Google Earth: just what America needs?

Just trying Google Earth, and it’s amazing – the Keyhole guys who developed it are brilliant. NASA has something similar but it’s a 170MB download and extremely slow: Google’s offering is as far from World Wind as Burt Rutan’s cheapo spacecraft are from the overpriced, overcomplex Shuttle. Spin the globe, zoom in (with unnerving smoothness), see your city (only a few there as yet, but London’s on the map) and even see individual buildings. Look at your street from above, starting from space.
And when it comes to integrating the app with the rest of the Googlesphere, the guys once again execute. Maps, driving directions, and local services are all available at a click, turning it from gimmick into application. This Earth app may well tie together everything Google does, an operating system for the planet’s whole stock of info.

But there’s something bigger going on here. When Americans see just what a small part of the earth their country covers – smaller than Canada, not that much bigger than Europe, and with only 3% of the world’s population – perhaps it’ll change their perceptions. Perhaps they’ll look up Iraq, and see just how small and frail it is. Perhaps they’ll spin to China, and see how far away it is and what a vast and varied area it covers. Perhaps they’ll look at the poles, see how they’ve shrunk, and how their own lifestyle is connected to it.

One day, and not too far away, this data and the information around it will be seamless and 3D, and you’ll be able to fly a virtual plane around the globe, see the rainbow of civilisation in all its wonderful diversity, from the richness of the rainforest to the electric neon nights of Asian cities. It’ll be a great place to be, as information layer after information layer gets laid over it, the big-picture stuff of satellite imagery and weather patterns given commercial backing by small-scale services like the nearest cinema. It already does GPS.

It’s an application for the whole of Earth, but in the early years most of its users will be inside US borders. So perhaps Google Earth can make America look at itself with more critical eyes, and see its place in the world in better context. And that can only be a good thing.