In other words, Google Earth isn’t always updated in real time. If you see a date range, it means the image may be multiple photos merged together in a seamless photo. Google Earth will typically give you a specific date or date range for satellite and aerial photos. You may have even seen those Google cars yourself.

Street View photos are taken by Google Street View cars, which drive around different areas in countries all across the globe and take pictures.

When you zoom in, you will also see Street View photos, which are up-close images of buildings, streets, and landmarks. In addition to satellite pictures, it collects aerial photos from aircraft. Google Earth actually uses a collection of different types of images – it doesn’t rely solely on satellite imagery. Wrapping It Up: What Is The Best Google Earth Alternative?Ībout Google Earth & What’s the need to look for alternatives.About Google Earth & What’s the need to look for alternatives.Stroll the streets of Tokyo, soar over Yosemite, or teleport across the globe. Earth VR - Explore the world from totally new perspectives.

Earth Engine - combines a multi-petabyte catalog of satellite imagery and geospatial datasets with planetary-scale analysis capabilities and makes it available for scientists, researchers, and developers to detect change, map trends, and quantify differences on the Earth's Surface.

Earth Studio - an animation tool for Google Earth's satellite and 3d Imagery.

However, it's not a Geographic Information System (GIS) with the extensive analytical capabilities of ArcGIS or MapInfo, but is much easier to use than those software packages.Īdditional Google Earth applications include: It also offers tools for creating new data layers. Google Earth provides search capabilities and the ability to pan, zoom, rotate, and tilt the view of the Earth. Google Earth for Web is a browser-based version and Google Earth on mobile is an app.Īlthough the browser-based version has a certain ease of use (since it does not have to be installed as a desktop application), there are some limitations to Earth for Web that do not exist with the Google Earth Pro desktop version. Google Earth Pro Desktop is free and available to download for Windows, macOS and Linux systems.

Google earth desktop