Google Earth 6.2.0.5905 Beta

Back in 2004 Mountain View-based search engine giant Google purchased a company called Keyhole Inc. and a software product that the aforementioned company developed: Earth Viewer. With Google’s expertise and resources, Earth Viewer evolved and turned into what is today known as Google Earth – a program that presents a virtual globe, maps and geographic information about, well, Earth. With Google Earth you can take a glance at a 3D presentation of numerous locations and landmarks, you can take virtual tours around the world, you can easily access useful info a bout a specific geographical location and browse through all the community-contributed multimedia content.

If you want to get Google Earth a nice going over, then I suggest you start with the free version. Google Earth comes in two flavors: first there’s the free version that as the name so adequately points out comes free of charge. It doesn’t come with all the bells and whistles that the paid version comes with, but it is enough to give you an idea into how the software works and what you can do with it. If you then decide that you like Google Earth and would like to enjoy the extra functionality that the paid version provides, then by all means upgrade.

Speaking of functionality, here are the Google Earth features that I particularly enjoyed. Like for example the “Historical Imagery” feature which allows you to go beyond looking at a single image of a particular geographical image. With Historical Imagery you can see a particular location evolve over time. Just click the clock tab and move the slider to the left and right.

Then there’s the option to explore the surface of Mars – as in outer space, planet Mars. When you click the planet icon and select Mars you are shown an overview of the planet, a complete simulation, not just an image overlay. You can explore Mars by using the same controls you normally use for exploring Earth.

Last but not least, there’s an option to record a virtual journey on Google Earth – audio and voice recording support included. This way you can come up with a detailed video tour of your travels and revisit or share them with friends.

As you would naturally expect from Google, the Google Earth app comes with extensive language support – a total of 41 languages are covered.

Pros
Comes free of charge
A unique piece of software
Works without problems
Explore the surface of Mars
Easily obtain info about certain locations
Extensive language support
Cross-platform software (works on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux)

Cons
Eats up quite a bit of bandwidth
Some images are not updated

Google Earth has been reviewed by George Norman on 03 Sep 2009. Based on the user interface, features and complexity, Findmysoft has rated Google Earth 5 out of 5 stars, naming it Essential