Google Earth review

A 11 MB download from www.earth.google.com and a short installation later, you basically get a virtual version of our world on your hard disk. The possibilities are endless, you can have a look at the gateway of India, elephant herds in Africa, your grandmother's house, the Niagara Falls - or, this being the best part, secret military bases - the infamous area 51 for example. This kind of capability has made entire countries pissed by this software. OK, area 51 is not as exciting as it sounds, just a few planes here and there. There is, however considerable excitement in the fact that you are allowed to explore remote and not so remote corners of the world from the convenience of a small window on our desktop.
Google earth is pretty easy to navigate, where you are allowed to move around in our directions, zoom in and zoom out, rotate yourself, and tilt. The software might give the illusion that the earth is covered in real time, ie, that the pictures that you see is the earth at that point of time. The pictures are actually taken over a span of three years, using various planes and satellites. Also, you require an Internet connection even after you have downloaded Google Earth, as the software takes in new images from the keyhole server every time you login. This is, however a very short process, and it usually does not take more than a minute to obtain high resolution pictures. Only a few cities are covered in detail in India; Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai are one of those available in detail. In Mumbai, however, only the south Mumbai Area is clearly visible.
Google Earth, does more than merely put pieced together images of the planet on your comp. It gives road maps, labels major places of interest, it tells you how to travel from point A to point B, and it also allows you to "placemark" your favorite places. Sort of like an IE favorite, but only with a location. A Layer is a collection of preset placemarks that comes with the software. There are many layers of information available, schools, hospitals, eateries and parks all have layers of their own. However, all of this has been done more in the west than in India, but eventually the entire world is bound to be covered.
I have saved up the best feature for last. there is a layer, called 3d buildings, if you turn this on, the landscape turns into a 3 dimensional one. The buildings and terrain in the surroundings all pop out of the surface. 3d buildings are available in only a handful of cities, but when the entire world will be mapped, this software is bound to face more repercussions than the beta version is already facing.