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Key features of Google Earth include 3D buildings in major cities across the United States; 3D terrain showing mountains, valleys, and canyons around the world; integrated Google Local search to find local information such as hotels, restaurants, schools, parks, and transportation; dynamic navigation; video playback of driving directions; and tilt, rotate, and activate 3D terrain and buildings for a different perspective on a location.

Users access the information via the free Google Earth application - currently available in beta for Windows users with a Mac version in the works.

'Google Earth uses broadband streaming technology

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and 3D graphics, much like a video game, enabling users to interactively explore the world - either their own neighbourhood or the far corners of the globe,' said John Hanke, general manager of Keyhole, Google. 'With many ways to access geographic information, Google provides a very rich local search experience for users worldwide.'

Google Earth is the latest addition to Google's local search product suite, joining Google Local and Google Maps. Users can delve deeper into local information, whether exploring a vacation destination or researching a new home or apartment. They can also combine multiple layers of information, such as cross-referencing school districts with address look-ups of available homes, business listings and public transportation, and save their results for later use.

More advanced mapping capabilities are available with Google Earth Plus for $20 per year. It offers GPS processing, data import, and annotation. Google Earth Pro at $400 per year adds high-resolution printing and GIS data import capabilities.

For more information go to earth.google.com.

The initiative grew out of Google's acquisition of the Silicon Valley digital mapping company Keyhole back in October 2004.