I am continually amazed at how advanced our mapping technology is via the internet. It seems like every time I pay a visit to google maps, they have developed a new and closer way of getting directions.
There are now five different subcategories you can click on: map, street view, satellite, terrain, and traffic. I could spend hours typing in addresses and finding my house or neighborhood, or other familiar places. Especially with the new street view option which literally allows you to do a 360 from the address you entered. Incredible!
When I went to Belgium with my boyfriend for Christmas break, we used his iPhone religiously to get around the city and the country. iPhone has the google map icon which is just a click away and then you can do the same things as you would on the computer. Had we not had the iPhone, the trip could have been a disaster. Especially in a foreign country where we weren’t exactly fluent in French…
the first time i saw google earth was a couple of years ago, when it wasn’t that developed. at that point i couldn’t see my house, and now i can, for example. i started playing with it and found out that the satellite image of places in irak and iran (among others) was clearer and with a much better quality than the images of any other country. so i was scared and stopped playing. it wasn’t a game anymore. besides that, yes, it is useful when you want to get around or show people where you live or have been.
I think you bring up a very good point about how mapping technology has impacted our lives. While I do not use google earth very much for navigation, I heavily rely on the use of the GPS unit in my car (especially this summer when I was trying to navigate my way around Fort Lauderdale and Miami). Mapping technology such as Google Earth and GPS units have made foreign places more accessible…no more getting lost!