How to Use Google Earth Online Without Downloading

Google Earth is one of the best ways to check the places through Satellite view. This article will help you to use Google Earth online without downloading.

Google Earth was the brainchild of Google and was introduced in the Market in the year 2004 and was originally called Earthviewer3D. It maps the Earth by superimposing a series of images obtained from various geographic perception models and methods like satellite imagery, aerial photography and to give us a detailed and comprehensive view of features of the earth, be it roads, houses, geographic features like lakes, mountains, rivers, valleys, etc.

Moreover, we can use this information effectively for various research related and commercial purposes . It was introduced under three separate heads and licenses, two of which are:

• Google Earth, a free version with restrained number of functions;
• Google Earth Plus which was discontinued later on, but which included additional features and introduced Google Earth Pro, which is a purchasable product and is intended for business and high-end professional purposes.

However in order to get a view of Google Earth images, a few years back, one would have to download the Google Earth software, which wasn’t a light-weight software by any standards . But now after Google started combining Google maps with Earth products, Google earth has become available to all Google Map users, without actually having to download the software.

To use the 3D imagery in Google Maps, you will need the Google Earth plug-in application, which anyone can now put to use, and the installation information for which is readily available online. The Google Earth plugin is a free beta application, available for any web site that does not charge any fee like Google Earth Pro.

However, it is a free service for consumers. Plug-in and its Java script version allow users to accommodate a version of Google Earth into web pages allowing online customers to use Earth without downloading it. It does not include all the qualities of the full Google Earth Application but allows effective 3D map applications to be modelled and built.

There is also a new “Earth” tab on Google Maps, right next to the Satellite and Map tabs, which gives you instant access to Google Earth, online, removing you from the hassle to download Google Earth.

The Google Earth Plug-in is currently available for several operating systems and web browsers such as Apple Mac OS X 10.4 and higher (Intel and PowerPC), Firefox 3.0+, Safari 3.1+, Google Chrome 1.0+, Microsoft Windows 2000, seven,  XP, Internet Explorer 6.0+, Vista, and Flock 1.0+, Firefox 2.0+, etc.

This plug-in allows the  layers of Roads, terrains, buildings, borders and 3-d buildings and though this restricts the nature of your viewing to fewer number of features, it’s quite an achievement for Google maps to integrate the features of Google Earth, without having to download the software.

There is one other option of using Google earth online without having to download it first and that is to use wikimapia.org, which also combines, like Google maps, the products of Google earth and Google maps together in a single framework. So enjoy the twin benefits of Google maps now online and free of cost!