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Google unveiled on Wednesday their
latest version of Google Earth, which incorporates a more realistic, 3D model
of the world. “Google Earth 4.3 adds more realistic, real-world data so users
have more ways to discover and explore all the interesting features the world
has to offer,” the company said in the announcement.
The new navigation system isn’t
confusing anymore, Peter Birch, Product Manager of Google Earth said in a blog,
and now includes a brand new zoom control and the “look” joystick. The “pan” joystick
will allow users to follow the ground in a realistic manner, as if they were
walking on it.
“We spent a lot of time
rethinking how users interact with 3D data. We realized that when in outer
space and far above the ground, you really want standard map-like controls that
allow you to pan and zoom smoothly,” said Birch.”However, if you want to get
down to the ground and check out a city street, you really want a street-level
navigation mode like you’d typically find in a video game.”
Google Earth now also includes
photo-realistic models for dozens of cities, including Tokyo, Munich or Boston,
while they’ve also enhanced rendering 3D data for better performance and
realism, the same blog notes.
The most important and highly expected
feature, Street View, is also a part of Google Earth as of Wednesday, by using the
PhotoOverlay feature in KML 2.2.
At the same time, Google
improved its language feature to a total of 26 languages in Google Earth 4.3. The latest additions are: Danish, English (UK), Spanish (Latin American),
Finnish, Hebrew, Indonesian, Norwegian, Portuguese (PT), Romanian, Swedish,
Thai and Turkish.
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