Tried Google Earth - wow!
 

I recently downloaded the new Google Earth photo mapping system. Way cool. Not only can you zoom into anywhere with satelite imagery, but then try hitting the "tilt" button to put it into 3D perspective to see the elevation effects. You can fly it along - I took a tour of the Grand Canyon, for example. Buildings sometimes come out a little odd in tilt mode (try the Eiffel Tower), but still, a worthy complement to Fodors addiction.

It is at earth.google.com

Woo Hoo! I downloaded it too--the site was busy other times I've tried to do it...

It's beyond cool! I inputted our address and though it was a few houses off, I could see my neighbor's car in the driveway--that's how close it can zoom in.

I put in my mother's address and there was the gray house I grew up in with the neighborhood tennis courts showing clear as day.


I'm going to try playing around in Australia and Italy next--I may never get another thing done!

if someone is standing on the street, will you see them too?

I could actually look at our pool at our last Texas house and see the spa--that's pretty detailed!

Looking at DH's last hotel, there was a big plane sitting at the end of the runway. It's still there. Stuck :D The skylights we had installed in our casita showed up.

Eiffel Tower looks like a shadow.

Oops...there's a shark off Clearwater Beach!! jk

It took me a while to find the zoom button...there is one, which brings you in much closer.

I was amazed....but I did notice it was a house or two off. I could see my parents' car parked in the driveway!

I found Rainbow Bridge National Monument at Lake Powell and Delicate Arch in Arches National Park. It's AWESOME!

Utahtea

me too! so cool. i've been on it all morning. the beach house is even there!

For whatever reason, all I'm getting is a standard Google page. Clicking on maps doesn't offer anything more than a text map. No aerial photos... Any tips?

Too cool, curmudgeon. Thanks for the tip.

fehgeddaboudit,

Download it from http://earth.google.com.

What am I doing wrong?!?!? I've downloaded it, but have tried two addresses and it's so blurry I can barely make anything out. I can see some of the overall shape of my neighborhood, but only because there are three lakes in it that show up as dark spots. I can't see the cemetery nearby or the freeway, let alone a car in my driveway. It's just one big mass of green with a few dark spots.

Does anyone else see it this way, or is there a setting I need to change?

A fantastic program! A few comments:

1. Some areas are photographed in much better resolution than others -- it's more or less hit or miss. I can see a truck parked in my driveway but it's very fuzzy; I can see the shadows of people walking in a local outside mall. The Grand Canyon is awesome at close range, and so is Rome, Sorrento, etc. But when I went to southern coastal NC and to Lake Como (Italy, again), the images were drastically blurry beginning from a rather high altitude. It just depends -- suburbs of major cities are usually fairly sharp, more rural places less so.

2. I wish each image were marked with date and time, but it's clear that some were taken toward sunset, some more toward noon; some in the fall or winter, some in the summer. It's pretty random but soooooooo much fun!

3. I believe that there's a US regulation that says an error must be built in to such imaging for the general public so that it's not as accurate as whatever Pentagon or intelligence has, which would explain why every address I tried (I tried a dozen or so) was off by a few houses or so.

4. Be sure to tinker with zooming in and out, the tilt function, and double-clicking on new locations to watch it rotate the area itself. But be aware that the overlay functions ("airports, hotels, etc.") is even less useful than MapQuest, and less accurate.

I am also finding that alot of places I zoom in on are fuzzy and I can't zoom as close as anyof you all seem to be able to do. Help. What am I doing wrong?
Thanks for the headsup on the site>
AM

I am curious, does anyone know how up to date these images are? My house was built in 1994 but on the google satelite image it is not there.
A.M.

I think it differs widely when the images were shot. For example, I looked for a friend's 3 yr. old house and it still showed undeveloped land but when I looked for World Trade Center, NYC I could see Ground Zero (very interesting photo, BTW)

Oh, one more thing: If an entire image is blurry, give it several seconds to focus. (and know you can zoom in only so far--ie you're not going to see house numbers or license plates but you'll see other bigger features. I could see my patio, for example)

It must just be that the areas I've tried to see (all in Michigan) don't have high-res photos. I've given them plenty of time to come into focus, and am not trying to zoom in far. I can't even tell that there are houses in the neighborhood, let alone tell which one is mine. And the neighborhood is 50+ years old, so I don't think the photos were taken before the land was developed. ;)

Downloaded it and it made everything oooh so slow. Had to remove it. Very interesting images. Looked at my house by the water and it shows the roof before it was replaced -- the roof was replaced in 2000. Some of these images must be quite dated.

A really fun and interesting site. Thanks.

Great program, thanks for the heads-up. You need a fairly up-to-date computer and high speed access for it to work well. That may explain why some people are having problems with the speed and resolution.