Layers, Layers, and more Layers! Want to see all the street names? Just turn on the "Roads" checkbox. How about the local grocery store? Just click on the "Grocery Stores" checkbox in the Layers window. Little shopping carts appear on the map. Just a small sample of what's avalable in the layers is: City Boundaries, Postal Code Boundaries, Railroads, Water, Coffee Houses, Malls, and much more! Want to see some buildings? GoogleEarth allows you to see computer generated buildings with their true form and shape for various major cities. You should see Las Vegas!Another great jaw dropping feature is the ability to "Tilt" the perspective. You can change your view all the way down to the surface and then pan around in all directions to get the sense of how things look. I could go on for several thousand words about all the features included in GoogleEarth

Be forewarned! When you download and start using GoogleEarth, be prepared to spend some time exploring. You'll find yourself going back to it every chance you get, just to explore new areas. And be sure to email me if you see any alien space ships at Area 51! Timothy Trimble is a award winning, freelance writer, and software developer. He has written a book for Microsoft Press, articles for significant computer industry trade magazines, and is currently working on his second computer technology book to be published in early 2006. He is the Blog publisher of The ART of Software Development which can be found via his web site at http://www.timothytrimble.info