Google Earth Pro Now Available Free 117
HughPickens.com writes Google has long offered a Pro version of Google Earth for $399 per year that includes some pretty cool extras not found in the free version. Now Rick Broida reports at Cnet that you can get Google Earth Pro absolutely free. All you have to do is download the installer, run it, then sign in using your e-mail address (as your username) and license code GEPFREE. Features include: Advanced measurements: Measure parking lots and land developments with polygon area measure, or determine affected radius with circle measure; High-resolution printing: Print images up to 4,800 x 3,200 pixel resolution; Exclusive pro data layers with Demographics and traffic count; Spreadsheet import: Ingest up to 2,500 addresses at a time, assigning place marks and style templates in bulk; and Movie-Maker: Export Windows Media and QuickTime HD movies, up to 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution. If you've ever been involved in a property dispute, you'll know how acrimonious they can get. Google Earth Pro includes parcel data that definitively defines property boundaries. "Do you really need this? Probably not, as Pro was created with business/enterprise users in mind," writes Broida. "Let's be honest, [Google Earth Pro has] entertainment value that's virtually impossible to measure."
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The "GEPFREE" password wasn't announced, and there were issues with the licensing site
Free?! (Score:1)
That can only mean they're going to kill it as a money loser.
Free?! (Score:1)
Between this, and the deprecation of Google Maps Engine (http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2015/01/google-maps-engine-deprecated.html), its pretty obvious that Google has decided to exit the enterprise geospatial market. They've never really succeeded in this market; it makes sense to focus engineering efforts where they can succeed.
Re:Free?! (Score:4, Insightful)
If their product wasn't crushing you at $400, it won't crush you at free.
$400 is not a lot of money for the enterprise market, I'm shocked it was so cheap.
Re:Free?! (Score:5, Insightful)
High-priced products are a corporatist conspiracy.
Free products are a corporatist conspiracy.
This is starting to sound like when the Church of Warminetics predicts that carbon warming will cause flooding and droughts.
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Scientists are not the ones who predict flooding and drought at the same time. Political activists acting in their name do.
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Of course, but that's not what the Church of Warminetics predicts. It predicts that the world will be devastated by drought and by flood at the same time.
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They're opening the gates on Google Earth Pro, as it's stuck in the middle between Google Earth and Google Earth EC (Enterprise Client). Those who need enterprise features go with EC, and those who don't can now save high-res maps, which makes us happy.
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and those in the us can go to the usgs national map viewer and download high res orthoimagery (aerial imagery modified to the correct coordinates unlike google earth) for most of the us for free already. and it includes other interesting data sets like elevation, ground cover etc.
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Utility (Score:5, Interesting)
Common usage combined with other services can, for example, create self-aware communities, allow public input for city planning, resolve boundary arguments, help individuals planning to, for example, install a swimming pool, and provide data for planning crop layouts.And that's just off the top of my very non-expert head. I think the implications of this are far broader than may be immediately recognized.
Re:Utility (Score:4, Interesting)
I was able to prove out just now that the speed hump my friend in highschool's parents had the city put in front of their house isn't justified - the neighborhood street in front of our house had way more traffic and was only half a mile from them.
Re:Utility (Score:4, Informative)
I was able to prove out just now that the speed hump my friend in highschool's parents had the city put in front of their house isn't justified - the neighborhood street in front of our house had way more traffic and was only half a mile from them.
Speed humps aren't justified at all, but the justification used is that they make people slow down, not that they make them choose another route. One ways make people choose another route. Speed humps just make people buy crossovers. Then they can comfortably drive over them at speed, and the only people who suffer are people who don't buy cars which are excessively tall.
Hyperbole (Score:5, Funny)
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Like there is a google of it.
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Like there is a google of it.
Googol.
Just FYI, it does work. (Score:2, Informative)
I did a malware scan (3 common engines) on the file and it checks out, the thing works for free.
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Agree, I just spent about 30 minutes cruising around some sites overseas I was not able to see as clearly with online Maps.google.com
Put me in a good mood. It's really nice and I appreciate someone putting the link in the summary.
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I did a malware scan (3 common engines) on the file and it checks out, the thing works for free.
Well, I'm not touching that one with a ten foot pole.
If you've ever been involved in a property dispute, you'll know how acrimonious they can get.
The way it's worded, it looks like it's bait for the Palestinians or the North Koreans to install.
parcel data that definitively unreliable (Score:4, Interesting)
parcel data that definitively defines property boundaries.
BOGUS statement.
As soon as I downloaded this I zoomed in on the area
I live in (somewhere in N. Galveston CO. , Texas)
and saw immediately the property lines were wrong.
Not by a small margin either. All property lines along
the road I live along were shifted by offset of around 20 to 30 feet.
A further look at neighboring streets showed similar
offsets.
In the linked article to the story the blog clown stated
this wondrous GM Pro could cheaply solve property disputes (or words to that effect).
Yah, right. Nope. Might cause trouble but not a tool to cheaply determine property boundaries.
Unreliable, therefor useless.
Anyone else care to check theirs? I imagine it varies region to region how useful it is but bottom line if wrong in this area it is most likely wrong in other far flung areas.
Re: parcel data that definitively unreliable (Score:5, Informative)
The truth is that the definitions of the property boundaries are exactly accurate, i.e., 100' N/S and 50' E/W. The issue is that how the surface features interact with those property boundaries is only an approximation.
I work daily with this using a GIS systems. We have a custom-crafted map where an expert spent a lot of time doing what's called "rubber-sheeting", meaning stretching and squeezing the photo layer to make it line up as closely as possible with the lot lines layer, and it's still plus or minus a few feet, more than enough to preclude using it to settle a property dispute.
The ONLY way to settle a boundary dispute is to hire a surveyor. Be precise in what you want, you want a boundary line located, you do NOT want a "survey" which is more more complicated and much more expensive.
Go cheap, lose your property (Score:1)
So, in other words, if I'm having a property dispute especially one involving the court system, I DO want a survey. When court is involved, the person who's being cheap is the one who tends to lose. Ask all those people who thought they were smart enough to defend themselves in court, or who thought the court-provided lawyer was actually going to do anything.
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So, in other words, if I'm having a property dispute especially one involving the court system, I DO want a survey. When court is involved, the person who's being cheap is the one who tends to lose. Ask all those people who thought they were smart enough to defend themselves in court, or who thought the court-provided lawyer was actually going to do anything.
You want a surveyor to be involved in ANY property issue, whether it goes to court or not. If you want to build a fence, remove a tree near a lot line, whatever, you should have a thorough survey done to know where your boundary lines are for your property, if one hasn't been done before you bought the property. Surveyors have centimeter or less accuracy GPS units and can tell you EXACTLY where your lot lines (and corners) are within that accuracy. We've never had that level of accuracy before GPS and it ha
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spot on for me in BFE Wisconsin.
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Re: parcel data that definitively unreliable (Score:1)
My experience in the engineering field is that GE parcel boundaries are crap and never used. Even the parcel boundaries obtained from ESRI databases are not trusted. Instead the ESRI boundaries are used as approximate to determine if a property owner may be affected by a project.
If exact boundaries are needed, a the only way to identify a boundary is by having a surveyor go out and mark the boundaries in question. All other sources are "cartoons", as a local surveyor likes to put it.
On another note about po
Re: parcel data that definitively unreliable (Score:5, Informative)
Re: parcel data that definitively unreliable (Score:4, Informative)
" Then look in amazement as your 120 foot property line is actually 118.5 feet on the map"
Even surveyors can be off by that much, I've seen surveys in the 80s that when resurveyed with modern equipment the surveyor has to note on his map something to the effect of "Measured: 121.51' Recorded as: 119.2'". That said you are very right using electronic parcel maps for "definitive property boundaries" is completely idiotic. They can be a good reference depending on how they were built but it will be a LONG time (think a century or so) before there is any chance of them being used for property boundary determination.
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Mine in VA shows up shifted about 3-4 ft. away from the street, and overlapping the neighbor (opposite side) by a similar amount.
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Every day I go to different locations for work on major and minor roads. I look up Google most nights and apart from recent development work everything is right where it should be. Including boundaries, power poles, storm drain access covers, pits, substations, railings, pram ramps, gutters, condition and width of shoulders. I can even look up power poles and get an idea of fittings and condition. Too bad for you Boo Boo, it's bloody great for me.
Mac and Windows PC only. (Score:5, Informative)
Sadly not Linux.
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WINE.
Re:Mac and Windows PC only. (Score:4, Interesting)
As usual though, this requires more than just wine, it also requires tricking google in to thinking you have windows in the first place just to be allowed to download it. If you go to the site with a linux machine it downloads the normal google earth for linux, and doesn't let you download the PC version. (I'm guessing a user agent change would fix this, but it's yet one more hoop you have to jump through that shouldn't be necessary.)
DL Link (Score:3, Informative)
https://dl.google.com/earth/cl... [google.com]
Re:Mac and Windows PC only. (Score:5, Informative)
However certain things like the search function are not working for me.
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My download click auto-picked linux as the OS.
Re: Mac and Windows PC only. (Score:1)
Probably not, on fixed location computational devices, no. On mobile computational devices, which outnumber fixed ones and appear to be replacing them? Let's see you fire that smart mouth off on that side of things.
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Linux is not really meant to be a desktop OS
Unforutnately, you are right. My main machine is Linux (Ubuntu 12.04) since over 5 years, and it is indeed not comparable to WinXP/Win7 or Mac OS X. I still prefer it for various reasons, but would not recommend it to most people as a desktop OS.
There might be a Google Earth for Android and iOS some day, but probably never for Linux. Sad...
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"Linux is not really meant to be a desktop OS."....tell that to Valve. They only "relatively recently" releases Steam, 'Counter Strike' and 'Left 4 Dead 2'.
Despite that "Linux is not really meant to be a desktop OS.",(in my highly unscientific test of 3 computers) the few games that are made for Linux all work MUCH better in Linux(on the computers I tested) than their Windows counterparts.
And yes, to give Windows a fair chance... I did turn off updates, the anti-virus, anti-spyware, the firewall, and any ot
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"Linux is not really meant to be a desktop OS."....tell that to Valve. They only "relatively recently" releases Steam, 'Counter Strike' and 'Left 4 Dead 2'.
Valve has business reasons for tossing token support to Linux, to keep the fire under Microsoft's seat, since the new Windows Store competes directly with Steam.
Despite that "Linux is not really meant to be a desktop OS.",(in my highly unscientific test of 3 computers) the few games that are made for Linux all work MUCH better in Linux(on the computers I tested) than their Windows counterparts.
As you say, "unscientific", since I could report the reverse and our anecdotal evidence just counters each other.
Windows has more than 90% of the desktop OS market, OS X has about 6%, Linux has between 1% and 3% depending on the source, and the rest is other.
That speaks for itself, IMHO... Windows works fine, I keep hearing all these wonderful thin
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Windows 8 is not really meant to be a desktop OS. Yes, yes, you can use it as such, just as you can use Windows Server as a desktop OS.
But... you shouldn't...
Run OS X on a Mac, that is really the only desktop OS on the market... at least until windows 10 comes along.
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All you Linux people do is complain.
Sheesh.
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Re:Mac and "PC" only. (Score:3)
It says "Mac and PC" (not "Windows PC") - we've been complaining for years that "PC" doesn't mean "Windows PC", looks like Google for once got the message.
When you click through you do get a "GoogleEarthLinux.bin", or at least, I did. (downloaded on x86_64/Arch Linux/Firefox)
I haven't tried it yet, so I don't know yet if it actually WORKS (unlike the previous version of "regular" Google Earth for me) but it looks like they are handing out Linux versions.
Re:Mac and "PC" only...oh, I see. (Score:5, Insightful)
I knew I shouldn't have put my pitchfork and torch away so quickly. Friggin' Google. As much as I love playing with maps, Google can take a long walk off a short pier - I'm not desperate enough for their "product" to mess around with WINE.
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Was there a reason why Google didn't make a Linux port? Their free version exists, but not for Pro? :(
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They use Linux on all their servers, they build Android on top of Linux, but they can't be bothered giving back Linux support on their products.
How pathetic is that?
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Yes, they should support all their products on every platform all the time, no matter how tiny the marketshare, and no matter how tiny the revenue stream, compared to the revenue from their core advertising products.
After all, Google is a non-profit semi-governmental organization that is only designed to do things for the common good in the fairest-seeming possible way. Also, I don't think that the Google employees themselves will mind being pulled off their current Android embedded Linux project, or their
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Why make a Linux version when Linux is simply not enough of a market to be worth serving?
Yes, they use Linux to run their servers, it is a great server OS. It sucks as a desktop OS.
Speaking of revenue (Score:2)
Seriously, how much would it cost you to produce Linux versions of all your shit? .001% of your revenue??
And the fact that it would produce in return .0000001% of their revenue does not matter?
Or in fact some negative number - it's hard to imagine even a single engineer working for six months could be paid for by the sales from a Linux version.
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"Look! If I hold his head at just the right angle and look way in the back - a chipped molar!"
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You can't give a pro tip when you're an amateur.
It's not up to Google to do your bidding, or even spend $.01, much less .001% of revenue on you or your ilk. They're a business, and it's businesses job to make money, not to cater to some whiny jackass.
Gigapixel map printing (Score:2)
I've always wanted to be able to print super detailed gigapixel maps, but not found any up to date tools to do the stitching. It's a pity pro still limits the resolution so much.
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dl.google.com/earth/client/advanced/current/GoogleEarthProWin.exe
Very nice, only requires a handle and the code, reading About Google Earth it is indeed PRO.
Re:Earth = USA (Score:4, Interesting)
Typical whiner. It was a for profit product. If it had been selling in your country, it probably would have been available with the data there as well. But go ahead and pile on because you got something for free that doesn't have everything you wanted.
The Mac OS X version is unsigned. (Score:2)
The Mac OS X version is a unsigned binary. On the newer OS X versions you have to go to System Preferences -> Security & Privacy to allow-it to run.
Looks like Google was too cheap to shell $99/year for a OS X Developer account and get a developer key to sign a product they asked $399 for.
Re:The Mac OS X version is unsigned. (Score:4, Informative)
That is surprising, I agree.
An alternate suggestion if you want to keep the existing System Preferences: right-click ('ctrl-click') on the binary to bring up the context menu, then select 'Open". This will invoke the same warning, but will also allow you to authenticate -- allowing this binary to run (here and thereafter) without complaining.
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Heck, even reviewing the agreement is difficult.
Does the Mac OS License include the onerous sectio
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They already have Apple Developer accounts that they use to publish all those apps in the iOS App Store. So Google Legal is okay with those terms.
And it's not some unknown developer, it's Google for fsck's sake. I bet if they just email Apple they'll instantly get a key.
Just wasted 2 hours (Score:1)
I just wasted 2 hours globe trotting with my mouse
Your phone number (Score:2)
I posted a few days ago how everybody is after your phone number this to a Facebook article of picking one out of a crowd. While avoiding it all this time, Google Earth Pro requires it.
And... (Score:2)
Re:And... (Score:4, Informative)
Sketchup Pro is not a Google product, so begging Google to release it for free is not likely to go anywhere. Now why Trimble bought Sketchup from Google in the first place I'll never know. Setting up Google Earth Pro to be free *before* Google sells it off is probably a good move for users. Too bad they didn't do that with Sketchup before they sold it.
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I'd be very surprised if they sell Google Earth, but you're right. The next owner would need to build on it to start charging again.
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Buwahahhhhhhaaahahaha (Score:4, Informative)
"Google Earth Pro includes parcel data that definitively defines property boundaries."
No, Just no.... I work in GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and I can GUARANTEE that a vast majority of the property lines displayed in the program do not "definitively defines property boundaries". Some may not be far off, some may not be too bad, most will only be in the ball park and some will be horribly off, the only way to be sure one way or another would be a title search and a survey and even then once in a while things can go wrong. Property description is insanely complicated, in my area the property records go back into the 1840s and technically to be sure someone has to trace and map every sale from now back to then. Since that is extremely time consuming most title companies these days only trace it back 40-60 years and then rely on insurance to pick up the tab if the issue exists further back. Most GIS maps don't try to do ANY of that, they grab the tax records or maps if they exist and digitize (scan them, electronically rubber sheet them to a rough geographic base and then draw some digital lines on top of the scans hand drawn ones) them making your average digital property line map at best 5-50' accurate. Even with organizations that go the extra distance and rebuild the parcel layer off of certified orthophotos (3' accuracy for 90% of surveyed points) you're only improving to about 5-10' accuracy. In a very few rare circumstances you may get some parcels where employees actually went out to properties that happened to be surveyed and then you're probably getting sub-centimeter accuracy for about 0.00000000002% of the parcels.
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LOL yes exactly this. I also work in GIS, and specifically in this particular field.
I'll add to everything you just said, plus anyone who has ever used Google Maps, should know that some of their stuff is out of date, some of it very out of date. Parcel data changes all the time. I am willing to bet that whatever Google maps uses is significantly out of date. The data also tends to be pretty expensive also to acquire as its maintenance is also. So anyone that uses this as anything other than to get a genera
Chrome? (Score:2)
Shame on Google for including a pre-checked checkbox to download Chrome as part of the package. That's download.com level shady.
Good or bad, your products need to stand alone when there's nothing whatsoever tying them together other than the downloader.
Not New.... (Score:2)
You have been able to get a free license for over a year now. Just sign up for one and select "personal" for the use and you get a free license emailed to you.
So now they have a generic license that you dont have to request.
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What part of "close and don't show me this again" don't you understand? 3rd week in a row now I've see that crap pop up. I hope this isn't going to be a nightmare like it was with /. beta plaguing everyone.
If you keep clearing your cookies, it will keep popping up. Idiot.
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I see it every week too - no clearing cookies or anything. Just bugs here.
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I loooove cookies... I love the oreo, I love the chocolate chips... I looove cookies
What do you mean, not that kind of cookies? :p
Re:/. deals (Score:4, Insightful)
What part of "close and don't show me this again" don't you understand? 3rd week in a row now I've see that crap pop up. I hope this isn't going to be a nightmare like it was with /. beta plaguing everyone.
If you keep clearing your cookies, it will keep popping up. Idiot.
No, it appears to be the kind of cookie they're using. Every time I restart my browsers, I see this advertisement again. Clearly, the cookie is only being set for the session. Also, why the fuck is this not stored in the database, instead of in the cookie? It's trivially easy to associate this with the logged-in userid. Now, this is Slashdot, so odds are good that we can attribute this to incompetence rather than malice. But....
... But they also keep showing this to users (like myself) who have taken them up on their own offer to turn advertising off, which is really fucking stupid. As I wrote elsewhere, 'I probably wouldn't have cared about Slashdot Deals anyway, but now I fucking hate it. It's that asshole creep at the bar that won't leave your friend alone.'
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I see that bloody Slashdot Deals stupid posting so many times I just autoclick it away now :-/
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Neither do i disable advertising. Flooding the internet with my inane preference tracking cookies to be stored and backe