Google Earth
is a traveler’s dream.
This nifty application from the folks at Google allows you to zoom from outer space all the way down to street
level using a series of overlaying satellite photos.
But this is not news for most of you. Indeed,
we’ve covered it here on Gadling a number of
times before.
What is new, however, are the wonderful slew of “user created content” being developed that make the
Google Earth experience even better. James Fallows has written a nice piece in the March issue of The Atlantic fawning over these Google Earth overlays. Did you know, for
example, that California commuters can download an application that overlays immediate traffic conditions on to their
Google Earth map to navigate the quickest way home? Or that users can overlay WiFi areas, Wikipedia information, airliner
trajectories, and even Flickr photos of where they’re looking at on the
satellite image? And this is just the beginning. Entire blogs that focuse solely on Google Earth and its
growing number of overlays (www.ogleearth.com and www.gearthblog.com), are already up and running.
We’ll keep you posted as cool new applications pertinent to travelers and adventurers pop up. Until
then, make sure to smile and wave every time you look up into the sky.