Google Earth 5: Brief Tutorial and Review - Finding Useful Content with Google Earth

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Google includes interfaces for all of its popular products in Google Earth 5. For example, you can find video content in YouTube that is relevant to the area you are exploring. These are shown as YouTube icons in the satellite images.

Not only videos, but Wikipedia content is used to describe the map location in details. To read the content, simply mouse over the Wikipedia icon on the map and then click to read the content.

If you are interested in finding content relating to Earth sciences, you can find it by hovering and then clicking on the NASA icon. These are pictures taken from outer space; many have even been taken by astronauts.

As usual, if you do not have any idea where to look for relevant content in Google Earth, you can always use the search function. Google Earth 5's search function is user-friendly. All you need to do is type the location in the search box, and then Google Earth automatically zooms in to the actual location.

Aside from uses we discussed above (i.e. finding and reading content), there are several features in the new release that help you find substantial information relating to the location under study:

• Images – Look for the camera icons in the map. To view the map, all you need to do is mouse over the camera icon and then click it.
  
• Capital of a Nation - Look for the star icon in the map. This is very useful if you are a geography student or a tourist needing to know the capital of the country you are visiting. 
  
• Big Cities within Countries – Look for the red circle icons.
  
• Geographical North – The good thing about Google Earth is that you can rotate the globe while not losing the direction of True North. This helps you to easily find locations on the map.

For this last feature, use the compass toolbar on the upper most right side of the Google Earth 5 screen. See screen shot below:

Use the compass arrows to change to orientation of true north

One of the more important things you can discover using Google Earth is a highly accurate distance between two locations. This is possible by using ruler tools in Google Earth. To use the ruler, simply click “Tools” and then “Ruler.” You need to select the measurement unit that you prefer. You can select units such as miles, kilometers or even meters and other standard measurements.

After selecting the measurement, click on the first location and then on the second location; the ruler will automatically compute the distance between the two locations.

For example, suppose you need to find the linear distance between Paris, France and Berlin, Germany. First click on Paris, France and then click on Berlin, Germany. It will give a linear distance of around 879 kilometers.

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