Thoughts on Google Earth

Well, just incase you haven't heard of it before, Google has unveiled the BETA version of its latest product Google Earth. What an incredible program. It takes us a step beyond MapQuest and Yahoo Maps. Although it doesn't provide the same level of detail as MapQuest and Yahoo for driving directions, it does provide some great information that is wonderfully designed. Instead of providing maps it provides digital imagery for those who may want to visualize the world in a little more real fashion that the static maps provided by internet mapping tools.

Google Earth is also supported by the Google Earth Community. The community provides support, news, archives, data searches, and a bulletin board. As of August 19 there are already over 83,000 members. The community can be used for posting.

Why do I like Google Earth so much? Google Earth is a very valuable visualization tool. I can describe to someone how to locate my house, and I can direct them to MapQuest or Yahoo Maps to see the street and address structure, but the best way to find my house it to provide someone with a visualization of where my house lies in relation to other things (houses, intersections, landmarks). It provides someone who is looking for my house with some situational awareness while they are out looking for my house. Google Earth does this much better than any other mapping tool I have found.

In my current job as a consultant to the US Air Force we are creating a product very similar to Google Earth, but it is designed for the Air Force to visualize its installations and the battle space. Imagine a 3-D version of Google Earth with real time aircraft traffic, weather, and installation data on it. An aircraft can depart from an Air force installation and you can follow it as it transits the world. When it comes close to its destination you can zoom in to find a deeper level of visual and annotated detail on a seamless, integrated image. That is similar to where we are headed in the next couple of years. What I do isn't Google Earth, but a similar product. It is a very powerful tool that senior commanders will use to visually remain aware of all the thousands of moving parts in the military system.

Tips for using Google Earth:

1. Remember that the imagery is static and doesn't depict real time pictures. You can't see your car parked in the parking lot right now. Most of the imagery is "flown" once or twice per year and some of the imagery can be several years old.

2. Remember that some of the annotations on the imagery may not be accurate. The annotations can be provided in an open format, so they may not have any quality control before they are posted. If John found an ATM down the street he can place the location of that ATM on Google Earth, even if he is a block or a mile off.

3. Create your own address books using the "Add Folder" and "Add Placemark" functions. You can do some really creating things with the program.

4. Google Earth is free. Don't buy the upgraded version unless you have to. Most people will never need the capability to use the tools the upgraded version contains.

5. Google now owns Google Earth and Blogger. Both are currently free programs and I can hardly wait until they have both integrated into a tool that leverages the visualization tools of Google Earth ease of blogging with Blogger. The images from Google Earth are a little too large for posting on Blogger right now. The detail on Google Earth isn't used well on Blogger.