Google Earth for the Mac

Google Earth for the Mac was released today. I’ve just downloaded it, and I’ve been playing with it for half an hour. It’s truly an amazing product: so much more than Google Maps, and something that has the potential to change how we think about the earth.

I thought the whole “flying around” animated thing was a gimmick, but it’s not: it works to reinforce that the world isn’t a discrete collection of maps sheets, but rather an interconnected whole upon which we’re all scattered. That might sound like a lofty idea, but I think it’s a powerful one, and something that will affect our view of the planet as much the pictures of earth from the moon did back in the 1960s.

If you haven’t experienced Google Earth yet, I recommend you grab a copy: it’s a small download, it’s free, and it may blow your mind.

Comments

Seer's picture
Seer on January 11, 2006 - 00:13 Permalink

Well said, Peter. Your reactions to the connectedness of life on Earth is in large part the appeal that drove Google Earth to be created.

Kevin O'Brien's picture
Kevin O'Brien on January 16, 2006 - 15:49 Permalink

Any idea why Google Earth takes about 40 minutes (it could be longer, I did’t time it) to load on my G4 Powerbook after the icon stops bouncing? (The icon stops its “look at me” bounc after three or four minutes)

Kevin O'Brien's picture
Kevin O'Brien on January 16, 2006 - 15:51 Permalink

In other Mac news, the left side of my 17” is dim so I googled “powerbook display bulb replacement” and found out some really disappointing news about how this computer was put together. The engineering in this thing _looks_ very good. But isn’t.