Occasionally I come across some new technology that completely blows me away. Google Earth is definitely in that category. If you haven’t seen it yet, this is the technology that Google recently acquired from Keyhole. Go and download it now and take a look.
After downloading the client app, you can interactively browse and fly around the globe, zooming in and out as you please, browsing a seamless tapestry of satellite imagery and maps. Google has also overlaid search engine information so you can search for places, businesses, points of interest etc, and they are placed on the satellite images with a map pin.
To add another dimension, there is a community of users who have found interesting places and landmarks etc, and have submitted their own map pins which you can selectively enable. You can browse their submissions in the online forum, and then clicking on the link in the forum automatically takes you into Google Earth and zooms into the chosen location.
Very impressive. For any company that deals with geographical data, this surely is a killer app (and commercial subscriptions for enabling more information and features are available). For everyone else, there is a free version, and you browse the world from your desk 🙂