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Google Earth Launching For Free

Posted by Zonk on from the yay-free-planet dept.

Nathan Weinberg writes "Google launches Keyhole 3 today, rebranded Google Earth, and are dumping the subscription rate (except for a $20/year "plus" versions with prettier pictures) available soon at earth.google.com. The program lets you fly around a 3D globe, with overhead satellite photos, tilted 45-degree photos, 3D rendered buildings, and overlays that display everything from roads to hotels to bike routes. I have a lot of info and screenshots at InsideGoogle, and Search Engine Watch has a big writeup. With yesterday's Google Video release, this is shaping up to be a major week for the search giant."

2 of 405 comments (clear)

  1. Untethered Version?? by yellowbkpk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I know this is really just a pipe dream because Google wouldn't do it, but I could see this being very useful in a car computer application. I have been doing some heavy duty searching and there just isn't a good app for in-car navigation available to the general public.

    If Google allowed you to cache their street data and then project colors over the topo maps instead of the "streaming" satellite images, this would be a killer navigation aid for in-car usage. Point of Interest and Address data could be stored in a few gigabytes (they do it on DVDs nowadays) on a harddrive and updated every night when you drive in to the garage (over Wifi).

    Hackers...take your mark, get set, GO!

  2. Re:Good God, PLEASE STFU by Panoramix · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I am pissed off that everytime something innovative comes out, someone has to be a token Slashdot user and say 'No Linux Version' or 'No *nix? This sucks' or whatever other equivalent you can pull out of Slashdot's archives.

    I agree, to some extent. It always annoys me when people complain about free software, as if they had some right to it. It is a gift. Complaining about something that was given to you is pretty lame, indeed.

    However, the lack of a GNU/Linux version is very frustrating, so I also understand the feeling. See, I do not have a Windows machine. I do have valid reasons (at least valid and important to me) for not having one, so I do not even intend to get one in the foreseeable future. So I will not be able to run this software, when otherwise I would be all over it.

    This is my choice, of course, so I am not complaining. It is just very frustrating.

    Even if there isn't a linux port, you shouldn't be complaining because someone has to take the time to code all that - are you willing to go put in the time and do that work?

    I am certain that many people here would gladly "take the time to code all that", for free even, if they only could. But this is not an open source app, so that is not possible.

    Come to think about it, this could make a great project. GPL'ed clone of Google Earth, anyone?