[jambutty]

First we had “Up My Street” - http://www.upmystreet.com/ - and “Multimap” - http://www.multimap.com/ - to help us get around the country and then along came Google Maps - http://maps.google.com/ - that did the job better with a satellite image of the land where you could see actual buildings and even cars on the road and in some cases a tiny dot on a pavement that can only be a person walking.

And now we have Google Earth - http://earth.google.com/ - which wipes the floor of the others and for free too. You can upgrade to Google Earth Plus for $20 annual subscription or go for the ‘Pro’ version at a staggering $400. But you do get a 7 days free trial.

Whereas the original three were accessible via your browser Google Earth is a programme that you download from - http://earth.google.com/ - (For Mac users - http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/20124).

If you don’t want Google as your default search option or the Google Toolbar then untick the ticked boxes.

Then install it and fly around the world. There is no truth in the rumour that you have to sing “Come Fly With Me” whilst doing so.

N.B. The free version of Google Earth, Google Earth Plus and Google Earth Pro all share the same imagery database. Purchasing Google Earth Plus will not improve the resolution and age of the imagery; however, you will get additional capabilities and features. $20? Hmmmm! I might just splash out. After all bread and water for a week can’t be all that bad.

So how good is Google Earth? Well once you expand the UK in the window, search for BB33AU. The programme will zoom in onto Holden Fold in Darwen. On Holden Fold you will see some parked cars. One blue car (just underneath the word Fold) has some faint white markings around it. These are the marking of a disabled bay and the car is mine.

As you move your cursor around, in the bottom left hand corner you will see the longitude and latitude of where the cursor is and in the bottom right hand corner your viewing height.

For example, my flat covers the ground from 2 degrees 27’23.03 W to 2 degrees 27’23.47 W and 53 degrees 42’12.02 N to 53 degrees 42’12.53 N.

If you ‘fly ’ down to Portsmouth naval dockyard you can see warships tied up along the dockside, boats and ships in the harbour going who knows where. You get to see a “Tall Ship” and of course HMS Victory and people walking around, except that they are not moving.

You get odd glitches like a tag pointing to the Royal Naval Museum in the water. But hey! It’s free.

The images that you see are not “REAL TIME” images but were taken sometime after April 2006. How do I know? I got that car in April 2006 and the one before was red and it has been the same picture since early 2007.

It gets a bit blurry at maximum zoom but what do you expect for free?