Taking a Quick Tour of Google Earth

Now that you know how to get around in Google Earth, let's take a quick tour.

Anytime you start Google Earth, the view defaults to the extended zoom of the planet Earth, focused on the continent of North America. This is a great place to start because you can get just about anyplace you want from here.

Let's start by panning east (to the right) until we focus on Europe. Click the right-arrow button to spin the Earth around until Africa appears, and then click the up-arrow button until Europe is centered onscreen, as shown in Figure 20.3.

Figure 20.3. The Google Earth globe panned east and north, to focus on Europe.

The only problem with this view is that Europe is tilted in relation to due north; when we panned to the right from North America, we didn't actually spin the globe on its north-south axis. We can fix this problem by clicking the Rotate Right button, or (even better) by clicking the Reset North button. The resulting view is shown in Figure 20.4.

Figure 20.4. The globe rotated so that due north is straight up.

Next, we want to zoom into the map. Click the Zoom In button (or use the zoom slider control) until France fills up the screen, as shown in Figure 20.5. Now use a combination of zooming and panning until you see the city of Paris, as shown in Figure 20.6.

Figure 20.5. Zooming in on France.

Figure 20.6. Zooming in on Paris.

By now you've noticed the big pushpin (called a placemark) that's labeled Eiffel Tower and Trocadero, Paris, France. In Google Earth, you use placemarks to mark specific places (no surprise); you zoom into a given location by double-clicking the placemark, either on the map or in the Places pane. Do that now, for the Eiffel Tower placemark, and you'll zoom into the view shown in Figure 20.7.

Figure 20.7. Zooming in to the Eiffel Tower placemark.

Now for some fun. Start by zooming in a little closer, and then click the Tilt Down button a few times. What you get now is a bird's eye view of the bridge and the city beyond, as shown in Figure 20.8.

Figure 20.8. A birds-eye view of Paris.

Next, rotate around and zoom in a little more until you're looking down the bridge. As you can see in Figure 20.9, you can make out individual cars on the bridgepretty neat!

Figure 20.9. An even closer view, looking down the bridge.

And, to demonstrate how easy it is to navigate directly to placemarked locations, go to the Places pane and double-click the Google Campus placemark. After a dizzying spin-and-turn around the globe, you'll see the Googleplex appear, as shown in Figure 20.10. Feel free to zoom in and see exactly what Google's world headquarters looks likeup close and personal!

Figure 20.10. A Google Earth view of Google's worldwide headquarters.