Before you use Google Earth, you have to download the software to your PC, which you do from earth.google.com. Google offers four different versions of Google Earth:

Which version should you use? For most individuals, the basic (free) version is more than adequate. If you want to interface Google Earth with a GPS unit, spend the twenty bucks for Google Earth Plus. And if you intend to use Google Earth for professional use (commercial real estate, construction and engineering, insurance, intelligence and homeland security, and so on), investigate the much more robust Google Earth Pro or Google Earth Enterprise versions.

For the purposes of this chapter, however, we’ll focus on the basic version of Google Earth.

When you first launch Google Earth, you see a large view of the planet Earth, as well as surrounding navigation and display controls, as shown in Figure 29.1. The major parts of the screen include three panes (Search, Places, and Layers), the main view display, and the navigation controls. You can hide or display certain parts of the interface by checking them on or off in the View menu.

Figure 29.1. The Google Earth interface.

You start your journey through Google Earth from the 3D view of the globe. You can zoom in on any location on the planet, and navigate from place to place around the planet. All it takes is a mastery of Google Earth’s navigation controls.

Of course, since you’re doing three-dimensional navigation, complete with panning, tilting, and rotating, the navigation is a bit more complicated than what you have with a flat web-based Google map. With Google Earth, you can navigate around the 3D globe by using the navigation controls along the right side of the screen, by using your mouse, or by using select keyboard commands. We’ll look at each method in turn.

Navigating with the Onscreen Navigation Controls

Perhaps the easiest way to navigate Google Earth is with the onscreen navigation controls, shown in Figure 29.2. Just click the appropriate control with your mouse, and you can do the following:

Figure 29.2. Google Earth navigation controls.

• Click the Zoom In and Zoom Out buttons (or use the corresponding slider control) to zoom into or out of the map. Clicking Zoom In (+) displays a closer, more detailed view; clicking Zoom Out (-) displays a further away, less-detailed view.

• Click and drag the Look control to move around from a single vantage point, as if you’re turning your head.

• Drag the Rotate control (the outer ring of the Look control) to rotate the view. (Rotating clockwise moves north to the right; rotating counterclockwise moves north to the left.)

• Double-click the North button (the N at the “top” of the Rotate control) to return north to the straight-up position.

• Click or click and drag the Move control to move your position from one point to another.

Both the Look and Move controls work like a joystick—that is, you can use your mouse to click and hold each control, and then drag your mouse to move or look in the designated direction. It sounds more complicated than it is; these controls are really quite easy to use.

Navigating with the Keyboard

You can also navigate through any Google Earth view by using your computer keyboard. Table 29.1 details the keyboard navigation commands.

Table 29.1 Google Earth Keyboard Navigation Commands

Now that you know how to get around in Google Earth, let’s take a quick tour.

Anytime you start Google Earth, the view defaults to the extended zoom of the planet Earth, focused on the continent of North America. This is a great place to start because you can get just about any place you want from here.

Let’s start by panning east (to the right) until we focus on Europe. Double-click the N button on the Rotate control to put North back at the top, and then click the up-arrow button until Europe is centered onscreen, as shown in Figure 29.3.

Figure 29.3. The Google Earth globe panned east and north, to focus on Europe.

Next, we want to zoom into the map. Click the Zoom In button (or use the zoom slider control) until France fills up the screen; then use a combination of zooming and panning until you see the city of Paris, as shown in Figure 29.4.

Figure 29.4. Zooming in on Paris.

Now zoom further into the city, following the river Seine to the west (left). You’ll notice a grouping placemarks on the map; each placemark denotes a specific location or attraction. When you hover your cursor over a placemark, the name of that location appears. Look for the swirly placemark shown in Figure 29.5; this is the Eiffel tower. Zoom into the Eiffel tower placemark until you get the view shown in Figure 29.6.

Figure 29.5. The placemark for the Eiffel tower.

Figure 29.6. Zooming in on the Eiffel tower.

Next, rotate around and zoom in a little more until you’re looking down the bridge beside the tower. As you can see in Figure 29.7, you can make out individual cars on the bridge—pretty neat!

Figure 29.7. An even closer view, looking down the bridge.

And, to demonstrate how easy it is to navigate directly to placemarked locations, go to the Places pane, open the Sightseeing folder, check the Google Campus placemark, and then click the Play button. After a dizzying spin-and-turn around the globe, you’ll see the Googleplex appear, as shown in Figure 29.8. Feel free to zoom in and see exactly what Google’s world headquarters looks like—up close and personal!

Figure 29.8. A Google Earth view of Google’s worldwide headquarters.

Google Earth offers two options to make its three-dimensional views look even more realistic—by displaying 3D buildings and terrain.

Let’s look at the 3D buildings option first. Start by opening the Places pane and going to the London Eye placemark. Zoom in and tilt the map a little, until you see the view shown in Figure 29.9. That’s the big Ferris wheel by the Thames, although it’s hard to tell from this view. Now check the 3D Buildings option in the Layers pane, and Google Earth will add the blocky 3D structures shown in Figure 29.10—a much more realistic perspective of what this area of London really looks like.

Figure 29.9. A non-3D view of the London Eye.

Figure 29.10. The same view of the London Eye, with 3D structures added.

The 3D terrain option is a good one when you’re viewing an area of hilly terrain. You turn this on by checking the Terrain option in the Layers pane. You can see this option at work by going to the Grand Canyon placemark. The view without the 3D terrain function enabled is shown in Figure 29.11; Figure 29.12 shows the much more realistic look with the 3D terrain.

Figure 29.11. A non-3D view of the Grand Canyon.

Figure 29.12. The same view of the Grand Canyon, with 3D terrain.

Google Earth is quite versatile in terms of what you see onscreen. There are a lot of viewing options, more than we can cover here, but we’ll try to address some of the most popular and useful ones.

Setting View Preferences

Most of Google Earth’s view options are set from within the Options dialog box, shown in Figure 29.13. You open this dialog box by selecting Tools, Options.

Figure 29.13. The Options dialog box.

Tip

The Terrain option should be enabled by default; the 3D Buildings option isn’t.

Within the Options dialog box, you want to select the 3D View tab. From here, you can adjust the settings detailed in Table 29.2.

Table 29.2 Google Earth View Settings

Displaying the Overview Map

There’s one more view setting that can help you navigate Google Earth. This is the Overview map, which you switch on by pressing Ctrl+M (or by selecting View, Overview Map). As you can see in Figure 29.14, this shows you where you are in the viewer in relation to the rest of the world. You can double-click anywhere in the Overview map to navigate to that location.

Figure 29.14. The Overview map displayed in the Google Earth viewer.

You can save any image displayed in the Google Earth viewer by selecting File, Save, Save Image. You can also print the current image in the viewer by selecting File, Print. Note, however, that the free version of Google Earth prints images only at screen resolution; the $20 Google Earth Plus prints images at a much higher resolution—about 2400 pixels, according to Google.

You know how to zoom and pan around the Google Earth globe—but this isn’t always the easiest way to zoom into a specific location. Fortunately, Google Earth lets you search for places just as you do in Google Maps, and then zoom directly into the desired location.

To search for a location, make sure the Fly To tab is selected in the Search pane and then enter the location into the search box. When you click the Search button, Google Earth zooms into the location you entered.

As with Google Maps, Google Earth lets you search using a variety of entry formats. Table 29.3 details the different ways to search for a location:

Table 29.3 Google Earth Search Formats

By the way, Google Earth also lets you search for businesses by using the Find Businesses tab in the Search pane. You can search within the current view, or within any city, state, or country you enter. Items that match your query are pinpointed in the view pane.

You can also use Google Earth to map driving directions, just as you can with Google Maps. The big difference in using Google Earth for this purpose is that your directions are mapped in a 3D view, so you can get more of a bird’s-eye view of where you’ll be driving.

Getting Directions

The easiest way to generate driving directions is to select the Directions tab in the Search pane, and then enter your starting (From) and ending (To) addresses. When you click the Search button, your route is mapped onscreen, with each turn placemarked on the map, as shown in Figure 29.15. You can zoom into, rotate, pan, and tilt the map as you like, as well as zoom into any specific direction by double-clicking that placemark. As you can see in Figure 29.16, zooming into a placemark like this gives you a very good idea of what you’ll encounter when you make your trip.

Figure 29.15. Using Google Earth to generate driving directions.

Figure 29.16. Zooming into a specific turn-by-turn instruction—it’s almost like you’re there!

One of the things that makes Google Earth so useful is its capability to overlay other data on top of its maps. This data is added in the form of layers; available layers can be enabled via the Layers pane.

You’ve already seen several different types of layers in use. When you enabled the 3D buildings and terrain features, you added these layers to the underlying map. Disable the feature, and the layer is taken away.

There are many other kinds of layers you can add to most Google Earth maps, from roads and geographic features to dining, lodging, and other attractions. See for yourself what’s available—check an option to display that layer, and uncheck the option to hide it.

Many of the layers available in Google Earth contain what are known as places of interest (POI). These are specific locations overlaid on a map, such as ATMs, restaurants, gas stations, and the like.

When you click a POI, Google Earth displays an information box for that item, like the one shown in Figure 29.17. Within this info box is information about this location, as well as links to additional information.

Figure 29.17. Viewing information about a place of interest.

Right-click a POI, and you get a pop-up menu that lets you copy or save this location, as well as generate driving directions. Saving the POI puts it in your My Places folder in the Places pane, so you can return to it at any future time. Alternatively, you can copy the POI and then paste it into a specific subfolder in the My Places folder.

About that My Places folder.... This is a folder where you can store any item for future use. You can store pre-existing POIs, as we just discussed, or store custom placemarks that you create yourself.

To mark any place on any Google Earth map as a placemark, follow these steps:

Figure 29.18. Entering information about the new placemark.

The placemark is now set on the map, with the name you provided. The placemark is also stored in the My Places folder.

As if using Google Earth normally wasn’t cool enough, the program also includes a built-in flight simulator! That’s right, you can “fly” through Google Earth locations just as you would with a commercial flight simulator game.

To enter Google Earth’s Flight Simulator mode, select Tools, Enter Flight Simulator. This displays the Flight Simulator dialog box shown in Figure 29.19. You can select from two different aircraft, a high-tech F16 fighter jet or an SR22 prop plane. You can also select your starting position, and whether you’re using a joystick or not. Make your selections and then click the Start button.

Figure 29.19. Configuring Google Earth’s Flight Simulator.

This launches you on your flight, as shown in Figure 29.20. The best way to control your plane is with a joystick, but you can also use your computer keyboard. Good flying!

Figure 29.20. Flying Google Earth’s Flight Simulator.

And here’s something else new and cool about Google Earth—it doesn’t just show you the Earth, it also shows you the sky! That’s right, Google Earth now includes Google Sky, a collection of stellar maps and pictures as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope.

You enter Google Sky by clicking the Sky button on Google Earth’s toolbar or by selecting View, Switch to Sky. As you can see in Figure 29.21, you navigate Google Sky the same way you navigate Google Earth. Sky also has its own layers, and you can search for objects using the normal search box. Click on any interstellar object to learn more about it—or, if you’re well-versed in astronomical science, search for specific objects you want to view. Google Sky makes astronomy fun!

Figure 29.21. Space, the final frontier—as seen via Google Sky.