This is one of the best free applications on the internet. In a nutshell, GE shows you the earth in all her glory, natural and manmade - with a fun and intuitive interface.
So, why does the picture show a big crater? Because besides the Earth, GE also will show you the stars, Mars, and the Moon. Did I mention this is all free?
Not to be confused with Google Maps, Google Earth is an installed application available for download. The basic version is free, with the option to pay for the Pro version. But the free version is so good I have only rarely been tempted to pay.
I can't begin to cover all the things that GE can do - you will have to be amazed for yourself. Suffice it to say that if it can be related to a location, you can see it in GE. Besides the fantastic aerial views of the ENTIRE PLANET, there are zillions of overlays that you can download, such as real-time traffic and weather. There are overlays showing details of current events like wars and natural disasters. There are even "sightseeing" tours that will bounce you from one beautiful/ancient/weird landmark to the next. (And as for the bouncing...call me immature, but it still thrills me.)
Google has sucked up an astounding amount of data and sprayed it down in such a fun, intuitive format that I frequently find myself browsing the planet, studying an aerial view of a famous landmark, clicking a user-uploaded panoramic photo of the area, to clicking a link to the restaurant I saw in the photo, to ... Anyway it feels a lot more active than watching TV.
And if you are into making your own adventures, you can easily import waypoints and routes from a GPS. Why not make a Revit or Sketchup model of your house and drop it right into the map to see how that new addition would look in the landscape?
Enough jibber-jabber. Go get Google Earth and get lost.
http://earth.google.com/moon/index.html
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