It's amazing that it's free. I had been making due with Google Maps lately. It gives one access to the satellite information and Street View via the simple, browser interface. In fact I didn't even have a copy of Google Earth, its more complete cousin, on my most primary computer used at home. I had, of course, fallen in love with the power of the latter many times over the last five or six years.
I was running into the fact one cannot rotate within Maps. I wanted to face the shoreline and come it at a low angle, I realized I'd need to download version 6 of Earth should I want to do this. With each iteration, the program gets more and more powerful. One can hit a button and a sunlight slider appears which allows you to see how the present orientation will receive the day's light. There seems to be so much more packed into the application.
It is monumental software feats such as Earth which just rekindled my gratitude for Google as a company. If it were run by Microsoft it would still look like the 1990's. On the other hand, if it were owned by Apple then it would only be available via iTunes at $0.99 per view.
