Wednesday, September 13, 2006

National Park Service Comes to Google Earth

I've talked about Google Earth before. It's a great piece of software, available for free on PC or Mac that maps out the entire planet and gives you satellite images to explore. Well, a new upgrade rolled out automatically yesterday , has some nice new additions to it, including the ability to see changes to an area over time with a time lapsed slider bar, and a host of new partners providing content and information. One of those partners is the National Park Service, which is now offering information on more than 10,000 trails in 58 different parks around the country. For a hint at what to expect in this new version check out this photo as well as this one.

I already loved Google Earth before this update. It allowed me to quickly find different regions of the world and examine some key features there. But this new verion looks like it could make for a great tool to explore some of the national parks, and plot a trail before ever arriving. I'll have to use this before heading out to Big Bend later this Fall.

Update: You can read more about these updates and how to access them at the Google Earth Blog. I just activated them in my version, along with the new National Geographic and Discovery Channel content.

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