A Bird's Eye View of the Eiffel Tower from Earth.Google.com

This summer, we had planned to take the kids to Paris, but unfortunately our trip to both France and Spain didn't pan out. Instead we've been treating the girls to many of our favorite French bistros in San Francisco like Chapeau! on Clement, Bistro Clovis in Hayes Valley, Mocca for lunch in Union Square and Hyde Street Bistro and La Folie in Russian Hill. Then along came Earth.Google.com.

On Saturday, after taking in The Farmer's Market at The Ferry Building, we went over to our friend Sarah and Derek's, who own a PC (we're Mac People), and gave the girls a fly by of the Eiffel Tower. The view was fabulous!

The perspective was, in some respects, better than the one we would have gotten had we been there in person. Well, almost.

Google Earth combines satellite imagery, maps and the power of Google Search to put the world's geographic information at your fingertips. It is a broadband, 3D application available free-of-charge on most Windows-based Desktop PCs younger than four years old and on most Windows-based Notebook PCs younger than 2 years.

To see if your computer qualifies, go to:

When Tim asked Sarah and Derek if we could check out Google's new mapping service, they knew exactly what we were talking about.

Cool Flying Feature

Derek had already spent an hour getting a bird's eye view of all the places where he had grown up. He just typed in their exact address and in seconds he was flying overhead -- as if he were Harry Potter on his high-speed broom.

Likewise on Friday, Sarah had spent over two hours with her boss looking over her shoulder as she explored, searched and discovered an entire planet's worth of imagery and other geographic information from her desktop.

On Friday, Sarah, her boss and others in their landscape design office had at least four architecture projects on the docket.

But Google Earth was irresistible.

Their "milestones" would have to wait. The stones and rocks and buildings and trees and landmarks and schools and houses not even a mile above the earth were taking precedence on Friday afternoon.

Derek said to our girls, as they oohed and aahed over the "flying feature":

While you're checking out the Eiffel Tower, you've gotta see The Grand Canyon. You'd think you were flying overhead in a private helicopter.

An Image of The Grand Canyon from Google Earth

Not only did we check out The Grand Canyon, we flew over Peter Forsberg's hometown of Ornskoldsvik, Sweden (called "The Big O" or "Modo Hockey Town" by our kids), which is also the home of our adopted Swedish daughters Malin and Lena Edmark. It's just too bad they couldn't see us waving from above.

You've heard of a "cheap date" before? Some might call Google Earth "the cheapest window view of earth on earth."

Google has taken their freeware version of Keyhole, an easy-to-navigate local interface for Google Maps 3-D satellite digital imagery, and revamped it.

Where MapQuest overlays on an ordinary map, Google Earth overlays on satellite-created digital images of the Earth's actual surface.

The bird's eye view of major metropolitan areas like San Francisco, New York, London and Madrid is spectacular.

If you love buildings, check out the checkbox "3d Buildings" in the "layers" pallet when you're on Google Earth. You get 3d wire-frame images of San Francisco's City Hall and other major buildings. The software lets you spin and rotate around the buildings. You can pan and tilt the landscape. And you can even zoom in and "fly" between the structures.

After typing in your desired address or key landmark into the search box, go to the "layers" box in the application's left-hand rail, and you can overlay road names, restaurants, parks, schools, churches, airports, railroads, etc. Some of your destinations you'll be able to see clearly. Others look like you're flying thousands of feet overhead.

For a landscape architect, this is "heaven."

Sarah and her boss can clearly chalk up their two hours as "project research."

If they really want to get serious about it, Google Earth Enterprise Solutions offers a $20 and $400 version.

Google Earth Plus

For $20, Google Earth Plus is an optional upgrade adding GPS device support, the ability to import spreadsheets, drawing tools and better printing.

An Image from Google Earth Plus

Google Earth Pro

For $400, Google Earth Pro offers professionals the ultimate research, presentation and collaboration tool for local information.

You can even import site plans, property lists and client sites. And you can easily share the address with your client or co-worker.

An Image from Google Earth Pro

Currently, Google offers a 7-day free trial on Google Earth Pro.

All I can say is I'm glad I'm a Mac Person.

Otherwise, Tim and I would be playing with this new toy way too often.

Having just finished award-winning journalist, Thomas Friedman's new Summer 2005 must-read, The World Is Flat, Tim said, "Here's a plethora of illustrations for Friedman that proves just how connected we really are. He would love this."

If you've got a young and powerful enough PC, check out http://earth.google.com and have fun in France, England, California, New York, or wherever on earth you'd like to go this summer.

Thanks to Sarah and Derek's graciousness, we got to give our girls a trip to Paris, after all. A virtual trip, of course.

Thanks Google for the free ride!

Inspire & Be Inspired.

Here's to healthy, adventuresome, soulful, "gaining a new perspective after reaching your virtual destination" living!

~ Jennifer Carolyn King, Rugged Elegance, LLC