Google Earth
August 2005
Recently, I was emptying my "map table". It is actually a table for collectables, with 3 drawers and a glass insert on top for viewing the contents of the top drawer. I had been keeping my collection of paper maps in the drawers of that table and in the top drawer I displayed 1:250,000 scale 3-D relief map of the region where I live. I love maps. But this low, square table did not have a place in my wife's re-arrangement of the living room, and to be honest, I rarely refer to those old paper maps anymore - especially now that I'm hooked on Google Earth.
Google Eyes
Like most new Google Earth users I know, I immediately spent several hours browsing the globe for places I've been and places I'd like to go. It is kinda like when I used to get my hands on a new paper map. My wife knew she could keep me entertained for hours by spending a couple of bucks to buy a topo at the local outfitter. Now that I have Google Earth, she has to flip the breaker to get me to come to dinner (OK I'm exaggerating).
Don't try this on dial-up.
If you have the right hardware, Google Earth is a powerful location visualization tool and great for mission planning. You can fly from outer space to any location on the globe, change the look angle, direction, and lower yourself to trail level. You'll be amazed at the detail in high-resolution areas. Fly to some place like Stone Mountain, Georgia where you can actually see the carving in the side of the mountain(!).
Too much, not enough data.
There are lot of Google Earth features that are lost on me. There are user contributed (Keyhole Community BBS) layers that seem to add a lot of clutter. A 3-D buildings layer that only shows buildings in a few select locations. And Local Search, like any web search, which produces a lot of irrelevant results. And in low-resolution areas you'll have difficulty making our where you live.
Got Data?
Traffic at TravelByGPS.com spiked When Google Earth launched in July. It seems that a lot of Google Earth Users were asking "Where is..." and began searching the web for geographic coordinates. Since much of the data at TravelByGpS.com is in GPs eXchange (.GPX) format, Google Earth users were able to import Travel by GPS Maps directly to Google Earth.
At the end of all the flying here and flying there...
The success of Google Earth will depend on whether or not users can find what they are looking for. From what I can tell, most are happy if they can see their house. You won't find real estate listings at TravelByGPS.com, but you will find GPS data for recreational activities. At TravelByGPS.com, I will continue to provide quality location information, for free, in a generic format, for Google Earth users and anyone else for that matter.
UPDATE: What is the point of updating to Google Earth Plus?
# Faster performance - enhanced network access
# GPS data import - read in tracks and waypoints from select GPS devices
* Note 1: Verified support for Magellan and Garmin devices only
* Note 2: Does not support export of tracks or waypoints to a GPS
# Higher resolution printing (greater than screen resolution).
# Customer support via email (not just web).
# Annotation – adds draw/sketch tools for richer annotations (can
be shared as KML).
# Data importer – read address points from .csv files.
DISCLAIMER: Google (trademark of Google, Inc.) does not pay me to write good things about them. However, you will find Google AdSense and the Google Maps API implemented at TravelByGPS.com.
