Google Earth

Google Earth




History
Google Earth was orignally known as Earth Viewer until bought by Google in 2004. Google re-released the programme as Google Earth in June 2005. It is now availiable personal computers. Since its relaese, there have been several versions of the programme since its creation in 2001;

•	Keyhole Earthviewer 1.0 - June 11, 2001

•	Keyhole Earthviewer 1.4 – 2002

•	Keyhole Earthviewer 1.6 - February 2003

•	Keyhole LT 1.7.1 - August 2003

•	Keyhole NV 1.7.2 - October 2003

•	Keyhole 2.2 - August 19, 2004

•	Google Earth 3.0 - June 2005

•	Google Earth 4.0 - June 2006

•	Google Earth 4.1 - May 2007

•	Google Earth 4.2 - August 2007

•	Google Earth 4.3 - April 2008

•	Google Earth 5.0 - February 2009

Versions have been created to work on both PC, Lunix, Mac computers and even Iphones.

Capabilities and Functions
Google Earth displays satellite images of the Earth's surface, allowing users to visually see things like cities towns and houses at different levels of detail. The level of resolution available is a reflection on the popularity of the area being viewed, so cities will be more detailed than an empty place in the country. Melbourne Cambridge and Las Vegas include examples of the highest resolution (6 inches). Google Earth allows users to search for addresses, enter coordinates, or simply to browse.

The main feature of Google Earth is searching by keyword or latitude and longitude to find a specific geographic location on earth, mars or in our galaxy. On top of searching, users can easily brows using the mouse or a built in flight simulator. Some of the other main feature of the program include making movies, veiwing the location historically, measuring distance and area, drawing paths and polygons, pinpointing and saving personal locations as well as a built in GPS device which can communicate with some hand held models.

Flight simulator Built into Google earth is a two-plane flight simulator. Using the keyboard or a joystick, you can fly a F-16 or an SR 22. It’s a very interactive simulator where you can land or take off from many different airports worldwide.

Filters, called layers, accompany the various features of Google earth. In the program and the user is able to filter which ones are viewable at any time to avoid overcrowding. Layers: -Pictures -There are millions of real pictures located all around world that show interesting images at that location. - Wiki -Provides a link to the Wikipedia site with a location reference. -Places -Opens a Google earth page that has pictures, links to local information and description of the place. -Roads - Highlights and labels roads big and small -3D buildings, -Turns on 3D buildings -Borders and labels -Labels and borders become viewable -Weather -Displays the current weather in that location -Gallery -Turns on local webcams, pictures, videos, information and many other things -Global Awareness -Displays a link to issues of global awareness in the region -Paces of interest -Makes viewable transportation routes, lodgings, grocery stores, restaurants and other places of interests -Terrain -Changes the view from 2D to 3D

Statistics and Comparisons
Testimonials:

Few endorsements can match one by Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz earlier this month when she surprisingly declared that a competitor, not her own company, was the best source of driving directions. "I don't use Yahoo Maps, I use Google Maps," she divulged at an investor conference. "I'm just telling you.”

Statistics:

Google Maps became the most popular U.S. map service this year, overtaking the long-time leader, AOL's MapQuest. Google Maps had 40.6 million unique visitors in February, slightly ahead of MapQuest's 40 million, according to comScore. According to Nielsen Online, after it's BETA 1 release, Earth had 9.8 million U.S. users in February, and 100 000 000 installs in the first 12 months. 30,000 developer sites also used the Maps API in the first 12 months after its release.

As of Feb. 11, 2008:

•	350+ Million downloads

•	13 languages

•	more than a third of the world's land surface in high resolution imagery

•	half of the world's population in high res

Possible Rivalry:

More recently, MapQuest has improved its service and raised the possibility of a tough rivalry in the future. One of the top competitors of Google Earth is Worldwind, which is a satellite imagery software developed by NASA. Google Earth uses commercial satellite imagery, and thus has much more and recent data than World Wind. On the other hand, Google Earth lacks World Wind's Scientific Visualization Viewer, and cannot be extended with user-authored add-ons or plugins. Moreover, World Wind provides direct access to the downloaded DDS and JPEG satellite images, and the open-source nature of the program guarantees that anyone can get the source code and 'roll their own' version of the program. Both are sophisticated programs, and each has useful features that the other lacks, but they are not entirely comparable because of different focuses, development histories, and development philosophies. Program choice should be based on your specific goal.

Pros and Cons of Google Earth
Google Earth can be used as an educational tool putting the entire globe right at your fingertips. It allows people to see parts of the world that they would otherwise never be able to explore. It even provides information about any city or region that you are looking up on demand. It can also list numerous restaurants and hotels, and then provide you with driving directions from one destination to another. Even more useful information such as census figures and landmarks can be shown and described for any given city. Many classrooms are starting to use Google Earth to capture student’s attention. Simply reading about places around the world can be rather boring and dry. Google Earth now provides a fun and interesting visual way to learn about and explore every corner of the world directly from the classroom. It can also be used for other subjects other than geography, such as math where students can calculate distance and velocity, or explore historical ruins for history class or even learn about animals in their habitats for biology. People have also used Google Earth to learn more about a particular destination. Using the street level view you can look around a neighborhood before buying a house there to see what kind of atmosphere you could potentially be living in. You can even look around various vacation destinations and then compare to plan the ultimate trip. There are also some negative components to Google Earth in spite of its educational value. People no longer have complete privacy as Google Earth and the many people using it can see images of where you are and what you’re doing without you knowing. You can however make a request to get your photo removed from the website, the only problem being finding it on there in the first place and wondering how many people had already seen it. Another con for Google Earth is the fact that it is somewhat biased to North America. Photos from both Canada and the United States are far more clear and detailed than those of any other country. Even more information is provided about the North American cities compared to others around the world

Privacy concerns
Despite the many benefits of satellite mapping imagery provided by Google earth, it also poses as a huge threat to personal security. Google earth has been responsible for capturing millions of images of individuals engaged in millions of different activities. Some of these activities include men leaving and entering strip clubs, individuals being arrested, and dog owners not cleaning up after their dogs, each of these images allowing for embarrassment and distress. Google’s launching of street view technology is largely responsible for the majority of these intrusive images. While regular Google Earth allows for a complete bird’s eye view, street view allows for a complete 360 degree rotation oat ground level. Although Google claims to use face recognition technology to blur out both faces and registration plates, the images are often clear enough for recognition. Google has already received over 200 complaints by individuals claiming that their faces were not properly distorted. Google states that people have full rights to ask them to remove a particular image, displaying the black “image is not available” screen in its place. However in most cases, almost every removed image can be viewed by moving a few inches up or down the street. It has been debated that the site is regularly used by burglars planning escape routes and teenagers searching for unauthorized pools to throw parties in. Many who oppose of the mapping facility claim that Google is solely responsible for its position on the security issue in that it could have taken further percaussions in ensuring individuals privacy, such as taking each image twice. Google recently announced its plans on bringing street viewing technology to Canada, raising the issue of privacy invasion towards many Canadians.



National Security
There are also several privacy issues concerning Google Earth and national security. It had been debated that the programme, giving a complete satellite image of the globe as a whole, acts as a national security threat to several nations. Various governments around the globe have debated the use of Google Earth by terrorist organizations and have asked that several national sites be removed from its imagery. The website Ogle Earth has examined several national security concerns involving several countries and has put together the following list of national concerns; Australian nuclear reactor operators have been concerned about visibility of their reactors on Google Earth, Dutch legislators have been worried about terrorists targeting government facilities, the South Korean Government has been concerned about intrusion of its military installation sights and presidential palaces and the Thailand military worries about terrorist attacks against government buildings. India had recently surfaced with its complaints regarding Google Earth’s images in that it displays high resolution and high quality images involving the country’s nuclear installations. In 2004, Google stated that terrorists would need additional and more detailed imagery for attack then provided from its satellite imagery. Several global concerns both economically and socially have risen from Google Earth’s satellite imagery. Issues involving the deforestation of the rain forest, and the inhumane usage of concentration camps in North Korea have been made publically viewable through Google Earth. In defense, Google believes that its images do not amplify these issues in that all of its images are made publically available through second satellite imagery sources.

Refrences
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7954596.stm

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090324/google_complaint_090324/20090324?hub=SciTech

http://www.ogleearth.com/

http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2006/060327-google-earth.htm

http://www.google.com/educators/p_earth.html

http://www.divinecaroline.com/article/32719/49405-getting-know-neighborhood

http://archive.laptopmag.com/Review/Google-Earth.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Earth

http://earth.google.com/intl/en/userguide/v5/

http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/42174

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/29/BU9516LGUI.DTL&type=business