See if your Neighbours Garden is Bigger than Yours... (earth.google.com)

Member Name: JJJJ

Product:	earth.google.com
Date:	23/03/09 (332 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Wealth of Features, Great Imagery

Disadvantages: n/a

'Google Earth' is a application which allows the user to view satellite images of virtually any place on the globe. Available as a free download from http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html, the programme is easy to use and is available to both MAC and PC users.

Previously known as 'Earth Viewer', the popular piece of software was re-branded Google Earth in 2005, and has a wide variety of features. When you load Google Earth for the first time, you will be presented with a depiction of a globe floating in space. Clicking and grabbing the globe with the mouse will allow you to rotate it, whilst double clicking on a particular location will result in zooming in to the selected area. The same actions can be performed in a more precise manner with the controls which appear in the top right hand corner of the screen.

The aerial photography used in Google Earth is generally of a high quality, and you can usually zoom to a level where you can clearly make out cars and sometimes even people in the picture - that said, some areas feature sharper imagery than others.

If you choose to do so (by selecting the option from the 'layers' menu'), you can overlay icons onto the map which display points of interest, roads, place names and a variety of other information. You can also upload pictures or Youtube videos that you have taken of a particular area and add them to locations on the globe for other people to see. I generally turn this option off, as many photos I have viewed that are supposed to be tagged of a particular area are completely misplaced, and often videos aren't relevant to a location.

Google Earth has the ability to display 3D buildings in some areas - however, many of these look like dull grey blocks without texture or realism. That said,
the number of realistic and well modeled 3D structures are increasing all the time, and apparently, the whole of Hamburg has been mapped in this manner.

'Google Sky' was incorporated into the programme towards the end of 2007, and allows the user to navigate through our galaxy whilst accessing a wealth of scientific information. This option can be navigated in a similar way to the main Earth view, although many of the images are often quite blurry (fair enough seeing as the majority of the stars and planets depicted are millions of miles away). If you have an interest in the solar system, then this option will be particularly impressive, although personally I find the satellite pictures of earth to be far more entertaining.

The latest update to Google Earth is the 'Google Street' view which comes as standard with version 4.3 onwards. Here, you can look at street-level 3D photos of a variety of locations - however, like the 3D buildings option, this is quite limited in terms of the locations, and there aren't many street views of Britain.

It is now possible to download a version of Google Earth for the iPhone and iPod, and although it allows you to make full use of both device's touch-screen abilities, it doesn't feature any of the layers options that the PC and MAC versions do.

All in all, Google Earth is an incredibly impressive tool which can be used for a variety of purposes. I personally find it fascinating to be able to view the area in which I live from the sky - it gives a great perspective to our place on the planet.

Summary: Satellite Imagery