about Google Earth Release 4 beta

Source: Google Earth - Products

The latest version of Google Earth is being released in beta form. We've added several new features that will make your Earth browsing even better.

Less Is More - A New UI
The most obvious change is a new and, we think, simpler user interface.

We've reorganized the data layers to make it easier to find layers and turn them on and off. The nav panel at the bottom of the screen is gone, freeing up more real estate for actual imagery. The nav panel tools are still accessible, though; the nav controllers are now in the upper right and the tools (measure, print, email) are in the new tools bar along the top.

Free Feel To Change Your World
Seeing buildings in 3D is one of the coolest things about Google Earth. And with this release, this feature is even better. For the first time, we support "textured" 3D buildings, meaning the bricks look like real bricks, the glass like real glass, and overall, the world looks more like, well, the real world. It's just one more step on the path of creating a life-like 3D model of the whole planet. There's just one catch - there aren't many photorealistic 3D building models out there. Yet. That's where Google SketchUp comes in.

Non-textured buildings
Textured buildings
Load KML

With Google SketchUp, you can now create your own textured 3D models. Here are some examples:

City Hall, San Francisco
Load KML

Chase Field, Phoenix

Creating and Sharing Geographic Information – A New Type Of KML
The best thing Google Earth's got going for it is the creativity of the millions of users who are adding and sharing geographic information. And with Google Earth (Release 4 BETA), we've expanded that capability in “KML,” the file format Google Earth uses to add and share data.

San Francisco 1946
Load KML

Yosemite Valley
Load KML

One of the reasons that Google Earth is so fast is that when you're flying around, you're only streaming in portions of the entire Earth image. But until now, importing KML meant loading everything – it was either all on or all off. This meant that loading, for instance, the topographic maps for all of Yosemite would grind Google Earth to a halt. For this new release, we've built the same smart loading techniques into KML, which means you can overlay large data sets without sacrificing performance.

Additional Features:

• We've released versions of Google Earth in French, Italian, German, and Spanish.
• We've made improvements to our GPS support (Google Earth Plus only)
• We've improved the terrain, so peaks and valleys are more realistic