"Fly between San Francisco's skyscrapers, through the Grand Canyon or across the Swiss Alps with Google.
Google, in Mountain View, also is leveraging the images by offering a mapping service through which a traveler enters a destination and is transported along the route. Users can also create and share their own annotations."
via SF Chronicle
Comments: Taking this to the next level could become a more popular way to preview a trip than using VRs or maps. The limitation of satellite photography is it can't get as detailed as an on-the-ground camera with a good lens, and it can't capture sideways detail very well. So I think there should always be room for VR's local detail. Maps provide a blueprint to layers of information which are not visible in a satellite photo, which is why this Earth app. offers annotations. Whether this will be as satisfying as sitting down with a big map and planning a trip is up in the air.
The first thing I tried was to look at the Pacific Crest Trail in the Sierra Nevada. It was very disappointing that the mountains north of Yosemite became blurry indistinguishable blobs after zooming in to 1000 feet above the ground. On the other hand, there were patches of higher resolution imagery where you could zoom in to wilderness terrain and see rapids in a stream, as well as individual trees. The 3D mode is pretty amazing.
Presently it only runs on a newer PC. Google says they are working on a Mac version.
7:05:16 AM 
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