PenFall

When it comes to technology, I tend to discover things much later than most. I often doubt how interesting or cool new technology can be because there is so much out there, and a lot of it turns out to be a waste of time, or clutters up my life more than helps it. Google especially gives me doubt — I just don’t believe the big companies, the corporations, the big names. To me, Google is the Gap of the internet — it has spread its wings over the entire industry. Just as there is Gap, Gap Kids, babyGap, gapMaternity, and GapBody, there is Google, Google Maps, Google Images, Google Earth, Google Desktop, Google SketchUp (and here’s when I go to google Google…this isn’t right).

This is why I resist.

This week at work, I received my laptop (an iBook), and with it came Google Earth (and all the rest). Last night (on a Friday, yes), inbetween one task and the next, I decided to actually check out Google Earth and see what all the fuss is about.

I discovered that I actually like it. Great…

After trying my very best to resist liking something Google, I gave in and spent almost three hours on Google Earth. I did the usual — searched my house, my office, my apartment, and so on. Eventually I discovered a “sightseeing” option, for which there was a tour of many of the worlds greatest landmarks: the Eiffel Tower, The Forbidden City, Mount Saint Helens, and The Grand Canyon (to name a few). The first three stops on the tour weren’t too impressive — the queen mary, disney world, etc. The fourth stop, the Grand Canyon, was what made me write this blog post. Bare with me, there are a LOT of pictures in this post. But most are really worth it — and the links are clickable, folks! You can see the larger and much cooler version just by clicking on the photo. Check it out:

You can zoom in even more, and the quality stays the same. It’s pretty amazing.

Check out The Forbidden City –

And Mount Saint Helens -

Now, I know a couple of people who have spent a significant amount of time in the Middle East, especially Baghdad. So, of course, that was my next stop. Wanna see? Let’s just zoom in on the green zone

Maybe a little more? C’mere embassy –

And finally, the airport –

and some planes…

So, that’s pretty cool, but nothing mind blowing, right? What bugged me the most during this exploration was that buildings could not be seen very well, except from a birds-eye view. There is a pretty cool tool that allows you to change the angle you are viewing from, but when you change the angle, buildings flatten. For instance, here’s Washington, DC –

But then, my co-worker Chris sent me this link. America’s Favorite Architecture recently partnered with Google, to provide 3D images of famous US buildings and/or landmarks. They even let you vote on your favorite five landmarks here. By clicking on the right tool in Google Earth, and searching the right buildings and/or landmarks, you can find some pretty interesting stuff.

Here’s National Cathedral:

Cool, right? So, you can do this for a lot of things — of course, I checked out Wrigley Field (go Cubbies) and a lot of others, but there are already enough pictures in this post (that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop).

Empire State Building & surrounding buildings –

One of the buildings you can see in 3D is Falling Water, also known as the Edgar J. Kaufmann Sr. Residence, a house designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. It’s in a very no-name area, which on Google Maps/Earth usually means you can’t see sh**. So I decided to give it a shot. A complaint: it took SO long to figure out the actual address of the house — so long that I never actually found the address. I had to Google the house, and eventually got the coordinates from its page on wikipedia.

Anyways, here’s what I saw –

Weird, no? So I zoom in –

And from the most well-known side:

Anyways, to make a long blog post not short at all, I’ll end with some positives and negatives to Google Earth

Positives: pretty cool graphics, a great idea, and now a nice partnership w/ architects to make the experience even better.

It seems to find addresses pretty well, as well as businesses, probably better than Google Maps.

Negatives: scrolling around is actually pretty difficult. If you hold down zoom in/zoom out for just a nanosecond too long, you end up being zoomed in or out very quickly and with little control. You end up staring at the entire earth, or at a blurry patch of green or brown. The same thing goes for rotating — there’s very little control and it can get extremely frustrating, you’ll end up completely lost. It also tends to slow down your computer quite a bit unless you have absolutely no other program running.

Overall, I had a great experience, but I’m not sure I’ll spend 3 straight hours on Google Earth again. Despite being interesting, it’s definitely one of those things you can spend 3 hours on one day, and never visit again, or only visit occasionally for short periods of time. I’ll surely revisit Google Earth when I’m bored, to check out new buildings or new features, or just to see how close I can get to my house again. But I just don’t think there is an everyday use for it. It’s like the Gap — it’s nice to have, but I can live just fine without it.