One minor thing, though, that one of my co-workers did happen to mention, while diggin' on Google Earth at work this afternoon: "It's probably a great tool for terrorists." Yikes!

posted by Fergie @ 6/28/2005 01:28:00 PM