Google Earth ties together the company’s local search with the satellite imaging technology it brought in when it acquired a company called Keyhole last October.
Users are presented with a view of the Earth, and given the ability to zoom in to pretty much any location on the planet, with the closest zoom sufficient to make out individual cars or boats, but not individual people.
The images, patched together from satellite photos taken at various times over the last few years, offer various levels of detail depending on the location. San Francisco and New York are better covered than Havana and Tehran, for example.
The software, which takes its data feeds on-the-fly from Google’s servers, rather than storing the terabytes of data required locally, can also highlight places of business such as restaurants in the US, Canada and UK.
As well as zooming, users can tilt their viewpoint to see a rudimentary 3D rendering of the topography, with the satellite image layered over it, which they can then fly over. In major US cites, the 3D rendering extends to buildings too.
The software can be downloaded for free, but Google will ask $20 a year for the Plus version, which has extra features such as GPS compatibility and better resolution.
Enterprises can pay $400 a year for even higher resolution and additional import/export capabilities. Enterprise buyers also get telephone support, whereas other customers are limited to the web and email.
Google is apparently targeting those kinds of users, such as contractors or city planners, who could use dynamic satellite images as a means to spruce up their presentations.
