How Does Google Earth Work And How Do I Use It?

Answer

To get the most out of this powerful software, here are the main features available for free…

Contents

Find places and use navigation

With Google Earth, you can perform a quick search to easily find a specific address or place by its name. Like Google Maps, you can view real-time road traffic and a list of places near a specific location.

Access lots of global data with layers

Google Earth offers a very rich data set, for example:

geographic and historical information
aerial and satellite images
topographic and climatic maps
road traffic
nature reserves
Information about the local flora and fauna

View images of a place in the past with time lapse

Take a time-lapse video tour of the place you’re interested in to see how it’s changed over time. You can watch the changes from 1984 to today, for example to see:

Stories that show global changes and explain their causes
selected images from places around the world
all your favorite places on the planet

Measure distances and areas

You can measure distances between places and along paths. You can also measure the size of polygons you draw in Google Earth. It is very easy to calculate the area (area) of any area drawn on the screen.

Distance measurements are not always 100% accurate, especially in areas with 3D terrain and buildings. For best results, use Bird’s Eye View mode.

Find the elevation of a place

To measure the elevation of a point using Google Earth web version:

On the map, place the cursor over the point whose elevation you want to measure

At the bottom right, Google Earth shows its altitude

Be careful, you cannot measure the difference in height between two points.

Add your own photos

The workspace allows users to easily change map settings and add locations or images to their own map. Therefore, it is possible to quickly create a personalized presentation containing multiple pieces of information about a specific location.

Use Street View in Google Earth

You can use Street View to explore places more closely. Zoom in to see buildings, landmarks, bridges and more.

Change the background image

In Google Earth it is possible to adjust not only the overlay layers on the map, but also the background directly on the virtual canvas. You can choose between a dark background, a light background or even a high-resolution satellite image for a better visual representation.

See your house in 3D photos

Google Earth allows you to see a house in aerial (or satellite) images, it’s pretty impressive. We can even turn around (by changing orientation), rise in the air or sink to the ground, zoom. We forget privacy…

Choose between 3D and 2D images

Images are 3D by default, but you can use the Map Styles feature to choose between 2D and 3D mode. To switch from 3D buildings to 2D buildings:

On your computer, open the web version of Google Earth.

Click Map Style Map Style in the top left.

Under Enable for 3D Buildings, turn 3D buildings on or off. A blue switch indicates that 3D buildings are enabled.

Mont Saint Michel in Google Earth

Show animated clouds

You can follow the cloudiness of the last 24 hours in a looping animation. Cloud data is updated when new data is available, which is typically hourly. Here’s how:

On your computer, open the web version of Google Earth

Click Map Style in the top left

Scroll down and click Enable Animated Clouds

By default, Google Earth shows stationary clouds. Animated clouds fade and then disappear as you zoom in.

Show latitude and longitude grid

You can turn on gridlines to become familiar with geographic coordinates and find your approximate location on the surface of the earth. Here’s how:

On your computer, open the web version of Google Earth

On the left, click Map Style Map Style

Check the Enable gridlines option

Tip: Turn on gridlines to show the 5 major circles of latitude: Equator, Arctic Circle, Antarctic Circle, Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn, and Prime Meridian.

How do I start using Google Earth?

To explore the world with Google Earth you have several options: either download the app or software or use the Google Earth web (without downloading or installing anything).