. Windows: 12.5. macOS: 35 MB. Linux: 24 MB. Android: 8.46 MB. iOS: 77.5 MB Website Google Earth is a that renders a representation of based on.
The program maps the Earth by, and onto a globe, allowing users to see cities and landscapes from various angles. Users can explore the globe by entering addresses and coordinates, or by using a. The program can also be downloaded on a or, using a or to navigate. Users may use the program to add their own data using and upload them through various sources, such as forums. Google Earth is able to show various kinds of images overlaid on the surface of the earth and is also a client. In addition to Earth navigation, Google Earth provides a series of other tools through the desktop application. Additional globes for the and are available, as well as a tool for viewing the.
Jun 10, 2015 Where can I find older versions of Google Earth? Re: Where can I find older versions of Google Earth? But I dont think such an old version will work.
A game is also included. Other features allow users to view photos from various places uploaded to, information provided by on some locations, and imagery. The web-based version of Google Earth also includes Voyager, a feature that periodically adds in-program tours, often presented by scientists and documentarians. Google Earth has been viewed by some as a threat to and, leading to the program being banned in multiple countries. Some countries have requested that certain areas be obscured in Google's satellite images, usually areas containing military facilities. Contents.
History Google Earth was originally developed by Keyhole, Inc., a -based company founded in 2001. Keyhole, after being spun off from, received funding from the 's venture capital firm, and the, in addition to smaller capital from and. Keyhole developed the program under the name Keyhole EarthViewer, and sold the product for uses in fields such as, and. Google acquired the company in 2004, driving public interest in technologies and applications. Since then, Google has given the program a focus on exploration, with tours provided by humanitarian outreach programs, 3D modeling of hundreds of cities, and 3D globes of other planets. Imagery Google Earth's imagery is displayed on a digital, which displays the planet's surface using a single composited image from a far distance.
After zooming in far enough, the imagery transitions into different imagery of the same area with finer detail, which varies in date and time from one area to the next. The imagery is retrieved from. Before the launch of and the satellite, Google relied partially on imagery from, which suffered from a hardware malfunction that left diagonal gaps in images. In 2013, Google used to remedy the issue, providing what was described as a successor to the image of Earth, with a single large image of the entire planet. This was achieved by combining multiple sets of imagery taken from Landsat 7 to eliminate clouds and diagonal gaps, creating a single 'mosaic' image. Google now uses Landsat 8 to provide imagery in a higher quality and with greater frequency. Imagery is hosted on Google's servers, which are contacted by the application when opened, requiring an Internet connection.
Imagery resolution ranges from 15 meters of resolution to 15 centimeters. For much of the Earth, Google Earth uses data collected by 's. This creates the impression of three-dimensional terrain, even where the imagery is only two-dimensional. Every image created from Google Earth using satellite data provided by Google Earth is a map. Any derivative from Google Earth is made from copyrighted data which, under, may not be used except under the licenses Google provides. Google allows personal use of the images (e.g. On a personal website or blog) as long as copyrights and attributions are preserved.
By contrast, images created with NASA's globe software use, or USGS imagery, each of which is in the. In version 5.0, Google introduced Historical Imagery, allowing users to view earlier imagery. Clicking the icon in the toolbar opens a time slider, which marks the time of available imagery from the past. This feature allows for observation of an area's changes over time. 3D imagery. Countries with 3D coverage in Google Earth as of January 2018 Google Earth shows in some cities, including photorealistic 3D imagery. The first 3D buildings in Google Earth were created using applications such as and, beginning in 2009, and were uploaded to Google Earth via the.
In June 2012, Google announced that it would be replacing user-generated 3D buildings with an auto-generated 3D mesh. This would be phased in, starting with select larger cities, with the notable exception of cities such as and which required more time to process detailed imagery of their vast number of buildings. The reason given is to have greater uniformity in 3D buildings, and to compete with and, which were already using this technology. The coverage began that year in 21 cities in four countries. By early 2016, 3D imagery had been expanded to hundreds of cities in over 40 countries, including every and encompassing every continent except Antarctica. In 2009, in a collaboration between Google and the in, the museum selected 14 of its paintings to be photographed and displayed at the resolution of 14,000 inside the 3D version of the Prado in Google Earth and. Street View.
Main article: On April 15, 2008, with version 4.3, Google fully integrated into Google Earth. Street View displays 360° panoramic street-level photos of select cities and their surroundings. The photos were taken by cameras mounted on automobiles, can be viewed at different scales and from many angles, and are navigable by arrow icons imposed on them. Water and ocean Introduced in Google Earth 5.0 in 2009, the Google Ocean feature allows users to zoom below the surface of the ocean and view the 3D.
Supporting over 20 content layers, it contains information from leading scientists and. On April 14, 2009, Google added underwater terrain data for the. In June 2011, Google increased the resolution of some deep ocean floor areas from 1-kilometer grids to 100 meters. The high-resolution features were developed by oceanographers at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory from scientific data collected on research cruises. The sharper focus is available for about 5 percent of the oceans. This can be seen in the Hudson off New York City, the Wini Seamount near Hawaii, and the off the U.S Pacific coast. Outer space.
One of the lunar landers viewed in Google Moon Google Earth can be used as a program to view, including the surfaces of various objects in the. Google has programs and features, including within Google Earth, allowing exploration of, the, and the view of the sky from Earth. Google Sky Google Sky is a feature that was introduced in Google Earth 4.2 on August 22, 2007, in a browser-based application on March 13, 2008, and to, with features. Google Sky allows users to view and other.
It was produced by through a partnership with the (STScI) in Baltimore, the science operations center for the. And his co-developer Dr. Carol Christian of STScI plan to add the public images from 2007, as well as color images of all of the archived data from Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys. Newly released pictures will be added to the Google Sky program as soon as they are issued. New features such as multi-wavelength data, positions of major satellites and their orbits as well as educational resources will be provided to the Google Earth community and also through Christian and Conti's website for Sky. Also visible on Sky mode are constellations, stars, galaxies, and animations depicting the planets in their orbits.
A real-time Google Sky of recent astronomical transients, using the protocol, is being provided by the VOEventNet collaboration. Other programs similar to Google Sky include and. Google Mars Google Mars is an application within Google Earth that is a version of the program for imagery of the planet Mars. Google also operates a browser-based version, although the maps are of a much higher resolution within Google Earth, and include 3D terrain, as well as imagery and elevation data. There are also some extremely-high-resolution images from the 's camera that are of a similar resolution to those of the cities on Earth. Finally, there are many high-resolution panoramic images from various Mars landers, such as the, and, that can be viewed in a similar way to.
Mars also has a small application found near the. It is called Meliza, a robot character the user can speak with. Google Moon Originally a browser application, Google Moon is a feature that allows exploration of the moon. Google brought the feature to Google Earth for the 40th anniversary of the mission on July 20, 2009. It was announced and demonstrated to a group of invited guests by Google along with at the in Google Moon includes several tours, including one for the, incorporating maps, videos, and Street View-style panoramas, all provided by NASA. Other features Google Earth has numerous features which allow the user to learn about specific places.
These are called 'layers', and include different forms of media, including photo and video. Some layers include tours, which guide the user between specific places in a set order. Layers are created using the, or KML, which users can also use to create customized layers.
Locations can be marked with placemarks and organized in folders; For example, a user can use placemarks to list interesting landmarks around the globe, then provide a description with photos and videos, which can be viewed by clicking on the placemarks while viewing the new layer in the application. In December 2006, Google Earth added a new integration with and. For the Wikipedia layer, entries are for coordinates via the. There is also a community-layer from the project.
More coordinates are used, different types are in the display, and different languages are supported than the built-in Wikipedia layer. The Panoramio layer features pictures uploaded by Panoramio users, placed in Google Earth based off user-provided location data. In addition to flat images, Google Earth also includes a layer for user-submitted panoramic photos, navigable in a similar way to Street View.
Google Earth includes multiple features that allow the user to monitor current events. In 2007, Google began offering users the ability to monitor traffic data provided by in real time, based on information from the GPS-identified locations of cell phone users. Flight simulators. As seen from an during a simulated flight In Google Earth 4.2, a was added to the application. It was originally a when introduced in 2007, but starting with 4.3, it was given a labeled option in the menu. In addition to keyboard control, the simulator can be controlled with a mouse or joystick.
The flight simulator can be commanded with the keyboard, mouse, or plugged-in joystick. The simulator also runs with animation, allowing objects such as planes to animate while on the simulator. Another flight simulator, was created under the name GEFS-Online using the Google Earth Plug-in API to operate within a. As of September 1, 2015, the program now uses the open-source program CesiumJS, due to the Google Earth Plug-in being discontinued. Liquid Galaxy. Main article: Liquid Galaxy is a cluster of computers running Google Earth creating an. On September 30, 2010, Google made the configuration and schematics for their rigs public, placing code and setup guides on the Liquid Galaxy wiki.
Liquid Galaxy has also been used as a panoramic photo viewer using KRpano, as well as a Google Street View viewer using Peruse-a-Rue Peruse-a-Rue is a method for synchronizing multiple Maps API clients. Versions Google Earth has been released on, and. The version began with the version 4 beta of Google Earth, as a native port using the. The consider the development of a free compatible client for Google Earth to be a. Google Earth was released for Android on February 22, 2010, and on iOS on October 27, 2008. The mobile versions of Google Earth can make use of interfaces to move on the globe, zoom or rotate the view, and allow to select the current location. An automotive version of Google Earth was made available in the 2010.
Version history Version Release date Changes 1.0 July 2001 1.4 January 2002 1.6 February 2003 1.7.2 October 2003 2.2 August 2004 3.0 June 2005. The first version released after Google acquired Keyhole, Inc. 4.0 June 2006 4.1 May 2007 4.2 August 2007. Google Sky was introduced. A flight simulator was added 4.3 April 2008. First release to implement KML version 2.2.
Google Street View was added 5.0 May 2009. Google Ocean was introduced. Historical Imagery was introduced 5.1 November 2009 5.2 July 2010 6.0 March 2011. 3D Trees were added 6.1 October 2011 6.2 April 2012 7.0 December 2012. Support for 3D Imagery data was introduced. Tour Guide was introduced 7.1 April 2013 7.3 July 2017.
Google Earth Pro became the standard version of the desktop program. 9.0 April 2017.
A browser-based version of the program Google Earth Pro. Google Earth running on Google Earth Pro was originally the business-oriented upgrade to Google Earth, with features such as a movie maker and data importer. Up until late January 2015, it was available for $399/year, though Google decided to make it free to the public. Google Earth Pro is currently the standard version of the Google Earth desktop application as of version 7.3. The Pro version includes add-on software for movie making, advanced printing, and precise measurements, and is currently available for Windows, macOS 10.4 or later, and Linux.
Google Earth Plus Discontinued in December 2008, Google Earth Plus was a paid subscription upgrade to Google Earth that provided customers with the following features, most of which have become available in the free Google Earth. One such feature was integration, which allowed users to read tracks and waypoints from a device. A variety of third-party applications have been created which provide this functionality using the basic version of Google Earth by generating KML or KMZ files based on user-specified or user-recorded waypoints.
Google Earth Enterprise Google Earth Enterprise is designed for use by organizations whose businesses could take advantage of the program's capabilities, for example by having a globe that holds company data available for anyone in that company. As of March 20, 2015, Google has retired the Google Earth Enterprise product, with support ended March 22, 2017. Google Earth Enterprise allowed developers to create maps and 3D globes for private use, and host them through the platform. GEE Fusion, GEE Server, and GEE Portable Server source code was published on GitHub under the Apache2 license in March 2017. Google Earth 9 Google Earth 9 is a version of Google Earth first released on April 18, 2017, having been in development for two years. The main feature of this version was the launching of a new web version of Google Earth, which is currently only available for. This version added the 'Voyager' feature, whereby users can view a portal page containing guided tours led by scientists and documentarians.
The version also added an 'I'm Feeling Lucky' button, represented by a die, which takes the user to a random location on earth along with showing them a 'Knowledge Card' containing a short excerpt from the location's Wikipedia article. Google Earth Plug-in The Google Earth API was a free beta service, allowing users place a version of Google Earth into web pages. The API enabled sophisticated 3D map applications to be built. At its unveiling at Google's 2008 I/O developer conference, the company showcased potential applications such as a game where the player controlled a milktruck atop a Google Earth surface. The Google Earth API has been deprecated as of December 15, 2014 and remained supported until December 15, 2015. Google Chrome ended support for the (which the Google Earth API relies on) by the end of 2016. Google Earth VR On November 16, 2016, Google released a version of Google Earth for computer gaming platform.
Google Earth VR allows users to navigate using VR controllers, and is currently compatible with the and. On September 14, 2017, as part of Google Earth VR's 1.4 update, Google added Street View support. Google Earth Outreach Google Earth Outreach is a charity program, through which Google promotes and donates to various non-profit organizations.
Beginning in 2007, donations are often accompanied by layers featured in Google Earth, allowing users to view a non-profit's projects and goals by navigating to certain related locations. Google Earth Outreach offers online training on using Google Earth and Google Maps for public education on issues affecting local regions or the entire globe. In June 2008, training was given to 20 indigenous tribes in the Amazon rainforest, such as the, to help them preserve their culture and raise awareness for the problem of deforestation. Non-profit organizations featured in Google Earth via the Outreach program include, the, and the.
Google Earth Engine Google Earth Engine is a platform for processing and other geospatial and observation data. It provides access to a large database of satellite imagery and the computational power needed to analyze those images. Google Earth Engine allows observation of dynamic changes in agriculture, natural resources, and climate using geospatial data from the satellite program, which the same places on the Earth every sixteen days. Google Earth Engine has become a platform that makes Landsat data easily accessible to researchers. The Google Earth Engine provides a data catalog along with computers for analysis; this allows scientists to collaborate using data, algorithms, and visualizations. Google Earth Engine has been used multiple times as a tool for tracking. Initial applications of the engine have included mapping the forests of, identifying water in the, and detecting deforestation in the.
Using the Google Earth Engine to track global forest loss or gain, the reported an overall loss in global forest cover. The CLASlite system and ’s Sisteme de Alerta de Deforesation (SAD) are two institutions that partnered with Google in the development of Google Earth Engine. Both organizations use the program to build maps of forests that measure environmental disturbances. Controversy and criticism. Further information: The software has been criticized by a number of, including national officials, as being an or posing a threat to.
The typical argument is that the software provides information about military or other critical installations that could be used. Google Earth has been blocked by Google in Iran and Sudan since 2007, due to United States government export restrictions.
The program has also been blocked in Morocco since 2006 by Maroc Telecom, a major service provider in the country. Blurred out image of the Royal Stables in, Netherlands. This has since been partially lifted. In the academic realm, increasing attention has been devoted to both Google Earth and its place in the development of digital globes. In particular, the International Journal of Digital Earth features multiple articles evaluating and comparing the development Google Earth and its differences when compared to other professional, scientific, and governmental platforms. Google Earth's role in the expansion of 'earth observing media' has been examined for its role in shaping a shared cultural consciousness regarding climate change and humanity's capacity to treat the earth as an engineerable object.
Defense. In 2006, one user spotted a large topographical replica in a remote region of China.
The model is a small-scale (1/500) version of the Mountain Range, which is under the control of China but claimed by India. When later confirmed as a replica of this region, spectators began entertaining military implications. In July 2007, it was reported that a new was photographed at the Xiaopingdao Submarine Base south of. and the have reportedly used Google Earth to plan attacks on Israel from Gaza (See:.) National security. Former of India expressed concern over the availability of high-resolution pictures of sensitive locations in India.
Google subsequently agreed to censor such sites. The said Google Earth poses a security threat to India, and seeks dialogue with Google officials. The government expressed concern that the software offers images of the and various military installations that could possibly be used by hostile neighbor.
In 2006, Google Earth began offering detailed images of classified areas in Israel. The images showed bases, including secret facilities, Israel's defense system, military headquarters and Defense Ministry compound in, a top-secret power station near, and the.
Also shown was the alleged headquarters of the, Israel's foreign intelligence service, whose location is highly classified. As a result of pressure from the, the residence of the at was obscured through in Google Earth and in 2006, but this restriction has since been lifted. The usefulness of this downgrade is questionable, as high-resolution photos and aerial surveys of the property are readily available on the Internet elsewhere.
Also used to be pixelized in this way. The Royal Stables in, also used to be pixelized, and are still pixelized at high zoom levels. The lone surviving gunman involved in the admitted to using Google Earth to familiarise himself with the locations of buildings used in the attacks., aka Talib Islam, used Google Earth in planning his attempted September 24, 2009, bombing of the Paul Findley Federal Building and the adjacent offices of Congressman in. Other concerns. Operators of the in, Australia asked Google to censor high-resolution pictures of the facility. They later withdrew the request. In 2009, Google superimposed old of maps from 18th and 19th century Japan over Japan today.
These maps marked areas inhabited by the caste, who were considered 'non-humans' for their 'dirty' occupations, including and. Descendants of members of the burakumin caste still face discrimination today and many Japanese people feared that some would use these areas, labeled (穢多村, translation: 'village of an abundance of defilement'), to target current inhabitants of them. These maps are still visible on Google Earth, but with the label removed where necessary. Late 2000s versions of Google Earth require a software component running in the background that will automatically download and install updates. Several users expressed concerns that there is not an easy way to disable this updater, as it runs without the permission of the user. See also., a book by Randall Stross about Google and its products, including Earth.
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Has been updated and the latest build, 5.1.3506.3999, loads faster and it's snappier. 'We've made a lot of adjustments under the hood, like improving memory utilization so we can show more buildings, layers, and user content. We improved our shaders (that's graphics-speak for small programs that run inside your graphics processor) to make the atmosphere draw faster. We also worked to reduce stuttering (known as frame drops) to provide an even smoother experience as you fly around the globe. When we draw imagery, we now use compression technology to use less memory and graphics resources. We know that waiting for a program to start-up can be really frustrating, so we improved our start-up time by 25%,' mentions. While the performance improvement is noticeable, Google Earth continues to use a lot of resources.
In a small empirical test, I compared the latest release with an earlier version and the results are even better than Google's claims: Google Earth version Start-up time Memory usage when searching for 'Paris' Google Earth 5.0. 11.5 seconds 183 MB Google Earth 5.0. 10.4 seconds 164 MB Google Earth 5.1.3506.3999 6.9 seconds 145 MB Update: If you want to download Google Earth without installing Google Updater, here's for Windows. This build includes for IE/Firefox/Chrome that lets you use Google Earth inside a browser. That means you'll end up with three different Google Earth versions when you upgrade: the old version, which for some reason is not removed, the new version of Google Earth and the plug-in, which wastes 33 MB by including separate copies of the files used by Google Earth.
Anonymous i have never been able to run earth. I am using XP SP3 with 1.6ghz processor and 2gig RAM. I tried to install the latest version today and got the same result as the last version: I tried to run the install file, it told me I don’t have admin privileges (this happens when I attempt to update CCleaner too). Ok, so then I saved the file and ran it, the install was successful, as it was the previous version. So I ran the program from the desktop icon, and the computer automatically restarted itself. Ok, so when it finished starting up, I ran earth again from the icon.
Same thing happened as the previous version, it locked up. No mouse, no computer action, not even the 3-finger salute got me out of it, as with the previous version. So now I am going to uninstall it AGAIN. Why would earth lock up all the time, within 10 seconds of starting the program? ANY info would be appreciated, i would love to be able to use earth as i am trying to move. Anonymous I have noticed a lack of resolution as time goes on. I have photos saved from 3-4 years ago which are better than what I can view today.
My computers have only gotten better. It's not always the case though. I can go outside the county and view stunning imagery but go back to my neighborhood and get lousy fuzzy imagery.
Yes, I have all the correct settings and drivers. I have cleared out the cache and reinstalled Google Earth with the same results. What has happen to the resolution? Even street view seems to be effected. I get the same result whether I am at work on the desktop or laptop, at home on the desktop or laptop, in my truck on the laptop, or even at my fathers house on his. If it wasn't the fact I have stored photos from the past I would have though I was loosing my mind.
Anonymous I can confirm that the program's initial load is faster, however, that said, load times as I move about are much much much slower and takes forever to resolve. Especially when in close. And then, if I move a frame over and back, the old frame has to reload from scratch all over again.
I have a 1.5 GHz Celeron M and 2 Gigs of RAM in a Toshiba notebook. At first I was quite disappointed with the new version and I wanted to reload the old program due simply to the odd new function(s) and counter-intuitive placement of the new controls, but, I've learned to adapt and once I realized what was going on, I find the ability to rotate the eye (up or down) from a specific altitude quite useful for planning (and practicing) short landing patterns and glidepath angles, especially at previously unseen airports/airfields I might need to fly into. Anonymous Google earth is a great tool, especially for the price.
But, the resolution in 5.1 sucks. I would much rather have lower performance with higher resolution. Also, when running the previous version, adjusting the position of North (by clicking and dragging the the N icon at the top right) occured in real time. Now when I click and drag it takes forever to rotate the Earth into the desired position and it occurs in huge jerks which makes it impossible to control. Main comment though is image quality is BAD in this version. I had no problems with v5.2 until Google quit supporting it with Street View. The problems began with installing the current version of v6.2, which would load incomplete displays if started in the default OpenGL mode.
If started in DirectX, the earth would start out plain white with no features; zooming in to 'normal' scale, things would display OK but if zoomed out, to the scale needed to show the entire USA, all surface features would go to plain white again. I had to backdate to v6.0-something to restore normal function. It still has the awful new version of Street View, but since it is no worse than what's on Google Maps and is easier to use than going back and forth between Earth and browser, I guess I'll have to put up with it until those Googlers make this version unusable, too.