Google Earth Launching Free

[+oldnumber7]

Check this out!

 

http://earth.google.com/

 

Its like google maps but you can do alot more. The big difference is the pay version allows you to download GPS tracks and waypoints to overlay on the map.

[+Joe Smith]

So it's like keyhole, but free?

 

 

sadly, my pc is DIW, and no mac support.

 

Joe SMith

[+TeamK-9]

This is cool..

 

Actually Joe, playing around with it.

 

It IS Keyhole, but Google has obviously put some work into changing it up a bit...

Edited June 28, 2005 by TeamK-9

[robertlipe]

Google bought Keyhole last fall. It's not a coincidence that Google Earth will remind you of Keyhole.

 

There is a personal use, stripped down version for free, a less free one that contains GPS connectivity and some other features for personal use, and the commercial version.

 

If you're in an area that has high-res imagery - and they are aggressively increasing coverage of it all the time - it's very impressive. You can sit at your desk and sometimes see "the geocache is in the fourth bush from the east edge of the clearing."

[+BubbleDragon]

I don't think they've got Linux support, either, so that's a bit of a bummer. But that software always scared me. I could tell when it was taken, because I could tell there was a tree in our yard that had been cut down, how many cars were in the parking lot, etc.

[+TeamK-9]

I definately just spent an hour and a half playing around with it...

[+Team Ginalf]

Only USGS coverage in my area.. Sticking with USAPHOTOMAPS for the time being

[+wvsasha]

Sadly my connectivity is still dial-up that on a sunny day, with a tail-wind gets a blazing 21,800 bps. Can't use it.

[outta here]

I've just been playing with it. In addition to being totally addictive eye candy, it looks fairly useful. You have to pay a small amount ($20/yr) for the GPS connectivity, but even the free version can import *.gpx and *.loc files.

 

My area has 1 meter color orthophoto coverage, and the tilt mode is just amazing. The images line up very well with the elevation data that they are using. (unlike Terraserver DOQs and DRGs). Flying over familiar trails in tilt mode looks amazingly correct.

 

It looks like some of the features I would like to use (primarily high resolution printing) are only on the $400/yr version. But even the $20/yr version has better than screen resolution printing and the drawing tools. It is not clear whether you can save your drawings into shapefiles, gpx files, or something like that so the drawing tools may just be a toy.

 

You need a fairly recent computer with a good graphics card and a broadband connection, but with those in hand this looks at least fun and maybe useful.

[JohnX]

Very cool indeed. I installed it, zoomed in without doing anything but mouse clicking, and found my house and could see the car in my driveway and boat in my yard. Total time, start to finish. 5 minutes.

 

You have to love that broadband. I wish I had bought stock in Google.

[outta here]

Ok. So I'm replying to my reply here, but I hadn't actually tried the *.loc import before my earlier post. Import a *.loc file and the waypoint(s) get added to the map. (cool) It labels with the Waypoint name, not the cache title. (can't have everything I guess) Click on a waypoint and a little bubble opens with a hyperlink. Click on the hyperlink and a browser pane in the Google Earth window opens to the page for that geocache.

 

I think I'm going to like this.

[+vree]

Oooooh sounds neat!! when i try to download, i get a page saying this:

 

The Earth At Night (Beta Temporarily Closed)

 

Welcome, frustrated would-be planet surfer.

 

We appreciate your interest in accessing 3D geospatial information, but due to the technical limitations of this beta launch, Google Earth has been forced to take a brief breather. Please check back with us soon.

 

Thanks,

 

The Google Earth Team

 

hope they have it up and available for download soon...

[outta here]

The Earth At Night (Beta Temporarily Closed)

 

Welcome, frustrated would-be planet surfer.

 

We appreciate your interest in accessing 3D geospatial information, but due to the technical limitations of this beta launch, Google Earth has been forced to take a brief breather. Please check back with us soon.

 

Thanks,

 

The Google Earth Team

 

That would be Earth: 1 Google: 0

[+deimos444]

I just upgraded from Keyhole to Google Earth and there are all these strange white lines shooting out from a blue triangle.

I thought UFOs were roundish.

[robertlipe]

Ok. So I'm replying to my reply here, but I hadn't actually tried the *.loc import before my earlier post. Import a *.loc file and the waypoint(s) get added to the map. (cool) It labels with the Waypoint name, not the cache title. (can't have everything I guess) Click on a waypoint and a little bubble opens with a hyperlink. Click on the hyperlink and a browser pane in the Google Earth window opens to the page for that geocache.

 

I think I'm going to like this.

Since it'll read KML, LOC and GPX, if you don't like the default field mappings that the native importer provides, just use any tool that supports any (or all) of those formats to massage the mappings before it gets to Earth. (That product name leads to all kind of wierd sentences such as 'Where did you install Earth?")

 

You could probably use zero or more of GPSBabel, GSAK, GPXSPinner, and similar tools to map things as you want them.

[+Tharagleb]

I just upgraded from Keyhole to Google Earth and there are all these strange white lines shooting out from a blue triangle.

I thought UFOs were roundish.

Deimos: Your avatar is freaking me out, it looks like the ghost of a cat. What is it really?

 

And not to divert the thread I will add this, earth.google.com rocks, although there isn't much high-resolution stuff for VT.

[+Doc-Dean]

Ok. So I'm replying to my reply here, but I hadn't actually tried the *.loc import before my earlier post. Import a *.loc file and the waypoint(s) get added to the map. (cool) It labels with the Waypoint name, not the cache title. (can't have everything I guess) Click on a waypoint and a little bubble opens with a hyperlink. Click on the hyperlink and a browser pane in the Google Earth window opens to the page for that geocache.

 

I think I'm going to like this.

I imported a GPX file and I see that the cache locations are off by about 0.1mi shifted northwards. Has anyone else seen this?

[+deimos444]

I just upgraded from Keyhole to Google Earth and there are all these strange white lines shooting out from a blue triangle.

I thought UFOs were roundish.

Deimos: Your avatar is freaking me out, it looks like the ghost of a cat. What is it really?

 

And not to divert the thread I will add this, earth.google.com rocks, although there isn't much high-resolution stuff for VT.

That is an infrared picture of my Golden Retriver that I fooled around with using Photoshop 8.

A strange looking cat indeed!