The latest incarnation of EarthBrowser is in beta testing and looking really interesting. It’s not yet available for public download.
Earth Browser 3 is Flash /Adobe Air based, and in a number of respects will be a genuine alternative to Google Earth, indeed possibly a better classroom tool for studying certain topics, especially weather and tectonics. Here’s a quick preview of how the application is looking at the moment.
EarthBrowser is a delight to use, extremely intuitive and quick in operation. Expanded to full screen on an interactive whiteboard, the virtual globe is stunning. The navigation is hugely enhanced with a neat and attractive draggable menu:
The data sets include comprehensive real time weather information, tectonic plates, earthquakes, volcanoes, webcams and country borders. The Layers panel in Google Earth by comparison is becoming rather unmanageable - try finding the new Earthquakes layer without a guide!
The Placemarks tab adds several other data sets including Aurora Activity. You can also add your own placemarks. I’ve done this in the screenshot below, ading a photo that I took recently in Tromso:
KML files can be opened by dragging them into Earth Browser, and clicking names or flags in the weather window brings up a related Wikipedia search.
The Placemark menu includes the option to open a Google Map that tracks the Earth Browser view when panned. This is an important feature, partly because the Google Map will display a satellite view at resolutions that Earth Browser can’t manage.
The New Map window (click to enlarge)
I’m very excited about EarthBrowser 3 and will be eagerly awaiting the finished version. The USP for geography teachers is the clean and efficient navigation and essential real-time datasets. I notice that Apple are hosting some useful looking teaching resources for EarthBrowser here.
Looks cool Noel. Got Earthbrowser some years ago, but then Google Earth arrived…
In hindsight, Earthbrowser does have a lot of advantages, but the main factor was speed and responsiveness…
Seems like the new version could compete…
And if you like it then I know I will…
I have been using Earthbrowser for years, I’m really looking forward to see v. 3.0; in the last few years has been falling a bit behind but I have to give them credit for being there when GoogleEarth wasn’t even on the drawingboarbd.