What the!!?? Google Earth? Has a company taken over our world?No, just mapped it out for you to look at.
I was over at a friend’s house the other day and on his computerhe showed me his own house as viewed by a satellite in Earth’sorbit. It was awesome. The screen started out looking at ourgreat blue planet, then he typed in his house’s address (he hadprogrammed it in, as only the USA, UK, and Canada have theability to find an address automatically so far) and the planetturned to our country. Then it zoomed in further and furtheruntil we could see the roof of his house! My genetic father(mother has been married thrice) lives in Atlanta, Georgia, USA,so I typed in his address, the world shifted around, zoomed in,and all of a sudden I could see the roof of his house, theswimming pool in the backyard, driveway and street, trees etc.It was a real mind-blower. One of the best things aboutwww.google.earth.com is that we can now look at real photographsof any part of the world: pyramids in Egypt, Shanghai city,beaches in Jamaica, you can go and look at any place on theglobe. All you need to do is point and click your computer’smouse on any spot (address unnecessary), and it’s free.
I eventually found my own house (it will be much easier when thewhole world has been mapped by street names on the freedownloadable version) and I think that the 20$ version has a GPS(Global positioning system) which must make finding things a loteasier. You can also get directions to local areas such asrestaurants, parks, hospitals, schools and hotels. The idea isto combine Google’s search abilities with imagery and mappingand I think it has great ramifications for the future oflocation information. You can then save and share your locationsearches with your friends and colleagues as well as adding yourown data, as in my friend’s case. Google Earth’s users havealready saved thousands of personal data points for you to lookat and add to: EG: Show people where your business is located.
Another neat aspect of the technology is that you can tilt androtate the satellite’s view to give you a more 3-D perspectiveon buildings, mountains and landmarks on the terrain. Manypeople have asked me if the photos are real time and if you runout front of your house will you see yourself? We would need alot of satellites out in orbit if we hoped to have this kind of‘Big Brother’ capability and I‘m sure ethical questions wouldalso be raised.
If you are looking for directions the program will actuallydrive or fly you on the best route to get where you are going.The website has photos of ten of the most popular ‘destinations’so you can check out the quality of the high-resolution photos.With the ‘Measure’ tool you can see how far it is to the localairport or from Paris to London. With the ‘Pro’ version at $200(there are three versions) you can also measure area, radius,and perimeter, which can have many applications in professionalsituations. There are also different layers of mappinginformation you can click on so all the volcanoes or golfcourses will come up automatically if they are what you chooseto see in a specific area. If you are searching for places todine, when a restaurant comes up on the screen you can click on‘more’ and information such as hours of operation, menus,reviews, and links to the business website become available.
Pretty cool huh! The only problem you may have is that yourcomputer may not be powerful enough to handle the software or3-D graphics capability. You also miss out if you own aMacintosh, as a compatible version hasn’t been built for themyet. Don’t take my word for it, go to the site and check it out.You may find that it has applications that could change the faceof your business as well as the way you look at traversing ourworld, not to mention the ease to which you will be able tolocate pizzas anywhere on Earth.
About the author:Jesse S. Somer M6.Net http://www.m6.net Jesse S. Somerdoesn’t have the whole, wide world in his hands…but he does haveit on his computer.
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