You may wonder that since there’s Google Maps, why would you want to use Google Earth? There are several things Google Earth does that make it worth having installed. Here are a few of them:

County Borders

Open the Layers panel, uncheck everything (look for Primary Database at top and click to deselect all), then expand Primary Database / Borders and Labels / Borders. From there check off 1st Level Admin Borders, 1st Level Admin Names and 2nd Level Admin Regions, like this:

Zoom in or out on the map (use your mouse scroll wheel to do this easily) until you see the green-ish county borders appear, like this:

Good to know and use because:

In many states, counties matter quite a bit. In Florida where PCMech is based they matter a great deal. For example, property taxes can wildly differ even for two counties that are directly bordering one another. In Florida, sales tax is also affected.

Radar and Cloud Animations

Google Earth does have the ability to show not only weather but also animated activity.

Check off Weather and all subcategories beneath it:

Click the blue Information link.

In the map area you will see two download links, one for clouds and the other for radar:

If you click the download link for 6-hour radar, you are notified of a new network link called Radar Animation and instructions on how to use it:

On the left side you’ll see Radar Animation under Temporary Places with a checkbox. Check it:

The easiest way to see the radar map in action is to zoom back wide to see some radar activity, like this:

The animation bar will be at the top left of the map.

If you selected Clouds Animation, it works the same way Radar Animation does.

International Flights Animation

This one requires a download but it’s well worth it. The link to get it is here. On that page you will see a link Open in Google Earth.

What you get is impressive:

For the example above I chose Miami International and set the animation slider bar all the way to the right…

..to see the full flight paths. Several other airports are available.

YouTube Video

A YouTube option is the last checkbox when you expand Gallery under Layers:

This puts YouTube icons on the map should there be any videos in the area. If there are, just click and watch:

Historical Imagery

At the top of Google Earth is a clock icon that enables Historical Imagery:

…and brings up this slider bar:

When you move the bar, Google Earth goes back to aerial photos taken from years ago. For most places you can go back as far as the early 1990s. If you zoom further back on the map and slide the bar to 1995, you’ll see portions of the map where black-and-white aerial imagery is available:

Historical Imagery is still a feature that to this day is not included with the web-based Google Maps and it’s beyond me as to why it isn’t there. If you want the older USGS photos online, you have to go to a Microsoft map site to do it. Strange but true.

Google Maps as good as it is still can’t compete with the cool (and useful) stuff you get in Google Earth, proving once again that in some instances you still get more out of locally installed programs compared to web apps.

Like what you read?

If so, please join over 28,000 people who receive our exclusive weekly newsletter and computer tips, and get FREE COPIES of 5 eBooks we created, as our gift to you for subscribing. Just enter your name and email below: