Google Earth

Google Earth is a downloaded application that via satellite imagery allows users to view maps of the world. Users can look at different terrains, buildings, and even get directions. No part of the world is inaccessible and the real pictures are a unique experience for users. In populated areas, one can even zoom down to street level and look at a 360 degree view of pictures that is similar to driving down the street. Some of the features of Google Earth allow you to locate restaurants, schools, hotels, local attractions, etc. Through these features, one can generally follow links to more information.

After downloading Google Earth, I spent a lot of time familiarizing myself with the applications by searching different locations and experimenting with the different categories of amenities that Google Earth maps for each location. The first location I searched was my house, to see how well the pictures actually are. After that I focused my attention on San Diego, where I will be moving after college. I am currently looking for apartments in the area, so Google Earth was very useful in mapping different buildings in the area. Then I was able to use Google Earth to search for amenities that I would want close to the apartment such as bars and restaurants. It is also very informative in that major landmarks have links to Wikipedia pages so the users can learn more about the area. In order to save locations on Google Earth you must save them as “Placemarks”. Before signing up for the Google Earth Community, which will be done during my next time on the program, I had to read about the Community online which explained how Placemarks are used. For my purposes at this time, I learned how to save Placemarks so I could save the apartment buildings I am interested in.

To find a location in Google Earth, simply put the name or address of the location in the search box and Google Earth will take you to the location and mark it with letters, such as the "A" in this picture. If there is more than one establishment with the name, Google Earth will mark all of them.

This is how Google Earth marks certain amenities in the area, such as bars, restaurants, and hotels. On the left side of the screen you can see some of the types of establishments Google Earth will mark for you.

The Google Earth Community is an online forum where people can talk about different parts of the world via the maps of Google Earth. The locations mentioned in the last post called Placemarks, are the starting point for the forums. Users can either save Placemarks for their personal use or they can make posts for their Placemarks which makes them available to all users on Google Earth. As you would use Google Earth to mark all of the restaurants in a given area, you can also use the program to mark all user posts for their Placemarks. This allows users to post almost anything, such as golf courses, bars, restaurants, their house, etc. They can then right whatever they want in their post, and they are generally something they like about the location, such as a recommendation for a restaurant. Other users can then post responses to these posts; this is how people communicate in the Google Earth Community. You can also access user posts through the online forums and search by topic. For my purposes it was much easier to search by location because I was really only interested in people’s posts about San Diego.

All of the "i" markers are user placemarks that have been saved and have links to their comments about the location.

Today on Google Earth, I am looking at user’s Placemarks in San Diego and getting a feel for what they write about in their posts. I am also looking for posts that may be useful for my purposes of moving to San Diego. In addition, I am also looking at people’s responses to posts to start learning what people talk about so I can begin to make my posts required for the project. Generally what I found in Placemarks, were people putting up interesting information about the area or marking certain features in different cities around the country. For example, in one post (seen below), a user has mapped the trolley routes in downtown San Diego. Users can then use this post to look at the public transportation downtown and where the different stops are. A different user has mapped of the college and pro sports stadiums in the country (seen below). I also explored the forum topics, so I was not only concentrated in one area. There are a lot of very unique and interesting posts that you can find on Google Earth. One of the most interesting I found, was a map of shark attacks in Australia (seen below). I cannot imagine spending the time to do something like this, but it is certainly something interesting to look at.

This user has marked the trolley route in Google Earth. First I went to his placemark, then I went to their post, and then I uploaded the trolley route on the map. Any locations that a user has saved on the map can be uploaded onto Google Earth so you can see what they have added, such as the trolley route in this example.

This user has marked all of the college and pro stadiums in the country.

This user marked all of the shark attacks in Australia with links to information about all of the attacks.

After spending a lot of time in Google Earth and reading user’s posts, I am finally going to make my posts as part of the project. From reading other comments, I found that there were a few common trends in the comments. The comments were either in response to posts that had marked all of a certain commodity. An example of this would be a user that marked all of the golf courses in California. I responded to this post by telling him of some courses he missed. When users make posts such as this, they always ask other users to help fill in any missed locations. Other comments are generally a review or comment from a personal experience at a place. These were found to be the easiest kind of posts for me to make, because I found areas I was familiar with, where I grew up and Madison. For example in Madison, I made posts about the Union, Monday’s, and other local establishments. Another post I found fairly common, where questions asked to users who were familiar with an area. For example, in San Diego, I asked users for restaurant recommendations after that particular user had marked a restaurant he liked. Finally, you get users who are being humorous in their posts, such as users boasting about their sports teams on posts about sports arenas. Generally the different forums do not get a lot of action from users. Most Placemarks only have a few comments on them, if any. Some of the larger posts do have conversing between users, but other than that I would say there are low levels of interaction between members. Most posts are considered updates for Google Earth via landmarks or information about the location.

Google Earth is an amazing application that has many uses. It can be used to plan vacations, moving, research on parts of the world, or pure entertainment. It is a very enticing program that can absorb you for hours with the massive amount of features offered. After having very little prior knowledge about the application, I found the application to be very useful outside of the required work for class and will continue using the program. Google Earth is very easy to use at a basic level and has a small learning curve, making it suitable for almost everyone. I strongly suggest that people make use of this application for personal enjoyment as well as logistical reasons.