San Francisco – Following the recent launch of its Google Earth for mobile users a couple of months ago that presented the nifty tour guide feature and 3D imagery capabilities to iOS and Android, and now Google this week updated Google Earth, which brings the 3D imagery including a virtual tour guide designed to highlight interesting places around the world.
The newly released features allow users to view cities in 3D, which now includes Boston, Rome, Munich, and San Francisco, along with 17 other cities, in addition to the virtual touring possibilities of over 11,000 faraway places from the comfort of their handheld. And, as of today, those features are now available on the Google Earth 7 desktop application.
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Google said its 3D flyover virtual tours guide feature of the latest version will give you thumbnails of locations in a given area for which Google has prepared guided tours, but you can now enjoy them on a bigger screens by downloading the new version of Google Earth to your desktop. Simply go to a part of the planet you are interested in, and Google will highlight any available tours in that region.
“The tour guide feature serves as a local expert, suggesting nearby places you might want to explore and helping you learn about those locations,” says Google Earth product manager Peter Birch. “For whichever area you are viewing in Google Earth, thumbnails highlighting pre-created tours in the same area will dynamically update at the bottom of the screen.”
The moment you click on one of the tours, Google Earth will take you through a virtual 3D flyover of those famous locations, with cultural sites and locations of historical significance highlighted, including popular attractions like the Grand Canyon, Eiffel Tower, and St. Peter’s Basilica. The tours, which show up as thumbnail images underneath the map view, suggest nearby places worth exploring and offer relevant information.
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{japopup type=”image” content=”/images/stories/demo/2012/nov/tour-guide-tab-big.png” width=”700″ height=”380″ title=”image” }Virtual tours in Google Earth 7… Image Credit: (Google) Click to enlarge…{/japopup}
Besides, this update also include an educational and fun facts from Wikipedia that appears on the screen as you fly in and around locations like the Great Wall of China, Stonehenge, and more.
Apparently, this refurbished version, besides being blended with 3D imagery for a bunch of places that thus far have been enjoyed only by Android and iOS users: Boulder, Colo.; Boston; Charlotte, N.C.; Denver; Lawrence, Kan.; Long Beach, Calif.; Los Angeles; Portland, Ore.; San Antonio, Texas; San Diego; Santa Cruz, Calif.; Seattle, Tampa, Fla.; Tucson, Ariz.; Rome, and the San Francisco Bay Area (including the Peninsula and East Bay).
Interestingly, the 11,000 tours are not limited just to our planet – you can also explore Mars, the Moon, or a variety of Hubble Space Telescope images. And as of today, you can now also see 3D imagery for Avignon, France; Austin, Texas; Munich; Phoenix, Ariz.; and Mannheim, Germany.
Google previously updated the desktop version of Google Earth just at the beginning of this year to make its imagery more lifelike and realistic. And according to the post, “The experience of flying through these areas and seeing the buildings, terrain, and even the trees rendered in 3D is now consistent across both mobile and desktop devices – making all of your virtual travels more realistic than ever,” Google’s Birch said in a blog post.
Now the mobile and desktop versions are synced. Using these features on your laptop or desktop is much nicer than using a mobile. In particular, the 3D city imagery, when viewed on a large monitor or HDTV, are pretty phenomenal, with crisp details and definition. You can get the new features by updating your current installation, or by downloading Google Earth 7 from the Google Earth website.
The latest version of Google Earth 7 can be downloaded for Mac, PC, or Linux here.
Here is an example for Rome that showcases the ancient Coliseum and the Tiber river:
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