Google Maps
For all those that have heard of (or downloaded)
Google Earth and been disappointed by failure to meet the
requirements, read on.
Google Earth is a wonderful program which allows you to view satellite photographs
of any area of the World. It allows you to rotate the image , zoom in, use 3D
imaging and much more. however, one slight snag is that it requires a P.C. running
at least Windows 2000, prefereably Windows XP. It has other requirements like
400mb of hard drive space, 16mb 3D graphics etc.
So, unless you can match what it needs, you won't be able to run Google Earth.
However, all is not lost. Google also has Google Maps. It doesn't
have all the features that are in google Earth, but its still a very nice tool,
and it doesn't require DirectX or Windows XP.
Simply go to the URL shown in the grab to start.http://earth.google.com/faq.html
Maps allows you to use either the map, satellite or
hybrid. I personally prefer hybrid, giving you the best of all
worlds.
The images shown do depend on how well the area has
been mapped e.g. Edinburgh is particularly bad, but glasgow is super.
Go figure. Here are some of the grabs of Maps in action.
Let's start with London Heathrow Terminals.
This is shown in hybrid format. Let's zoom in now.
Now, that looks a lot nearer, don't you think?
How about Glasgow.........
As I said, it all depends on how well the area has
been photographed.
Anyway, it's yet another way of having a look at
different places, and, don't despair, rumour has it that Google are
beavering away on improvements to Google Earth with many of the
restrictions removed and different operating systems being supported.
