Our counter parts on the Windows platform had been playing with Google Earth for almost a year.
As for Tuesday, January 10, 2006, Google made the Mac version of Google Earth public.
If you do not know or have not seen Google Earth, then I ask you to read Google’s description on the Google Earth home page, rather than me describing it to you. Better yet, download the application and check it out for yourself to see what the Mac community has been missing all this time.
BTW: Google had this well before Microsoft decides to launch their Live Local… Local Live… what is it called??
After playing with it for an hour. I can see that Google still have a long way before they are able to make Killer front end applications. The feel of Google Earth for the Mac is like that of the Windows version. The interface feels awkward and definitely not Mac app like.
I guess this opens up an opportunity for 3rd Party to build something more Mac like, that is if Google would release the API for Google Earth as they did for Goolge Map.
You may say, can you be a bit more specific about the deficiency of Google Earth’s UI? Well I can give you one example, since I do not want to get into the details for obvious reasons. The process of adding a Placemark is a bit cumbersome. It requires the user to bring up a web page (wizard) within the user’s default browser. This web page is simply for Google to ask the user to acknowledge the verification of any previous identical Placemark submitted; a manual and user honest process. The subsequent submission form does not copy the title of the Placemark from Google Earth to the form except for the description.
It is obvious, why Google is advertising for Macintosh Developers.
Please don’t get me wrong, this release of Google Earth is very welcomed, and the application fully capable of demonstrating the power and features of Google Earth. I just wish it was more of a Mac-like appliction. I am sure version 2.0 will be much better.