Chapter 11. Discovering the World with Google Earth

In This Chapter:

Fly to a Location

Navigate Through Google Earth

Find Local Information with Google Earth

Use Google Earth to Get Directions

About Customizing Your View by Adding and Removing Layers

Save Your Favorite Locations

Change Google Earth Options

About Google Earth Plus and Google Earth Pro

One of man's greatest desires has been to fly...and Google Earth enables you to fly anywhere in the world without leaving your chair. It does much more than that as well. It shows you 3D satellite photos of places throughout the world, enables you to take guided flying tours, shows you local information along the way, and more, as you'll see in this chapter. Use Google Earth when you want to see a satellite map of anywhere on Earth or when you want to get driving directionsand a 3D tour of the drive. Google Earth is similar to Google Local, except that it includes real satellite photosand you can take a virtual flight as well.

Google Earth also includes two for-pay versions: Google Earth Plus and Google Earth Pro. These versions of the application offer extra features, such as high-resolution printing and the capability to import and export data.

To get started with Google Earth, go to http://earth.google.com for details about running the Google Earth application. Click the Download link (or go to http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html) to download and run the installation file. For details about how to download and install software, see Chapter 1, "Start Here."

After you install Google Earth, launch it by double-clicking the desktop icon.