I Can See My House From Here...

[Troyminator]

I finaly got around to instaling Google Earth on my system the other week.
And, for the most part I kinda like it.
Some of the imagery is map quality, but SOME of it is amazing. The satelite imagery is pretty darn detailed. It allows you to actually see individual cars and some of the detail is amazing.
One of teh coolest things was being able to actuallt find my house using it, and then noting that my car was on my drive.
The best thing though was that you couldn't see the mess that my back lawn was actually in
It isn't up to date.
The area that I live is actually at LEAST six months behind (there are buildings that exist now that don't show up for example).
I spent HOURS wandering around exploring the planet, from the Polar ice caps to the depths of Africa.
But...does anyone else use it?
What do you think?

[Jay]

That is something I would like to use, but have been afraid to. No company gives away things for nothing. Individuals, yes; companies, no. But I have not found what "the catch" is for it yet. I assume it is a "spyware/marketing collection" program, but do not know for sure. Technically, there is no reason why there needed to be a separate program rather than a web site, except possibly to shift the image rendering time from their computers to ours.

Have you been able to determine what "the catch" is?

[cosmichedgehog]

I wear aluminum foil hats so I won't show up on satellite pictures.

but seriously folks.... I think it's a cool idea, but the idea of it also makes me nervous. we hedgehogs are a paranoid species.

[fern]

I wear aluminum foil hats so I won't show up on satellite pictures.

but seriously folks.... I think it's a cool idea, but the idea of it also makes me nervous. we hedgehogs are a paranoid species.

I agree the idea makes me nervous too, even though I like the idea too.

[Troyminator]

well, I've had no quibbles with it yet...
The image rendering quality is NOT great, but iot's darn usefull if you want to use it as a map or a geography resource.
There are also some interesting features like the information links from National Geographic and the photos of various places that can be called up.
You can also use it to find things like gas stations, malls and video rental shops...although the database for this is shockingly limited at present.



And THAT, by the way, is pretty much the limit of how clear the imagery gets.
Nowhere near as good as those CIA satelites that can tell what colour mustard you spilled on your tie at lunch...but STILL pretty darn good.

[jwa1107]

There are also some interesting features like the information links from National Geographic and the photos of various places that can be called up.
You can also use it to find things like gas stations, malls and video rental shops...although the database for this is shockingly limited at present.

there is your catch!
it is free to consumers, but advertiser will pay big bucks to get into the database.
so it may only show you the "preferred" video rental store or the "preferred" mall

[Quicksilver]

Wow, that's pretty cool! We know where you live now Troy....better watch out!!!

[Troyminator]

There are also some interesting features like the information links from National Geographic and the photos of various places that can be called up.
You can also use it to find things like gas stations, malls and video rental shops...although the database for this is shockingly limited at present.

there is your catch!
it is free to consumers, but advertiser will pay big bucks to get into the database.
so it may only show you the "preferred" video rental store or the "preferred" mall

jwa has a good point, for example the Blockbuster near to me doesn't show up at all.
On the bright side...you can't see how untidy my lawn really is

[bielski]

Well a couple of weeks ago my husband got on it and we were surprised to see that our house is also showing. But they are at least 8 months behind, because my old car is still parked in front of the house

We also tried to zoom in on his jobsite....,But that was scrambled, National security.