Google unleashes Keyhole

Back in February I mentioned that Google had finally produced a great mapping service and acquired Keyhole to boot. At the time Keyhole was a subscription service (about $30 a year) that gave an amazing three dimensional view of the earth using satellite and aerial photos combined with topographic data. Now Google has made this same service available as "Google Earth" and best of all the basic service is free.

The Google Earth service was launched as "beta" and predictably I think their servers quickly became saturated with users. That will be their biggest problem because as it was Keyhole was a gobsmacking "must have" app that anyone, even your granny, could have hours of fun with. Finally a use for computers that doesn't involve shooting things, doing work or even typing. So for the time being the free download for Google Earth has disappeared from their web site but my adventurous friends can still get it from here. You'll just have to trust me that its virus free :-)

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