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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."
It is like NASA World Wind, but better.
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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.
Q: How can Google afford to give away so much for free?
A: Volume.
Ask- no, DEMAND- for your money back.
They ended up changing their map supplier contracts around when Google bought em out. They now use the google map database (DigitalGlobe) instead of their older hi-res database (AirPhoto) which was negotiated with the Keyhole corporation. -QMan