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Google Earth Launching For Free
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."
Anyone tested this in Wine (or something with better 3D support like Cedega) yet? Any luck?
# cat
Damn, my RAM is full of llamas.
I get a CRC error when I try to unpack the .exe
Yeah, yeah, yeah... I know. IT'S BEEEEEETAAAAA.
Google should change their logo to put that little Beta under the 'le'.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
Looks like we need to take advantage of this to plot Wi-Fi Everywhere. Rock on, guys, see you at the next interview interval.
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
It is like NASA World Wind, but better.
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This is the best web application I have seen for years. Now I will be able top spy on my neighbours from the other side of the house!
C'mon...
Google, you're all about Linux- why can't ya come up with a Linux (and a MacOS X) version, hm?
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
Aw man, c'mon Google!
Slashdot: 24 hours behind every other site or your money back!
Wow, this is great. The images are better than what they have for Google Maps, at least for my house (I can zoom in a lot farther). And the tilting and rotating are really fun. They have a few famous sightseeing places included by default, and just rotating and zooming around the Three Sisters or Yosemite was almost breathtaking. Integrating with their direction and local services is probably a good idea, though I doubt I'll use it much, but the images themselves are very well done. Good job, Google.
Its actually pretty addictive for a GIS geek like myself. Plus it was neat to have it help me plan my camping trip this weekend.
It totally blows away any geographical user interface ESRI or Autodesk or anyone else has. They should be embarrassed with their current ArcIMS and MapGuide products - such rudimentary interfaces and poor performance.
Whats even more interesting is the Google Earth Enterprise suite. Being able to load my own satellite data and GIS data into this would be interesting. But like I've said before in other posts about google maps, the biggest problem for GIS groups would be the lack of an "Identify" tool (perhaps its there but I havent seen it in any of the screenshots). And still no scale bar at the bottom either, though they do have a north arrow.
The Doormat
If you're not outraged, then you're not paying attention.
Get your own free personal location tracker
New York is full of them. Just use the Shift-Arrow combinations to tilt the view.
Bill
It's my Sig and you can't have it. Mine! All Mine!
You get 512M in cereal boxes these days.
painting waypoint, tracks and routes over the maps?
Well, I guess Slashdot already have a quite complete coverage of Google stuff, but if you wan't to beat the rush for some hours I recommend the Google Blog (with RSS)
Won't be long before someone comes up with a version of Hell. Oh, wait a minute. I forgot that AOL cornered that market. I'm sure Microsoft is working on something, and an open source version shouldn't be too far behind. Although it's a bit hard to improve on hot, hotter, and hottest.
Q: How can Google afford to give away so much for free?
A: Volume.
I believe Google is infringing on prior art on the whole "Earth" thing. They are attempting to rebrand it, push it as an original and then patent it away from the original creator - God.
God will soon be unable to continue providing his "competing" Earth service due to rigorous patent laws, and everyone will PERISH - All because Google has the legal power to take a page from MS's book and assert that it was their idea in the first place.
Please contact your local congress(wo)man today and let hir know of this nefarious plot.
www.olin.edu
I have been unable to find examples of 3D buildings - anyone else have luck?
My town is littered with them. In fact, I'm sitting in one right now. They should be pretty easy to spot; a good rule of thumb is that if something is tall enough to trip over, it's 3D.
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
Wow,
What a great way to visualize approaches to airports you haven't been to before. Just go to the airport you want, tilt the view angle and line up on the runway and you've got a perfect perspective of what the surrounding environs look like. No more trying to blindly search for the airport as you go to a new one. You can research ahead of time and get all your landmarks down pat!
Hmmm...
somthing about Google and Earth in the same URL excites me.
Am no fek Buddhist, but this is enlightenment.
I can see the Dept of Homeland Security not liking this project one bit as anyone anywhere can get the layouts of every city and street with a broadband connection.
Don't get me wrong, I think this is a great tool, but i feel it won't exist without debate.
"Insert Sig Here"
Its not Google branded, but you can tie into a GPS with Google Earth Pro.
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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!
Atlanta has them.
Also, after installing it, it seemed that 3D Buildings is turned off by default. Make sure that option is checked in the left-hand option pane.
-CausticPuppy "Of all the people I know, you're certainly one of them." -Somebody I don't know
I like the map & satellite imagery Google has given for the Earth. My question: why stop there?
... why not include ... "Moon" as well? In fact, we have the imagery for other celestial orbs ... why not Mars? Mercury?
Okay, so you see the "Map" and "Satellite" links in the upper right
In short, why stop at Google Earth?
Global warming is neither science, nor politics. It is a religion.
Should you consider that the "plus" version is not worth the 30 USD you shelled out for it three days ago, Google offers you a refund. The refund is pro-rated according to the number of months of the year you have been using your subscription.
Here
I think it goes without saying that I wish I could update TFA. When I wrote it at 1 AM, 13 hours before it hit /., Earth hadn't yet been uploaded to the web, so "launching" in the title and "available soon" in the article haven't been accurate for many hours. Also, I would have mentioned the enterprise versions of Earth, which can cost a butt-load of money for those interested.
...but doesn't this promote terrorism to a certain extent?
Since you posted this as a reply to the What about Linux? thread, it seems reasonable to assume that Google has already thought of this and they deduced that terrorists don't use Windows.
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 was checking out the comments on Threshold 5 and was surprised to find half the comments along these same lines!!!
This is a FREE PROGRAM. It is FREE. It is also damn innovative, one of a kind (well...not quite, but for the features it has, definitely), and they even took the time to make it run on DirectX and OpenGL.
My gut instinct tells me that there will be a Linux Port sometime - it's in freakin' beta people quit your bitching.
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 thought not. Now shut up while I go fly through San Francisco checking out Google Earth's awesomeness in 3D.
If you look at the product comparison on the Google Earth website it says that the measure area feature is in Google Earth Pro. http://earth.google.com/product_comparison.html
3D Buildings are simple grey projections of major city buildings overlayed on the city map. They don't look great yet, but they are fun.
I found Vegas by accident and compiled this list from previous answers.
Las Vegas
New York
San Francisco
Boston
Cleveland
Denver
Atlanta
From Google:
Google Earth has 3D buildings listed in a number of major US cities including Boston, MA; Cleveland, OH; and Washington, D.C. to name a few. To view these:
1. Turn on the 3D building layer by selecting the check box in the dashboard.
2. Position the viewer within a reasonable viewing altitude over a major city such as San Francisco. The 3D buildings start to appear from an eye-elevation of 10-12,000 feet. Check the eye-elevation meter on the lower right of the 3D viewer to determine your current viewing height. The 3D buildings appear as light grey objects over the imagery of the city. As you zoom in, more details will appear until you can see the entire shape of a building.
3. Use the tilt and rotate tools to get the best view of the buildings.
I was a Keyhole subscriber for a little over a year before google bought them.
As nice of an improvement the Google Earth software is, overall the product has become worse since google bought it.
The overall resolution has been decreased from many covered areas and super high-res areas have been removed entirely.
You used to be able to clearly make out the exact shapes of cars in the SF Bay Area, now they are blurry colored blobs. In the super high res areas, you could pretty much identify the model of most cars and sometimes even make out individual people.
If you are a long time subscriber like me, google placates you with an option to login to the 'legacy' database.. but if you are new.. no dice.
Doesn't that seem strange? I really hope they reintegrate the higher res data, it is profoundly better.
I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt that when they increased their coverage area they had technical issues with the highest res data, but it's been awhile now and they havn't changed their stance of "Oh.. umm yea..login to legacy.." since the new primary database came out.. so I'm fairly worried.
Download Stellarium at http://stellarium.sourceforge.net/ and you can pull up our night skies, only thing you need is your Lat/Long and a form of reference (conveniently provided by Earth) to get your bearings. Select an appropriate remote location in G-earth away from city lights and voila, instant geeky-but-still romantic date. Just add wine and an appreciation for the starry nights.
* Making waffles just so I have something to Twitter *
Was I the only one that thought a flight simulator + google Earth = hours and hours of fun?
Speaking of which, for those of us into climbing/hiking, for most of the Canadian Rockies (Three Sisters in Canmore is included as a default sightseeing point, yay!) the resolution and elevation are sufficient to get a general idea of what you're heading into. I've pored over topo maps and the like, but you never get the sense of what you're getting into.
I've used the tilt/rotate and careful zooming on some of the areas I've been this summer so far, and it's positively creepy. Having satellite textures mapped onto elevation data is the next best thing.
I've already poked around a few backcountry places that maps don't as show much fun, but the Keyhole data is veeeery promising. There's one block a bit north of Lake Louise that is VERY highly detailed for backcountry, looks like fun!
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
Anyone having any luck with the crime statistics? I was kind of interested to see the crime stats in my area, but nothing's coming up when I click on the checkbox. (And I *know* there is crime around here.)
seeing as so many of you have started threads there is no main one to post this to, look at the screenshot. There IS A LINUX VERSION.
If you have nothing useful to say post as AC.
I would think that Google could get similar high res data from DigitalGlobe, or to establish new relationships with AirPhoto for the old high res data. I remember reading on their forums, http://bbs.keyhole.com/, that they were comitted to reinstating the old high res data. -QMan
"OK, tell that to the families of more than 3000 people who died on 9/11"
Gladly. They've got more chance of being eaten by a shark than killed by a terrorist.
"People need to be more alert"
And report on their neighbors for being subversives. What a wonderful society we'd have then!
"I think people who aren't worried about it are pretty naive."
I think people who are more worried about terrorism than they are about driving to work don't have very good threat assessment skills.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
Google earth is fantastic. It worked very well for me with vmware workstation 5.0 under linux. I had to select OpenGL at the startup of liveearth. When selecting Divx, liveearth will lock up terribly under vmware and you need to do remove the program and and reinstall to get rid of the broken cache. Here is a screenshotfrom the building I work in.
Now, when Google decides to combine the two, with links to the Google personalized homepage news... will this become the new CNN? Fire in your home state? Just load up Google Earth, search news inside your state, double click fire, go to location, and click on icon to bring up list of pre-recorded and currently streaming video of the site. (And maybe with Google's new payment system, make small micropayments to whoever is doing the video/audio that you are watching.)
Next big thing in Google Adsense... amature video journalism.
I8-D
OK, tell that to the families of more than 3000 people who died on 9/11. People need to be more alert, it is not paranoia to be worried about the international terrorist threat and I think people who aren't worried about it are pretty naive.
I wonder, perchance, if you've considered why it's commonly referred to as "9/11" or "September the eleventh two thousand and one"?
It's because that's when it happened. The only time it has ever happened.
Yes, it was a tragedy, and a crime against humanity, and a spectacular and shocking event. but in the overall scale of things.. well.. it was no big deal, quite frankly.
In the last 5 years - actually, in the whole of history - just over 3000 people have been killed by Al Qaeda militants on the US mainland, all on 9/11 in a single coordinated attack. It hasn't happened since, and despite plenty of fear mongering, there hasn't been any credible evidence to suggest that it could either.
In the year 2001 ALONE there were 42,443 deaths on the US mainland due to road traffic accidents. Similar figures have occurred every year since, bringing a rough total of 210,000 deaths. I'm guessing, given your propensity to worry about terrorist attack that you'd never do something so insanely reckless and suicidal as to drive a vehicle?
Of course, even US road deaths pale in comparison to the 250,000-and-still-rising deathtoll which resulted from the boxing day tsunami in the Indian Ocean.
And let's not forget the 972 US citizens who have been killed on US soil by.... the US Government, since 1976. Sure, they might be criminals (At least, you'd better hope they are!) but who says some of the people in the Twin Towers weren't?
Never mind though. So long as you can convince yourself that the sky is falling and there are terrorists lurking in every doorway and around every corner, I'm sure things will be just hunky dory. Who needs civil liberties anyways?
Curiosity was framed. Ignorance killed the cat.
I guess a 2D building would be called a flat!
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Pick a technology and its benefit:
Technology: the wheel
Benefit: mobility
This makes me wonder if the US government would see inventing the wheel as a security risk as it gives such mobility that terrorists could use against them. It wouldn't surprise me if the wheel gets shut down for that reason.
Technology: the Internet
Benefit: gathering information
This makes me wonder if the US government would see the Internet as a security risk as it gives such easy access to gathering information that terrorists could use against them. It wouldn't surprise me if the Internet gets shut down for that reason.
___________________________
Don't blame me for this post. Blame the terrorists!
Google have closed their downloads for Earth.
See http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4659.html for mirrors.
Not sure which version is the latest, but MajorGeeks have "Google Earth 3.0.0336 Beta"