Google Earth: A New Productivity Tool

Google has released Google Earth!  You've seen maps in Yahoo and Google.  Then, Google took it one step further and made it possible to switch between maps and satellite imagery.  Now, Google Earth blows all that away!  The implications for productivity are significant.  Best of all, the basic program, which is unbelievable, is free.

With Google Earth's satellite imagery, you can

• Start with a global perspective and zoom in on a city or address.
• Zoom in closer, with better focus than in any satellite imagery that I've seen before.
• Tilt the image to give you an angled perspective -- not just straight down, but looking at buildings and scenery from the side.
• Zoom in on a city or building, tilt the image to see a "3-D" perspective, and then rotate the image, giving you a sight seeing trip as if you hired a helicopter to circle the building or area.
• Overlay the satellite imagery with layers showing state and country borders, roads and interstate highways, shopping centers, city names, lodging establishments, etc.
• In some well-known cities, the "building" option will even construct virtual buildings that "rise up off of the ground".  With this option, one can tilt the perspective to street level and actually go through the city as if in an automobile.
• Rise above the landscape and "fly" over neighborhoods as if in an airplane -- you choose the altitude.

Some Productivity Uses

• See neighborhoods before buying property.
• Use the "Distance" feature to draw lines between addresses or cities that will measure mileage (straight line distance only).
• Planning a trip to an unfamiliar address?  Tilt the perspective to just above street level and travel your route and get to know the landmarks before you do it for real.  That way there will be no lost time on wrong turns.
  
• When traveling to a new city, see your hotel and actually visit the neighborhood to determine safety issues, entertainment options, restaurants, shopping centers and malls, etc.

Some Negatives

• Evidently, satellite imagery is undergoing a change in technology.  The newest pictures are sharp and crisp.  I could see my niece's house, the car in her driveway, and the patio in her back yard.  However, most areas must still be presented in older technology photos as the resolution is very blurry.  You can still make out streets and major landmarks, but forget about the "Wow" factor.  I'm sure this will change as areas are re-photographed.
• The 3-D tilting effect gives one a realistic side-view of buildings and objects to a limited effect.  It basically takes a flat photograph and tilts it.  You see a tilted roof-top.  However, the technology manipulates the topography quite well to warp the photograph to show rolling hills and changes in elevation, so that's better.  The most spectacular effect is when the satellite camera can see all sides of an image, such as a mountain.  From the top, all sides are still visible to the lens.  When tilting this, you can actually fly around the mountain with unbelievable realism!!!!  You can even dart down into canyons and crevices as well as circle the mountain with the actual view that you'd see there!  WOW!! Visit the mountain ranges outside of Palm Springs, California, USA (where the cable car operates) or the Grand Canyon and the level of detail and ability to provide a 3-D experience is amazing.  You have to see it to believe it!
• This is a downloaded program that connects with Google's servers.  If you are not at a computer that has Google Earth installed, there is no online version to turn to.  So, unless you have your laptop and an Internet connection (or access to a computer on which Google Earth is installed), you're out of luck when you travel.
• Finally, reliable navigation using this technology may have an expiration date, depending on how often photos are updated compared with actual growth and development that happens on the ground.  For example, will the photos keep up with all the new neighborhoods that will pop up in the next few years?  There will, naturally, be significant lag time between development on the ground and the changes showing up in satellite imagery.

Give Google Earth a try and you'll be amazed as much as I was.  By the way, kiss productivity goodbye the first time you use it, as I lost five hours before I knew it.

I Gotta Have It!

• Google Earth

Comments

[Brian Yamabe]

FYI, this is not new, and didn't come from the minds inside Google. John Gage talked about this a few years ago http://radio.weblogs.com/0111261/2002/10/06.html#a26. The clue is that when you go to http://www.earthviewer.com you get redirected to earth.google.com.

[Bert]

I agree, the technology is not new. It's just new to us. Technology such as this exists to large government agencies and those with mainframes long before it reaches the general public. This goes without saying. I talked to a NASA scientist, who said that the space program had a cordless drill long before Black and Decker turned out their first, because astronauts needed one in space in anticipation of building the space station. Yet, when the first cordless drill was put on the market to the general public, it was a big thing.

Brian, here's the neat thing: The NASA scientist that I spoke to mentioned that when technology like this is released to the general public, it is because something newer and better has taken it's place. The blogger who reported on Gage's comments said, "This is a tool that previously was only available to select agencies within a small handful of world superpower governments."

My question is, if this technology is now obsolete to those "select agencies within a small handful of world superpower governments," to the point that we can now have access to it, what are they using now and what new capabilities does it have?????

[Thomas Kemp]

Actually, this is not a Google development (from the famous "Google labs"), it is a Google acquisition. Google recently completed the purchase of Keyhole, who had previously offered a "professional" level service for primarily real estate agents ($500 per year), and a consumer level model with less features ($40 a year).

Google has made it free, and I would expect to see them develop it further to combine with their Google Maps project.

[Bert]

Yes, that's what I suspected. Google's been gobbling up a lot lately.

[Juno888]

My question is, if this technology is now obsolete to those "select agencies within a small handful of world superpower governments," to the point that we can now have access to it, what are they using now and what new capabilities does it have?????