Google has released a new beta of its popular Google Earth application, which combines mapping and satellite imagery with Google searching and online community tools to create a powerful view of the planet.
The new version of Google Earth featured a streamlined user interface with emmbedded navication (which fades out of sight when not being used), reorganized layers (roads, terrain, borders, population centers, etc.) which can be reorganized and filtered to match users’ particular interests. The new beta also adds “textured” 3-D buildings (which, if you ask us, might be going a little too far towards turning the real world into a video game, but hey: we’re old school). Users can create their own textured models for buildings using Google Sketchup (available for Windows 2000/XP and Mac OS X), a 3-D drawing application. Google Earth is also smarter about downloading datasets (so performance no longer slows to a crawl when visiting particularly data-intensive areas), and Google Earth is now available in French, Italian, German, and Spanish. And, for the first time, Google Earth is available for Linux.
Three versions of Google Earth are available: a free version, Google Earth Plus with GPS support, the ability to import spreadsheets, and better drawing tools, and Google Earth Pro, intended as a research, presentation, and collaboration tool for professional and commercial users.
At the same time, Google Earth made a little bit of news on the legal front, with a Massachusetts judge refusing to grant Skyline Software Systems an injunction barring the sale or distribution of Google Earth. Skyline is currently suing Google, claiming Google Earth infringes on Skyline patents. The suit was originally filed against Keyhole, the company which originally developed what would become Google Earth. When Google acquired Keyhole in October 2004, Skyline added Google to its infringement claim.
Google’s lawyers were able to successfully argue that, given the amount of time Skyline has permitted to elapse between the release of Google Earth and Skyline’s request for an injunction, Skyline couldn’t argue the availability of Google Earth was causing the company irreparable harm. The judge agreed
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