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Google Earth has a major update - lots of paid features are now free!

googleearthhacks.com — Google has released a new version of Google Earth, giving away cool features such as the ability to draw polygons and paths, which used to only be included in the $20/year version. In addition, they added a bunch more placemark icons and added some improvements to the 3D models.

Who dugg this? Made popular Nov 5, 2006

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  • D-Man, on 10/12/2007, -1/+40Consider the following as supplemental information to the link above (seeing as this info was left out):

    Download Link: http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html
    Google's Official PR: http://earth.google.com/earth4-beta6.html
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+24So WHY does this digg link to some forum and not the *actual* Google earth website?

    Bury - Spam
  • jonknapp, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14Wow, cool. I had heard there was another update (another *beta* update), but didn't know they included all of that stuff.

    I had purchased the $20/year version a while ago, but never renewed. Now I don't need to. :)

    Jon
  • mickmel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Much of the globe is still low-res, though they're adding more and more high-res areas all the time.

    This page should help:
    http://earth.google.com/data.html
  • vbsurfer, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9You should check out http://www.digg.com/design/Introducing_Flash_Earth
  • hiscity, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Does anyone know what the price is for the enterprise service?
    http://earth.google.com/earth_ec.html

    I always hate it when they say "call sales" and no one ever calls back.
  • joshjoneswas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I WANT A REFUND! :)
  • mickmel, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7Yep.
  • mbradbury, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Still no Australian roads, which is weird, as maps.google.com has had them for a while.
  • WoahPuppets, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I can't find the words that describe how awesome this is...OO wait...I found them, TEXTURED BUILDINGS!!
  • sabotank, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@vbsurfer

    damn good find! you can switch maps on the fly w/o having to change pages!!
  • riplikethat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"..lots of paid features are now free!"

    Well if people aren't dumb enough to pay for those 'features', can you blame them? Plus, now I think they are getting enough moolah from sources like YouTube to bother themselves with asking for money for some improvements in 3D models.
  • diskserious, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Any of you try out Nasa's World Wind? I find the control scheme much better and the detail and resolution seems to be comparable. Plus, they have the moon, mars, and a few other nearby astral bodies. Check it out if you haven't already.

    http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/
  • wwwdot1jesdotus, on 10/12/2007, -6/+8Direct link:
    http://earth.google.com/earth4.html

    Download link:
    http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html
  • thelelander, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2what is the point of paths?? basically drawing lines? any way to get actual pathfinding?
  • gamerzworld, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Why not make everything free? Even the Pro version. I'm sure google adsense would make up for the cost and more. Hell put a little google adsense thing in Google earth.
  • mickmel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yes, it's basically just drawing lines. What do you mean by "pathfinding"?
  • mickmel, on 10/12/2007, -5/+6Good call. Those links might help. They've been added to the article now. Thanks.
  • darkyoshi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Universal Binary?
  • mickmel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Bad card or not, his problem seems to be more with the texture dataset than with a video card or performance problem. I doubt a better card would help with his issues, though it would probably help it run much more smoothly for him.
  • mickmel, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Yeah, sorry about that. I've got a dual-server setup and it typically can withstand a digging, but it's having some problems this morning. We're doing our best... :)
  • JorgeGT, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I tried WW but I switched to Google Earth because the dataset is much better - specially outside the united states.
    (Aqua-like menu was so cool, and the navigation was much better)
  • seweso, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I paid $20 for the upgrade and I got a refund of $20, so I'm pretty happy.
  • darkyoshi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It is! Hooray!
  • stalefries, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1jackdaniels, that's 2 threads that you have put a link to some Google Video on, both were offtopic. Welcome to my block list.
  • JorgeGT, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Is good for me with 1024x768 in a 17" LCD with an FX5200
  • gol706, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@mickmel
    It looks like that list is outdated by about a year. They've added a lot since then, they really should update the page and official list. If you check this forum you can get up to date information on new additions:
    http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/postlist.php/Cat/0/Board/latest
  • antdude, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Super direct link for the Windows version: http://dl.google.com/earth/GE4/GoogleEarthWin.exe
  • krz9000, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2worldwind cant compete with their dataset. google is lightyears ahead...data as well as featurewise. sorry but still good that you pointed out alternatives
  • sumo27, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0YEAHH this is good news! Hope the Movie Making Module will be completely free soon. It'd be super awesome if we could make movies using this space controller for google earth: http://digg.com/gadgets/A_revolutionary_Google_Earth_mouse
  • masskurec, on 03/03/2009, -0/+0also alot of free features are now paid

    http://xptweak.net
  • crossers, on 07/19/2008, -0/+0and were I can read about details of new soft?
    http://www.shpe-sac.org
    http://www.ocflex.com/
    http://www.trgovinca.org
    http://www.chasr.org/
  • antdude, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1It still says beta. :(
  • stratmancj, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1http://www.duggmirror.com/
  • rjpaez, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Nice
  • pabster, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2No offense, but a GeForce 5500 is extremely LOW END. I'm not surprised the textures look like crap.
  • HoneyRoastedHam, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0The Movie Making Module isn't completely free; you must still purchase a Pro Account for $400.
  • baalzebub, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1still a work in progress i see
  • kc5hwb, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0DAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
  • jackdaniels06, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1I love the
    X Prize Cup they put on Google Earth. I love the Saturn 5 model! Check out the X Prize tour when you get a chance. Awesome. By the way...

    Princess Mononoke by Hayao Myazaki, FULL MOVIE on Google Video
    http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5889059878723313586&hl=en
  • 2L84ME, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1Maybe I'd feel a little more sorry for you when digging you down if you had more information, and not just the link on it's own with no background.
  • ICSU, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3That's not a decent video card by any measures tho.
  • argstupidputer, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1YEY at LAST! :D!!! About time too!
  • peachymama, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1Awesome! Thanks!!
  • 1021, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1Yeah, come on - way to not mention the 2 most touted options in premium being free now - movie making module + high-resolution print support. Who the hell even cares about drawing paths and polygons - I just like to screw around with features, not build with them when it comes to something like Google Earth.

    Note to self: I should really stop using my hyphen key for stops in a sentence.
  • baalzebub, on 10/12/2007, -11/+5i just downloaded the latest free version for Linux and there are still some large chunks of land still blurry and of low resolution while other parts are crystal clear and top quality resolution...

    and yes i do have a decent video card and monitor nvidia geforce5500FX and my monitor @ 1280x1024 when running google earth, most my general purpose computing & websurfing is done @ 1024x768 as i like nice big fonts when reading text

  • iman79, on 10/12/2007, -7/+0i find it weird that i was just thinking about when google earth would be updated.....maybe google is reading my mind (not that i would mind, of course)
  • LocDawg, on 10/12/2007, -10/+2Google Earth is not free. The price is your privacy if you use any of Google's products.
  • chriskemm, on 10/12/2007, -16/+7Wow! does in run on OS X?

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