Google revamps its Google Earth mapping tool

by Stevie Smith - Apr 18 2008, 15:10

Fans of Google Earth, the addictively immersive global mapping application, have today been gifted with a reinvigorated version of the popular visual search aid thanks to the release of Google Earth 4.3.

Google launches version 4.3 of its popular Google Earth mapping tool. Credit: Google Earth.

Officially launched today by search engine heavyweight Google Inc., the latest version of Google Earth provides users with a higher quality and even more immersive overall experience, while advancing Google’s ambition to provide an ever-more realistic 3D reference model of the planet.According to Google, this forward step in the evolution of its hugely popular mapping tool is marked by the addition of several features designed to give users access to more realistic, real-world data and also offer them fresh ways to discover and explore the world’s most interesting aspects.These new Google Earth elements include a revamped navigation interface, which enables users to go beyond the traditional pan-and zoom method of exploration and enjoy the versatility of first-person mapping from a ground level perspective. Also, 3D map rendering detail levels have been enhanced through the inclusion of dozens of photo-textured cities and towns, along with literally thousands of user-contributed buildings that have been captured and conveyed from all around the world.Google Earth also now includes Street View, the popular (and occasionally contentious) Google Maps feature that allows users to wander through the streets of popular cities as though they were actually there.Despite its somewhat throwaway nature, the new Sunlight feature is a fun light-based control that allows users to govern the sun’s time-lapsed positioning in relationship to the Earth when zoomed out to a planetary view, and then watch the resulting beauty of a sunset or sunrise when zoomed back in.According to Google, the arrival of an image acquisition tool in version 4.3 is “one of our most requested features,” and displays on what date any given area of captured Google Earth imagery was recorded.In terms of increased appeal and flexibility, Google Earth 4.3 also includes a total of twelve new languages including Danish, Finnish, Hebrew, Indonesian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Swedish, Thai, and Turkish.