Thread: Google Earth

A few months ago, Google purchased Keyhole, a satellite mapping service. Now, Google has released Google Earth. The basic service is free.

This could be an incredible tool for real estate web sites. At the very least, you can direct your site visitors to download the free software, then type in the address of the listing to view the surrounding area. The can view the surrounding area, local roads, buildings, and services. Very cool stuff!

I plan to purchase the Pro version ($400 subscription per year) once it is out of the Beta phase.

One caveat, you cannot zoom in on all areas. For example, our region in SC only contains basic satellite photos, and not the detail that you can find in other markets.

Oh boy - I just noticed other overlays that you can place in some markets:

- schools
- school ditricts
- crime stats
- churches

and a whole lot more!

I've been linking to KeyHole.com and DigitalEarth.com and a few others from my site's favorite links section for a couple of years now. I love this stuff!

Glad to see the prices have come down. It used to be thousands of dollars annually... I actually installed the trial version once about a year and a half ago and was "flying" all over the place.

Have you tried the "fly" option yet?

Max (Gemini) actually posted some really good screen shots on the Advanced Access forums a few days ago. Neat stuff...

I posted them this morning Mat Yeah, I love it! BTW, I've been playing with maps.google.com, which actually also Keyhole implementation, - vrey cool stuff too and thereis API I believe available and people create really neat stuff with it.

Yep! This stuff rocks!

Cool, thanks Shawn, my staff refuse to work lol

Another neat thing to do is ask to find directions in an area that has detailed images. Zoom in to a few hundred feet, then tilt the image. You can then use the controls to do a fly over along the mapped route.

I need that navigation system in my car

I like to explore different countries around the globe I already found Coliseum in Rom, Italy - it actually right in the middle I really liked Rio de Janeiro, Washington DC is pretty cool from the Space, Hawaii, Red Square in Moscow, my hometown in Ukraine, Paris is cool.. I found all the familiar Hotels and Casinos in Vegas I really like the Terrain option especially when you're somewhere in the mountains and move the tilt - very cool. I can't wait to see MSN Virtual Earth live - thay should have kick *** zoom where you can see people

This will be a great tool for anyone who has a real estate site. The consumers that visit your site will now be able to look into a community and the surrounding area and get a feel as to whether they like what they see.

As an agent who has this tool, I can see it helping you waste less time with some consumers driving them around these areas that they would have been unfamilar with just to see if they WERE interested in the area.

This will have a lot of functions for the real estate professional and IMHO this is a must for anyone who is serious about their business on the net.

Because virtually every forum on the planet ran with this yesterday, Google has restricted downloads (well in the uk for certain) Rock on