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Google Earth 4.3 Offers a Number of New Features

Posted by Zonk on from the it's-the-only-globe-we've-got-why-not-check-it-out dept.

GoogleWatch writes "Google's all excited for Earth day, and just in time there's a new version of Google Earth available. 4.3 offers up revamped navigation controls, 3-D photo-realistic buildings in major cities, and time-lapse views of sunsets and sunrises. Also new in Google Earth 4.3 is access to the street view movies found in Google Maps. Just click any of the camera icons and the familiar street view window will pop up. The sunrise and sunset movies are also quite impressive. Fly to a location you'd like to see and click the "sun" button in the toolbar. That will bring up a small timeline graphic and you can either hit play or drag the timeline slider to watch the day unfold."

21 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. Other views? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I understand, from recent news events, that Google Earth will also allow for a new 'driveway' view for some up-close-and-personal looks at everybody's favorite geriatric nude sunbathers. Can't wait!

  2. Great but... by ccguy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I love Google Earth but I think they should revisit their decision of replacing new images with older ones if they have better resolution.

    I'm sure that's a good decision but a city like New York, but in areas recently developed it just doesn't make sense.

    1. Re:Great but... by spun · · Score: 5, Funny

      I like Google Earth, too, but there are some serious problems. Processes seem to be terminated arbitrarily, and far too soon. Interprocess communication is too difficult. I can't seem to execute a JOIN successfully. Forking new processes is fun, but time consuming and expensive. Most independent agents are severely lacking in intelligence. System management is byzantine and security is non-existent, I mean, anyone can kill a process with almost no effort!

      I can't wait for Google Heaven, though. If it's anything close to what's advertised, it should make up for all the crap we have to go through with Google Earth.

      --
      - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
    2. Re:Great but... by mrsteveman1 · · Score: 4, Funny

      I'm against toggles....maybe we should form a committee to determine what sort of switch to use

    3. Re:Great but... by Ed+Avis · · Score: 5, Funny

      Quit complaining, it's still in beta.

      --
      -- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
    4. Re:Great but... by Nick+Number · · Score: 4, Funny

      I see this turning into a real boontoggle.

      --
      Promote proofreading. Don't mod up sloppy posts.
    5. Re:Great but... by Chyeld · · Score: 4, Funny

      Sadly, Google Hell has been shelved till someone can figure out a way to implement it without breaking the "Don't be evil" rule.

  3. Get off my lawn by UberHoser · · Score: 5, Funny

    Damn google hippies with their fancy schmancy cameras all over my front lawn....

    Off!!! GET OFF !!!!

    Can't you see the signs that say {NO GOOGLE HIPPIES} {NO DOGS} {NO SALESMEN}

    WHy I otta....

    --
    Guns are for wimps... Use a crossbow.. this way you can pin them to their chair when you go postal.
    1. Re:Get off my lawn by sricetx · · Score: 5, Funny

      Dude, you need to put robots.txt sign on your lawn to keep Google out.

  4. Question: by Enlarged+to+Show+Tex · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How does it handle the sunrise/sunset shots for locations that enjoy periods of 24x7 daylight during the summer? Does it (correctly) show the sun rotating around the sky?

    1. Re:Question: by freeweed · · Score: 4, Interesting

      We're past the spring equinox so to test this, zoom out far enough that you can see the entire globe. Put the north pole roughly centered on your screen. Now run the 24 hour slider back and forth - you can quite clearly see daylight never leaving some areas of the far north. By June this area will be much-enlarged.

      As the actual "viewing the sun from ground level" part of GE seems to correspond to the sun's terminator everywhere else I've tried it, I see no reason why the same wouldn't work from the land of the midnight sun.

      It's actually kind of fun to look at the entire globe at once - it really brings home why northern latitudes get longer daylight this time of year. The terminator is clearly angled during both sunrise and sunset to demonstrate the earlier sunrises and later sunsets the further north you go. The closest I've seen until this is the usual flat projection of the Earth with a distorted day/night overlay.

      Another cool thing is to use GE to show how the sun does in fact set further north than straight west (in the northern hemisphere) during summer. A surprising number of people refuse to believe that this is the case.

      --
      Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
  5. Speaking of Google Maps... Argentina? by Nicopa · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is slightly offtopic, but... I live in Argentina. This country has been excluded from Google Maps since its beginning (Google Maps'). It's the only excluded country in Google Maps, I guess.

    If you search for it you will see that the map is just a white area. Not even the major cities, or the capital. We only have satellite images. Does anyone reading this know what's going on?

    1. Re:Speaking of Google Maps... Argentina? by rat7307 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Same for North AND South Korea, that surprised me a little bit.....

      --
      Burma?
    2. Re:Speaking of Google Maps... Argentina? by Tibor+the+Hun · · Score: 5, Funny

      Because Maradona used his hands to stick those two goals back in 1990 World Cup.

      No, we didn't forget.

      --
      If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
    3. Re:Speaking of Google Maps... Argentina? by mstokle · · Score: 4, Funny

      He scored one with the hand, but the second goal he slalom every english player in field... We didn't forget neither :-)

    4. Re:Speaking of Google Maps... Argentina? by CODiNE · · Score: 5, Funny

      Ya know as long as we're listing them...

      There's also Martinique, Dominica, Libya and others.

      Thought Quebec was ignored but on closer inspection there's just nothing there.

      --
      Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
    5. Re:Speaking of Google Maps... Argentina? by moderatorrater · · Score: 4, Funny

      Break it up, guys. Let's leave the fighting in the stadiums and surrounding bars, all right?

    6. Re:Speaking of Google Maps... Argentina? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Google only licenses the map data from whatever company or government agency owns it. If they don't have map data for Argentina then whoever owns the map data for Argentina isn't selling.

  6. Underwater by rossjudson · · Score: 5, Funny

    Cities are cool. Underwater would be cooler. With special underwater lighting. And little spiffy killer fishies at the bottom on the Marianas trench. Or a way to see coral before we succeed in killing all of it off.

    Where's the underwater google truck-a-subtomic?

    Or near-earth orbit, so we can see the junk?

  7. Waiting for 4.4 by CSMatt · · Score: 4, Funny

    I hear that Google Earth will be allowing users to control the spy satellites directly in version 4.4.

    Imagine getting a live feed of when your boss leaves his house, and then tracking him all the way to work. I'll never be late again!

  8. photography tool by carlcmc · · Score: 4, Interesting

    One could use this for planning of landscape photography and how and where the setting sun will be.