Pepsi Blue Dot
February 2, 2015 6:19 PM   Subscribe

 
I did this yesterday but then couldn't find anything interesting to do with it, so let this be the thread where people tell me what to do with my free $400 software.
posted by escabeche at 6:26 PM on February 2, 2015 [5 favorites]


oh my god, they're going to kill off Google Earth.
posted by boo_radley at 6:27 PM on February 2, 2015 [62 favorites]


I see London, I see France, I can measure underpants, no, I mean underpasses.
posted by Oyéah at 6:27 PM on February 2, 2015


Google Earth has to suffer from some serious size issues, with all the imagery added in by users.
posted by Oyéah at 6:29 PM on February 2, 2015


Whoa this is awesome. Believe me there are lots of cool maps you can make with this junx.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 6:31 PM on February 2, 2015


I remember when they launched Google Earth, but I never really used it much. Then I took a geography course not long ago that had us use Google Earth, and man, you can do a lot of cool stuff with that program. I'm curious to see what you can do with the pro version.
posted by teponaztli at 6:33 PM on February 2, 2015


Well, this sounds cool:
Movie-Maker: Export Windows Media and Quicktime HD movies, up to 1920x1080 resolution.

As a cyclist I've enjoyed dumping my Garmin data into Google Earth and watching my ride. It's really fun with mountains where you can see where you were in ways you can't when you're riding. Being able to save the videos is swell

slight derail: sending Garmin GPS data to Google earth used to give me a flyover, with the point of view pivoting to it was always from behind. Now my view is always from the same direction, non-pivoting. I want my "pivot" back. Can I get it? Message me, please
posted by cccorlew at 6:35 PM on February 2, 2015 [2 favorites]


oh my god, they're going to kill off Google Earth

Presumably they're phasing it out because they want to reuse the name for Google's new planet-building project. Why backup your data to the cloud? Google has already cloned your data, along with your entire home, city, continent, and everyone you love, on Google Earth
posted by oulipian at 6:44 PM on February 2, 2015 [16 favorites]


Well, the Earth Mk. 2, in fact. Watch for the little crinkly bits along the African coast.
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:03 PM on February 2, 2015 [17 favorites]


Oh look, another gift from benevolent Google! Enjoy it all you can before they unceremoniously pull it out from under you.
posted by Catblack at 7:05 PM on February 2, 2015 [9 favorites]


I did this yesterday but then couldn't find anything interesting to do with it, so let this be the thread where people tell me what to do with my free $400 software.

Well the ability to directly import ESRI Shapefiles and GeoTiffs and dozens of other data files without converting them to KML format first in external software that never quite does the job properly is kinda great. I don't know what normal people will do with it.
posted by Jimbob at 7:07 PM on February 2, 2015 [13 favorites]


Basically it's going to stop the endless line of people coming to me asking if I can "convert something to Google Earth" for them. I can tell them to go do it themselves. But the comment above about Google killing off Google Earth does give me shivers. It feels like another case, like Reader, of Google wanting to destroy something without any understanding of how many people completely rely on the software.
posted by Jimbob at 7:08 PM on February 2, 2015 [7 favorites]


Presumably they're phasing it out because they want to reuse the name for Google's new planet-building project....Google has already cloned your data, along with your entire home, city, continent, and everyone you love, on Google Earth


So it will be a map of the earth at 1:1 scale?
posted by TedW at 7:12 PM on February 2, 2015


All this world is yours to explore...
posted by hal9k at 7:17 PM on February 2, 2015 [3 favorites]


Except Europe. Attempt no mapping there.
posted by Naberius at 7:21 PM on February 2, 2015 [25 favorites]


Google - you think you know everything? You know Foucalt...
posted by aeshnid at 7:23 PM on February 2, 2015


I tried three times and it wouldn't give me a key: feh!
posted by wenestvedt at 7:39 PM on February 2, 2015


I have photos on Panoramio that have been picked up in ads in several different languages. A dream come true, sort of. I guess it will go away, maybe not if they still want ground photography. I better get a license.
posted by Oyéah at 8:03 PM on February 2, 2015


You guys making 2001 jokes are wrong, you should be making Snow Crash jokes, because that's where we're going here.
posted by Sphinx at 8:24 PM on February 2, 2015 [6 favorites]


>I tried three times and it wouldn't give me a key: feh!

Worked perfectly for me, first try, although I didn't click the MeFi links but went direct to Google. Currently engaged in a flyover of Tajikistan ... :-) I already had regular GE installed. Looking forward to seeing what extra functionality I just acquired.
posted by Autumn Leaf at 8:42 PM on February 2, 2015


For those asking about the "Pro" features: What is Google Earth Pro?

Google Earth was really useful for planning our trip to the Pacific Northwest last month, especially when I found out that I could export the KML files to Google Drive and open it in Earth on my phone. We started by searching for all the stuff we wanted to see and adding them to different layers (recreation, restaurants, shopping, etc.), then loaded in KML files for the transit lines we needed to get to all those places. Doing all that in Maps (or their online "Map Maker" thing) would have been difficult or impossible since those interfaces are so limited.
posted by tonycpsu at 8:54 PM on February 2, 2015 [6 favorites]


wenestvedt: "I tried three times and it wouldn't give me a key: feh!"

Did you happen to use a email address that isn't gmail? My fastmail address kept on getting rejected until I switched to a gmail one where it went through on the first try. Other people on Hacker News were reporting the same.
posted by johnpowell at 9:10 PM on February 2, 2015


The interface looks like ass on my Macbook Pro.
posted by emelenjr at 9:53 PM on February 2, 2015


Lol, speaking of ass, Google Maps in my browser kicks GE's Streetview ass.

So many countries no longer offer Streetview. You can see the pretty blue lines abruptly cut off at their borders.
posted by Autumn Leaf at 10:04 PM on February 2, 2015


Lame. There is a Linux version of Google Earth with deb's and rpm's available depending on ones particular distro... but no Google Earth Pro.

Looks like it's built with gtk+. Blah. Qt would have been better as it is far more cross platform friendly.
posted by PROD_TPSL at 12:38 AM on February 3, 2015


> oh my god, they're going to kill off Google Earth.

And they've made it easy to find this helpful list of ways to accomplish it!
posted by Poldo at 4:58 AM on February 3, 2015


I used Google Earth was figure out what exactly this interesting feature was that I photographed while flying over southeastern California. It's the outflow from the Iron Mountain pumping plant on the Colorado River Aqueduct. It was surprisingly hard to find, but pretty cool when I sorted it out. earthy maps link to the area
posted by exogenous at 6:31 AM on February 3, 2015 [2 favorites]


b1tr0t, you're a genious -- thank you!!
posted by wenestvedt at 7:13 AM on February 3, 2015


Now I can measure areas quickly. yay.
posted by wilful at 7:09 PM on February 3, 2015


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