Google launched yesterday the much anticipated [i]Google Earth[/i]. I got the chance to download it before they remove the download link somewhere in the middle of the day yesterday. I was pretty impressed with it, but there were still a few annoyances that keep the software from being perfect. [b]It is not yet known when Google will put the software again for download. Stay tuned for more updates[/b]

If you haven’t heard of Google Earth, just think of it as Google Maps on steroids. I think it’s the best description I can offer. When you lauch it, you are confronted with only a starry backdrop. This is because all the data used by the software is available in streaming. Therefore, it takes a little while to download the first time around, or the first time you look at a specific location. It’s then stored on the hard drive and further requests are much faster.

The interface is pretty intuitive, even if you have never openened a GIS in your life. There are the navigation arrows, the overlays of the map and the information about the current cursor position (latitude, longitude and altitude) neatly placed at the bottom of your screen. On the left, there is the search box (which seems to use the same algorithm as Google maps), the [i]My Places[/i] box which holds all of the placemarkers that you’ve put on the globe and the [i]Layers[/i] box which allows the user to put on the map a number of different information that was submitted by the community. Updating the data is automatic, since it comes in streaming.

The search is pretty effective when you request commercial buildings, but really sucks when you need residential addresses. The Fly To command is also quite effective and visually pleasing. I’m having trouble with the computer here at work to display roads, buildings and terrain elevation. It’s probably due to the fact that this computer does not feature a 3d graphics card. (Yes, it’s possible to still have one of these computers… ) I may try it again at home to see if the problem still persists.

Still, Google Earth is a great application. I used it yesterday to point things to one of my friends about his future trip to Paris. I exported my placemarkers and sent him the 2 ko file. He then imported it into his version of the software and he had access to all the info I had sent him.

I think that GIS producers should be humbled by the work that has been done at Google and Keyhole. It’s not perfect yet, but it was developped in about one year, has a great interface and is free. I’ve only downloaded Google Earth, but they also offer the software in two other flavours: Google Earth Plus (which features GPS integration, higher print resolution and more powerful annotation features) and Google Earth Pro (with a ton of features and can be compared with commercial GIS) But the Pro version is still priced only 400 US$/year, compared to the 10 000+ $ needed to acquire ESRI’s ArcGIS.

Let’s just say that Google Earth is bound to be as good as other Google products available on the market.

June 30th, 2005 | Earth Sciences and Geomatics

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