Latest Google freebie: Fly around the world virtually

It's essentially an easy-to-navigate local interface for the Google Maps 3-D satellite imagery already available on the Web. But Google Earth — a revamped freeware version of the company's old Keyhole software — offers so much more.

In fact, it's a lot closer to a dedicated mapping program than one might initially think.

Type your address (or whatever you want to see) into the search box to zoom from outer space into your city or neighborhood, then go to the "layers" box in the application's left-hand rail, and you can overlay all sorts of useful information: Road names, restaurants, parks, schools, churches, airports, railroads — you get the idea.

Instead of overlaying on an ordinary map, however, this information overlays on satellite-created digital images of Earth's surface.

That's the program's strength, and its potential weakness. Much of the globe outside of major metropolitan areas has yet to be photographed and digitized into the database.

Amazing close-ups are available for New York, Detroit, San Francisco, Madrid, London, and the world's other metropolises. But tight zooms of smaller places are just a blur and some of the images are out of date.

But already, the software is causing a buzz.

There have been reports that Google, like Amazon's A9, is working on street-level photography in major cities that could replace the simple wire-frame 3-D views.

And others are postulating that creative hackers might find a way to make this satellite software display still more valuable information, like the locations of wireless hot spots or other user data.

Google, as always, isn't yet saying a lot, just releasing the beta version of Google Earth. Get it at http://earth.google.com.

By Tom Gromak
The Detroit News

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Posted by Brandon Ballentine on Monday, July 11, 2005