Google Earth: The Best Show on Earth
- added June 19, 2008
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What links a 14-stone mastiff from Bournemouth, my parents' sun umbrella, a Chinese military base and a 87,500-square-foot image of fast-food mascot Colonel Sanders laid out in the Nevada desert? The answer is that they can all be seen by anyone on the planet, without leaving their desk, thanks to the miracle of Google Earth.
Google Earth, and its sister product Google Maps, offer an interactive map of the world, stitched together from aerial and satellite footage licensed from bodies such as Nasa and various private companies (the shots of Britain are mostly around two years old). You start with a bird's-eye view of your home nation, then zoom in and in, looking for details that catch the eye.
It's a marvelous toy, which is perhaps why it's been downloaded more than 400 million times. But it has been put to some pretty weird uses. People hunt out the bizarre and unusual: a naked sunbather in Holland, a town fountain shaped like a swastika in Belgium.
They manipulate the scenery to advertise or amuse: the KFC painting in Nevada, the giant penis marked out in weedkiller on a Pennsylvania sports pitch, or the oversized obscenities scrawled on a Scottish hayfield and a Russian roof.
Google Earth, and its sister product Google Maps, offer an interactive map of the world, stitched together from aerial and satellite footage licensed from bodies such as Nasa and various private companies (the shots of Britain are mostly around two years old). You start with a bird's-eye view of your home nation, then zoom in and in, looking for details that catch the eye.
It's a marvelous toy, which is perhaps why it's been downloaded more than 400 million times. But it has been put to some pretty weird uses. People hunt out the bizarre and unusual: a naked sunbather in Holland, a town fountain shaped like a swastika in Belgium.
They manipulate the scenery to advertise or amuse: the KFC painting in Nevada, the giant penis marked out in weedkiller on a Pennsylvania sports pitch, or the oversized obscenities scrawled on a Scottish hayfield and a Russian roof.
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