Google Earth

[John_Mc]

Click on the "Google Earth Pro on desktop" button:

Earth Versions – Google Earth

 

[dmccarty]

I have spent many an hour on Google Earth looking at places I have lived/visited and places I want to visit. It is one of those things you wonder how we lived without it. :laughing:

I have read, and still read, quite a bit of history. One of the maddening things about some/many history books is the lack of maps. I sure wish I had Google Earth when I was a kid and started reading history. Having those images would have been so helpful.

We are thinking about moving the coast for a variety of reasons. I have used FEMA and NOAA flood maps to look at areas along with Google Earth's historical images to check out areas. Surprisingly to me, one area we are interested in does not look like there has been beach erosion in the 20 or so years that Google has images.

Once upon a time, I had spent quite a bit of time looking at a certain town in another country using Google Earth images and street views. A co worker happened to travel to that country, and when they returned to work, they were talking about the trip. They mentioned visiting this town I had looked at on Google Earth. I started asking questions. If they had noticed the church at one end of the town, did they visit the chocolate shop, how about the RNLI station at the other end of town, did they see the Indian restaurant that was up the little side street that headed out of town up a steep slope down by the RNLI station,....

They were shocked I knew all of these details. And the funny part is that I had never visited that remote little town in person but I knew more about the place than they did. But I had just visited by Google Earth images and street view. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

We use Google Earth to plan trips to other places. We use it to look at the area we are thinking about staying so that we know our way around before we ever get there. Where is a grocery store and cell phone store for sim cards? What does the area look like? Does it look safe? Where are restaurants and what do they serve? If using public transport, where are the stops? Are there places near where we are staying that we want to visit or should we stay somewhere else? Can we walk to a pub? If we have a car, we will draw a circle of 60 miles, i.e., a roughly one hour trip from where we are staying and put placemarks in Google Earth for the places we want to see. If the place is outside of the circle we might not visit due to time it takes to get there.

People traveling around the world use Google Earth images to help them navigate remote areas. Many places in the world are not charted, and if they have been charted, it could have been last done by Captain Cook. Looking at satellite images can tell you if the charted channel still exists and if it really exists as charted. Some remote places can be more than a mile off the plotted location. That could ruin your day. Tools exist to turn Google Earth images into charts that can be used by modern chart plotters. It is amazing stuff.

Later,
Dan

 

[Diggin It]

Pay attention to the imagery dates. The aerial views are usually more recent than the street views. I've often seen things in the aerial views that I wanted to check out in Street View, only to find it didn't exist five years earlier when the street view was logged.

 

[John_Mc]

I have spent many an hour on Google Earth looking at places I have lived/visited and places I want to visit. It is one of those things you wonder how we lived without it. :laughing:

I have read, and still read, quite a bit of history. One of the maddening things about some/many history books is the lack of maps. I sure wish I had Google Earth when I was a kid and started reading history. Having those images would have been so helpful.

We are thinking about moving the coast for a variety of reasons. I have used FEMA and NOAA flood maps to look at areas along with Google Earth's historical images to check out areas. Surprisingly to me, one area we are interested in does not look like there has been beach erosion in the 20 or so years that Google has images.

Once upon a time, I had spent quite a bit of time looking at a certain town in another country using Google Earth images and street views. A co worker happened to travel to that country, and when they returned to work, they were talking about the trip. They mentioned visiting this town I had looked at on Google Earth. I started asking questions. If they had noticed the church at one end of the town, did they visit the chocolate shop, how about the RNLI station at the other end of town, did they see the Indian restaurant that was up the little side street that headed out of town up a steep slope down by the RNLI station,....

They were shocked I knew all of these details. And the funny part is that I had never visited that remote little town in person but I knew more about the place than they did. But I had just visited by Google Earth images and street view. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

We use Google Earth to plan trips to other places. We use it to look at the area we are thinking about staying so that we know our way around before we ever get there. Where is a grocery store and cell phone store for sim cards? What does the area look like? Does it look safe? Where are restaurants and what do they serve? If using public transport, where are the stops? Are there places near where we are staying that we want to visit or should we stay somewhere else? Can we walk to a pub? If we have a car, we will draw a circle of 60 miles, i.e., a roughly one hour trip from where we are staying and put placemarks in Google Earth for the places we want to see. If the place is outside of the circle we might not visit due to time it takes to get there.

People traveling around the world use Google Earth images to help them navigate remote areas. Many places in the world are not charted, and if they have been charted, it could have been last done by Captain Cook. Looking at satellite images can tell you if the charted channel still exists and if it really exists as charted. Some remote places can be more than a mile off the plotted location. That could ruin your day. Tools exist to turn Google Earth images into charts that can be used by modern chart plotters. It is amazing stuff.

Later,
Dan

Were you in Google MAPS, or Google EARTH?

 

[ovrszd]

The GE pic of my farm is five years old.

 

[RalphVa]

Pay attention to the imagery dates. The aerial views are usually more recent than the street views. I've often seen things in the aerial views that I wanted to check out in Street View, only to find it didn't exist five years earlier when the street view was logged.

I could hardly find our old house at 16654 S. Fulwar Skipwith in Baton Rouge parish for all the trees, but my brother apparently found it in street view. Haven't figure out how to get to street view online yet. Will try it again. Probably won't be able to see the back yard.

 

[dmccarty]

Were you in Google MAPS, or Google EARTH?

Most likely Google Earth though I use Google Maps from time to time.

Later,
Dan

 

[Diggin It]

GMaps is what you visit on the web with a browser.

GEarth is a program you download and run on your PC desktop.

Their street views are similar, but don't appear to be exactly the same.

 

[airbiscuit]

Google Earth lets you do so much more, once you learn how to use it. I made the map shown below of our trail system and wetlands on Google Earth. Just walked the trails with a handheld GPS or a smartphone running an appropriate app, and you can import the GPS/phone data into Google Earth to tweak it, clean it up, and print out if you want a hard copy.

What's a good Android app to map trails?

 

[John_Mc]

What's a good Android app to map trails?

I use Gaia GPS. The basic level is free. Mine is on an iPhone, but they make an Android version as well. The paid membership levels offer access to more maps. If I recall, the premium level ($40/year) includes parcel boundaries and ownership data. I've just been using their free version, and added my own parcel boundary information.

Another app I've used is On X Hunt. It's $30/year for one state or $90/year for 50 states. I have the one state version. I've debated dropping it, but there are things I like about it. (They make it very easy to move info back and forth from computer to phone to Google Earth, for example. It can also be done in Gaia GPS, I just like the OnX interface a bit better.)