I think Google Earth is a cool program, although it's mainly a curiosity with me. I don't have any real need for it other than using it for the occasional diversion to look at some place on the globe. The fly by feature is cool. I know many people use it for cool uses like mapping out routes, hikes, motorcycle rides - as well as commercial applications. All great stuff.

MSN has a nifty online satellite photo web portal which is nice in that you don't have to install a 100GB program like Google. It's called TerraServer. If memory serves, Microsoft has a Google Earth competitor called Virtual Earth, though I don't think it's Mac compatible like Google Earth is.

When I checked my installed Google Earth, it was from July 13, 2006. I probably missed a few updates along the way, but an update was just released 2 days ago.

Download the latest version here.

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