Monday, Google Earth released its latest version of the user-friendly site that lets users look at our neighborhoods or other locations on the planet, adding several new features.
One user, Johnathan Askin, a Brooklyn Law School professor, said that he thought Google Earth was a “stunning, easy-to-use website that lets people get to know Earth and the places we live.”
One of the added features is called “3D Trees.” The 3-D Trees option lets users look at hundreds of different types of animals and plants in precise detail while looking at the various parks and forests at ground height. Google officials say the new feature is the “next level of realism.”
Google Earth 6 brings the reality of the whole Earth’s flora, fauna and land masses to the next step in reality, said Google officials, making it something users will get the street level view, as well as the 3-D Trees feature. Google also simplified its historic imagery functions.
Askin said that he believed that Google Earth 6 is, “magical” and “a truly Earth-shattering experience that interrupts the way people now think of the Earth.” Askin added that some of that experience would have to include how people thing about their privacy and the way laws are now enforced.
He explained that some people would be alarmed at how the program works, and that some of those concerns are logical and with good reasons for them because people can see the possible risk to individual privacy and security since Google Earth is available for use to anyone. If someone with illegal or bad intentions were to use it, there could be legitimate concerns.
Google Earth 6 lets users “fly”
The new and enhanced street viewing feature puts Google Maps and Images together with Google Earth. This allows users to “fly” over hills, forests, houses, etc., from a place they enter from a point in space. This has always been something Google is famous for in this virtual program.
Google Earth 6 also brings back “Pegman,” Google’s computer travel agent. However, Pegman has been improved so his movements are steady and there are no hang ups as in previous versions. For instance, users can use the scroll feature of their mouse or the arrow keys to move Pegman just like in a video game and he easily “walks” down the street. If the user wants to go back to the regular view mode, all they do is hit the exit button on their keyboard.
Google Goes Green
As part of Google’s ongoing plan to go green, Google Earth 6 has included an outreach with the Green Belt Movement in Africa and with a conservation program in Brazil that is helping to model forests that are threatened on the planet.
In another pitch for the environment, Google Earth 6 adds three-dimensional trees to go with “many thousands of 3-D buildings,” Birch explains. “I think we can all agree that our planet without trees would be a pretty desolate place.”
The new 3-D Trees has hundreds of digital images of different types of trees from Japanese Maple to the cacao variety. The trees are turned on by the 3-D buildings layer of Google Earth 6, which is part of the street level direction finding module.
Google officials said that all of these new functions were part of their plan to make Google Earth as representative of the real thing as they can with today’s technology.
Return to the Way Ahead
Google Earth 5 had in it a feature that allowed users to time travel and see areas the way they were long ago such as Poland before the war or Haiti before it was hit by an earthquake. Google officials said that this was a feature that not all users knew existed. Therefore, the new version includes historic images in a tool bar on the bottom of the screen. If a user clicks on a date on the tool bar they will see any historical data or pictures that are available for that place in time and space.
All in all, Google Earth 6 has many new and exciting functions for the users and will help them learn more about the planet and its places, animals and plants.
