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HT March 5, 2009 at 10:22 am

Hands on with new Google Earth

In case you haven’t played around with the new Google Earth 5.0 beta, you might be pleasantly surprised what’s been added to this popular free software.


Google Earth 5.0 - 1 - Before Katrina - New Orleans 2005 In case you haven't played around with the new Google Earth 5.0 beta, you might be pleasantly surprised what's been added to this popular free software.

Google Earth 5.0 - 2 - After Katrina - New Orleans 2006 Specifically, we've been blown away by the new Historical Imagery feature, which lets you go back in time to see some areas in a "before and after" setting, be it the devastation left behind by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans (see photos here), melting of the Grinnell Glacier in Montana, the evolution of Las Vegas from the Rat Pack days to today, or witnessing south San Francisco transform from farm land into the heart of Silicon Valley. To get going, users simply click on the little clock at the top of the page and then move the timeline slider left or right.

The new Ocean features are also worth checking out — after all, nearly three-quarters of our planet is covered by water — such as the ability to dive beneath the surface and explore 3D seafloor terrain including underwater volcanoes off Hawaii (click Ocean on the left-side of the screen, under Layers, and start your dive down by pushing your middle mouse wheel in). On a related note, a handful of underwater videos and written content is also accessible from the likes of Jacques Cousteau, National Geographic and the BBC.

Too bad H.G. Wells wasn't alive to check out Google Mars 3D, featuring high-resolution terrain and other imagery of the red planet and our closest neighbour in the solar system. OK, so we couldn't find the robotically-powered Mars Rover, but we found many other points of interest (no Starbucks…yet). If you want to check out Mars, click the icon with an orange Saturn at the top of the screen and select Google Mars from the drop-down menu, or Google Sky, for a view of space, including constellations.

Also new to Google Earth 5.0: a Touring option, which is an easy way to record and share your Google Earth experience with others; GPS tracking, for those who want to upload data from supported devices (previously found in the Plus and Pro versions of Google Earth); and the downloadable software is now available in 41 languages (up from 26 in the last version).


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Comment (1)

  • Min-woo Kim says:

    [Title: Google Ocean + Google Latitude = Real-time Fishing LBS Contents]

    Have you heard about Real-time Fishing LBS Contents? We have proposed this Service Model to Google over 3 years ago. Real-time Fishing LBS Contents is Location Based Service for IPTV, WiMAX, Mobile. This Service Model was created in 2002 by I&IWorld. I&IWorld's located in South Korea. As you know, there're many people enjoy fishing in the world(about 5 hundred million). I&IWorld's Real-time Fishing LBS Contents is like these.

    *Main Functions*
    1.The underwater topography and 3D views with fishing spots
    2.Real-time fishing points tracing by GPS and angling direction guide
    3.Service the real-time fishing condition about fishing place(weather, water temp, depth etc)
    4.Angler Social network(such as Second Life)

    Visit http://www.koreacontent.org/co/i/iiworld/index.html. If you need more information, please send your email address.

    (Report comment)

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