Most of us have been using one online mapping program or another for years now. They’re a godsend for those of us who get lost within a 3-mile radius of our homes, and they’re just plain fun for people who enjoy figuring out where stuff is. With this in mind, imagine how amazing Google Earth must be for it to elicit awe from the online community and cause South Korea to demand changes to the program.
Google Earth is no ordinary mapping application. Type “Denver, CO” into the Google Earth search box, and yes, you can learn where Denver is in relation to Grand Junction and how to get from your address to 1600 Curtis St. in downtown Denver. In the same search, though, you can also learn that 1600 Curtis St. is in the 80202 zip code and that there are 12 Starbucks Coffee shops within a half-mile radius of that address; you can zoom out from 1600 Curtis St. and watch it disappear into a satellite view of the Earth and then zoom back in as if you were falling onto 1600 Curtis St. from space; and if you click on “Forbidden City” in the “Sightseeing” column, you can see what it would look like to fly Superman-style from 1600 Curtis St. in Denver to the Forbidden Palace in Beijing, China.
And you thought the world was small before.
The application is fairly easy to use, but there are a lot of functions to try out. So let’s see how you can get started with Google Earth.
What is Google Earth?
Google Earth is currently available for download as a desktop application, although you need to be connected to the Internet to use it. Every time you open Google Earth, it automatically connects to Google’s servers, giving you access to terabytes of geographical, political and social data. For instance, you can view a city with certain “layers” turned on, including topographical information, population data and crime statistics for the area. The layers and all of the map navigation buttons, including zoom, tilt and rotate, are all located in the Google Earth frame.
The big deal right now is that the basic version of Google Earth is completely free, and there aren’t even any ads. Of course, this could change in the future. So let’s all start by downloading the free version of the software located at Earth.Google.com while it’s still free and unfettered by ads. If your computer runs Windows, Linux or Mac OS X 10.3.9 or higher, and it’s fewer than five years old, you should have no problem meeting the system requirements. If your computer can’t run the application, read on to find out what you’ll be able to do once you update your equipment.
Once you open Google Earth and start moving around a bit, you’ll immediately notice one of the biggest “whoa” aspects of the program: Some of the information is 3-D, and the stuff that isn’t 3-D is still a photograph — there are no illustrated maps here. The baseline visual data comes from satellite imagery and aerial photographs taken by aircraft.
While Google Earth comprises an array of features that would probably take months to fully utilize, the basic features fit loosely into the following categories:
# Mapping/directions
# Local search
# Sightseeing
We’ll address each of these utilities in the following sections. But first, let’s find out where Google Earth gets its data.
Google Earth Data
Google Earth was once a premium program called Keyhole that cost about $90. When Google purchased Keyhole, it inherited terabytes of digital mapping data and set about creating a basic version of the software that would be available for free download. Now you’re all caught up.
The photographic maps available on Google Earth come primarily from two sources: satellites and aircraft. Google gets this imagery and other digital mapping information from sources such as TeleAtlas and EarthSat, both of which compile photographs and maps into digital form for commercial applications. Because the data comes from different sources, it’s provided at different resolutions, which is why some areas of the globe appear crisp even at street level while others are blurry from a great distance. When you use Google Earth, you are not viewing the imagery in real-time: According to Google, the information is no more than three years old and is continually updated as new data becomes available.
Google Earth has the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom covered to street level, meaning you can zoom in and view road names and local businesses and get directions from here to there. The database has a good amount of information on Western Europe, as well, but the rest of the world is hit or miss. While you can zoom in and get a pretty good look at the Egyptian pyramids, you can’t see street names or find a grocery store in the area.
This brings us to another source of Google Earth’s data: the Google search engine. Part of what makes Google Earth so addictive is its collaboration with Google search. When you’re viewing a city, you can search for coffee shops, restaurants, grocery stores, bars and tons of other businesses in the vicinity, and you can click on them to get detailed information from the Google search engine. Users can also add a business location to a map by clicking on “Add/Edit a Business Listing” in the Google Earth toolbar.
Now let’s get back to playing with Google Earth. In the next section, we’ll start with the basic functions.
Basic Functions
The best way to get to know Google Earth is to start with a location and see what Google Earth will tell you about it. So let’s start with HowStuffWorks headquarters in Atlanta, GA. If you type “3350 Peachtree Rd. Atlanta, GA” into the Google Earth search box and click “Search,” you zoom in from space to HowStuffWorks headquarters. You are now looking at a photograph of the location.
To get more information and turn the photograph into a real map, the next step is to turn on some layers. Available layers include dining, lodging, banks, roads, terrain, malls, grocery stores, gas stations, parks, transit, schools and geographic features.
To create a nice, functional map, you might just turn on the “roads” layer. If you zoom out a bit, you’ve got yourself a good driving map of the broader area surrounding 3350 Peachtree Rd. in Atlanta.
Let’s say your little tour of Atlanta includes a stop at HowStuffWorks headquarters followed by a trip to the Georgia Dome to check out a Falcons game. A click on the Google Earth directions button reveals two slots: One for the starting address (3350 Peachtree Rd. Atlanta, GA) and one for the ending address (1 Georgia Dome Dr NW, Atlanta, 30313). Clicking “Search” reveals both written directions and a highlighted route on the map, which has automatically zoomed out to accommodate the entire route from HowStuffWorks to the stadium.
You can save, print or e-mail all of the maps and information you’ve generated so far. There are buttons in the Google Earth toolbar to accommodate each of these actions.
At this point, let’s say the Falcons game is over and you’re ready to grab a bite to eat. This is where the local search comes in.
The first thing we want to do is re-center the map so that the focus in on the Georgia Dome. To do this, we left-click anywhere on the map and drag it upward until the Georgia Dome is centered (alternately, we could also just put “1 Georgia Dome Dr” in the original search box and fly right there — this would put the Dome in the center, too). You can zoom in now and get a pretty nice view of the Dome.
To find out what restaurants are located in the vicinity of the Georgia Dome, you click on the “Local Search” button and enter, say, “restaurants” in the “What” box and leave the default “Current view” in the “Where” box. When you click on “Search,” here’s what comes up:
The map zoomed out slightly and recentered itself to fit in the most restaurant results while still keeping the Georgia Dome in sight. But that’s not the only way to find restaurants. You can also turn on the “Dining” layer, which doesn’t depend on any keywords but instead searches the entire Google “Dining” category for restaurants in the area. Here’s what happens when you do that:
Now you’ve got even more options.
In this section, we’ve covered most of the basic functions of Google Earth. But most of what we’ve gone over here is covered in other mapping applications as well, although it may not be nearly as pretty as the view in Google Earth. What sets this program apart are the functions that make it a pastime, not just a utility.
“I Can’t Believe You Can Do That” Functions
Video Flyovers
One of the most amazing aspects of Google Earth is the flyover. When you’re looking at Atlanta, GA, and you do a search for “Nepal,” you don’t just blink and end up in Nepal. The program flies you there, so you can see the terrain and all of the countries beneath you as you make your way to your destination. This video flyover feature is great when it comes to getting driving directions. At the bottom of the screen with your turn-by-turn directions, there’s a “play” button. If you click it, Google Earth will fly you over the route, turning right and left and veering as required, so you can see exactly what it’s going to look like
when you drive it.
3-D Views
Google Earth has created 3-D buildings for many major U.S. cities. For the most part, they’re not detailed replicas — they’re simple, gray 3-D drawings — but you do get a very good feel for the city when you turn on this layer. And in Version 4 Beta, Google Earth supports textured (real looking) 3-D drawings. Some are built into the application, but mostly Google is now letting users create and import 3-D drawings themselves using the free Google SketchUp program. As with any other view, you can use the “tilt” and “rotate” buttons in the navigator panel to get the full 3-D view.
Sightseeing
If you haven’t had time to travel the globe just yet, Google Earth is your new best friend. You can zoom in on global landmarks just by clicking on a location in the “Sightseeing” box, which lists the most popular destinations, including the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Arizona’s Grand Canyon and Vatican City in Rome.
Customizing
One of the factors that makes Google Earth stand out from other mapping programs is the level of customization it offers. You can easily insert placemarks of locations you want to return to or overlay your own images on a map you create. It’s all right there in the toolbar. And if you want to get really fancy, you can import your own files into Google Earth to display routes, points of interest, boundary data, et cetera. Much in the way an Internet browser reads HTML, Google Earth reads a language called KML. You can open your own KML file in the Google Earth application and see your data displayed on the Google Earth imagery. To learn about importing your own data, check out these links:
* Keyhole: Importing Your Data Into Google Earth
* Iron Geek: Wigle Data to Google Earth
* Google Earth KML Tutorial
Google Earth is arguably the greatest free download available right now, and most people are thrilled with what it offers — most, but not all.
Concerns About Google Earth
Google Earth makes aerial photographs of every square inch of the globe readily available to anyone with a computer. People have raised concerns about this fact on a couple of different fronts.
Google Earth elicits powerful responses from people the first time they use it. One common response is sheer awe and joy at the dramatically increased access to the world. Another one, which usually immediately follows the first and has to do with the human urge to look up one’s own address, is “Oh, that’s kind of creepy.” While most people love the idea of viewing the world on their computer, they don’t love the idea of the world viewing them. Could someone use Google Earth to more effectively stalk a target? Could burglars use Google Earth to case an area?
There are a couple of things to note when considering personal privacy concerns. First, the information on Google Earth is already available elsewhere; and second, the imagery is up to three years old. No one is viewing satellite data in real-time using this application. Three-year-old data is arguably not very useful to a stalker.
Other worries about the program focus on national security. Officials in numerous countries have voiced concerns over the level of detail available in the Google Earth application, including Australia, Britain and the United States. After all, terrorists could arguably make use of an application that supplies detailed satellite imagery of the globe. But the most vocal opponent of Google Earth by far is South Korea. South Korea is technically still at war with North Korea and so is very upset that any North Korean Tom, Dick or Harry can view South Korean military installations with the click of a button and a little zoom.
Realistically speaking, if Google can get its hands on this data, then North Korea probably already has it. In any event, it’s worth noting that any South Korean Tom, Dick or Harry can zoom in on North Korea’s nuclear research facilities. Google Earth makes spying child’s play.
The imagery offered by Google Earth is nothing new — Google gets its data from other sources, after all. But the packaging is revolutionary. It no longer takes intensive research to track down a satellite image of the Egyptian pyramids or of the White House. It takes no research at all. All you have to do is download Google Earth and you’ve got a bird’s-eye view of the world.
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