Virtual travel with Google

2005-08-04 10:48

New York - The world at your fingertip, with the click of a computer mouse.

That's what internet giant Google is offering in a new program allowing web surfers to fly around the world in a matter of seconds, hopping from one destination to another across the sky.

In "Google Earth", a user can download a picture of Earth, pick a spot on the planet and navigate through satellite and aeroplane photos of cities.

The resolution of images is clear enough to recognise major landmarks, such as Beijing's Forbidden City. You can zoom in as close as 300 metres from the ground and recognise clusters of people.

If Rome's coliseum is your next choice, you can watch the screen fly over the snowy Himalayan mountain chain, the Caspian Sea and Istanbul.

The program, downloadable free at earth.google.com, uses broadband streaming technology and three-dimensional (3D) graphics, "much like a video game", according to Google.

The California company focused more on the United States than other places, but mapping out Europe is a "very high priority", said John Hanke, general manager of Keyhole, whose company was acquired by Google and came up with the technology.

In Britain and North America, the technology gives the latitude and longitude of an address. It can even pinpoint to a precise address by searching some buildings by name.

In the US, 38 cities can be seen in 3D, a feature that has piqued the interest of real estate agents, Hanke said.

The website www.housingmaps.com, which uses Google maps, offers satellite images of places for sale and rent.

Google sells versions of the program for commercial use at $400 a year, but Google Earth will not be a big source of revenue until the company uses it to sell advertising space.

"We will incorporate advertising at some point in the future," Hanke said.

Scott Kessler, an equity analyst who follows Google for Standard and Poor's, said the program was "really neat".

With the program, Kessler said, "They show their users that they are a global company and have a global brand".

"Overtime, the most substantial growth is going to come from outside the US," he added.

Gary Price, an editor at SearchEngineWatch.com, said it was a "cool application, which continues to make people think that Google is doing cool things".

Price was impressed with the quantity of aerial images, but he noted that the technology was not new as Microsoft has offered satellite imagery of the United States on TerraServer for years.

"I'm not sure it's a breakthrough," he said.

Microsoft has created MSN Virtual Earth, found at virtualearth.msn.com, which shows aerial images of locations that can be searched.

- AFP