Google Earth is undoubtedly many people’s favorite Web application. Here is an addition to our lives wholly impossible before the advent of the Internet, and it’s only getting bigger and better. Google Earth 5.0 has now arrived and it has added oceans, the ability to time travel, and a new recordable touring feature.

Most of us live relatively sheltered lives, possibly living in our hometowns for the duration, and rarely traveling beyond the borders of our own country. A couple of weeks holiday once a year is usually as much as we manage, whether through choice or a lack of resources. This leaves us at the mercy of atlases, globes, and world news reports for our knowledge of foreign climes.

But Google Earth has changed all of that.

Google is responsible for many innovative features and services, many of which some of us have now grown to rely on on a daily basis. While Google Search is probably rates best for usefulness, Google Earth is right up there when it comes to groundbreaking projects that Google should be applauded for creating.

We’ve now arrived at Google Earth 5.0, which is detailed on the Official Google Blog. There are many new features, with a 3D map of the planet Mars implausibly being the least impressive. As shown in the video below, more important are the additions of the ability to alter time, record journeys, and best of all, the addition of living, breathing oceans.

The new Historical Imagery means Google Earth users now have the ability to alter the timeline while viewing a particular place. They will then see how the landscape has changed over the course of time. This is a nice real-time addition to the Virtual Rome Google introduced last year.

Touring gives users the ability to record journeys and tours they make on Google Earth. Now, flyovers of favorite locations or places you have visited can be recorded, narrated, and then shared with other interested parties.

The addition of Ocean is probably the most important addition for Google Earth 5.0. While Google Earth has always had an ocean of some description, the water that makes up two thirds of the surface of the planet is now no longer just a vast blue expanse. A detailed bathymetric map of the ocean floor has now been added along with videos and images of sea life, surf spots, and the like. For Google Earth to truly represent the planet in virtual 3D, the oceans were a must for inclusion.

Download Google Earth 5.0.

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Entry was posted on Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009 at 4:40 am under Google, Internet, Opinion, Technology.

Read more entries by Dave Parrack.
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