Google Earth Pro is now Free

By Jim K
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Grand Master

Jim K Global Moderator

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http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2015/01/google-earth-pro-is-now-free.html

 

Over the last 10 years, businesses, scientists and hobbyists from all over the world have been using Google Earth Pro for everything from planning hikes to placing solar panels on rooftops. Google Earth Pro has all the easy-to-use features and detailed imagery of Google Earth, along with advanced tools that help you measure 3D buildings, print high-resolution images for presentations or reports, and record HD movies of your virtual flights around the world.

 
Starting today, even more people will be able to access Google Earth Pro: we're making it available for free. To see what Earth Pro can do for you
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Xerxes

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why does the link say "free trial" then it truly isn't Free.

Which link did you click on? I saw nothing saying it was a free trial, just that I had to sign up for a free key to use it...

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Jim K Global Moderator

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why does the link say "free trial" then it truly isn't Free.

 

Guess they haven't updated their URLs.  It is a free key...not a trial key.

 

http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/30/google-earth-pro-free/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/amitchowdhry/2015/01/30/google-earth-pro-is-now-available-for-free/

http://9to5google.com/2015/01/30/google-earth-pro-free/

etc.

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Jim K Global Moderator

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Shouldn't this have been posted in Back Page News?

 

Dunno...maybe.  If I placed it in the wrong section...Mod please move!

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dragontology

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I'm wondering why they make you sign up for a "license key." If they're going to make it free, why not just offer the installer and make it free?

The URL says free trial in it. A Google+ user who posted the link said it was free for "today only," yesterday. Guess we'll see.

 

Oh, yesterday I tried and put in "None" for the company, "Other" for the business type, and "N/A" for my position. They didn't like that. So I made up a company. Dragontology Consulting, based on my username and a company sounding name I made up. Consulting is apparently a type of business. As for my title, I'm President and CEO. If you'd like to join my company for the sake of pleasing Google, starting salary is zero but you can name your title, as long as you don't outrank me. And you're fired as soon as you get your key, but you don't have to put that on your resume, and I won't tell Google you got pink slipped.  :rofl:

 

I had a friend who pirated Google Earth Pro a couple years ago. It looked the same as the free one. I asked what it could do and he said it could make recordings. I asked why you would ever do that, and he didn't know. It was a case of downloading something for the sake of downloading something. But hey, it's free now, so maybe I'll make a flyover video of my hometown. That might be interesting.

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Jim K Global Moderator

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I'm wondering why they make you sign up for a "license key." If they're going to make it free, why not just offer the installer and make it free?

The URL says free trial in it. A Google+ user who posted the link said it was free for "today only," yesterday. Guess we'll see.

 

Oh, yesterday I tried and put in "None" for the company, "Other" for the business type, and "N/A" for my position. They didn't like that. So I made up a company. Dragontology Consulting, based on my username and a company sounding name I made up. Consulting is apparently a type of business. As for my title, I'm President and CEO. If you'd like to join my company for the sake of pleasing Google, starting salary is zero but you can name your title, as long as you don't outrank me. And you're fired as soon as you get your key, but you don't have to put that on your resume, and I won't tell Google you got pink slipped.  :rofl:

 

I had a friend who pirated Google Earth Pro a couple years ago. It looked the same as the free one. I asked what it could do and he said it could make recordings. I asked why you would ever do that, and he didn't know. It was a case of downloading something for the sake of downloading something. But hey, it's free now, so maybe I'll make a flyover video of my hometown. That might be interesting.

 

There are other differences:  https://support.google.com/earth/answer/189188?hl=en

 

Google Earth Pro builds on the amazing functionality of Google Earth with even more powerful tools. Some of the most compelling features of Earth Pro include:

 

  • Advanced Measurements: Measure parking lots and land developments with polygon area measure, or determine affected radius with circle measure.
  • High-resolution printing: Print Images up to 4800x3200 px resolution.
  • Exclusive Pro data layers: Demographics, parcels, and traffic count.
  • Spreadsheet Import: Ingest up to 2500 addresses at a time, assigning placemarks and style templates in bulk.
  • GIS import: Visualize ESRI shapefiles (.shp) and MapInfo (.tab) files.
  • Movie-Maker: Export Windows Media and Quicktime HD movies, up to 1920x1080 resolution.

 

The chart below outlines the basic differences between Google Earth and Google Earth Pro.

 
Features                                               Google Earth                                             Google Earth Pro
Print resolution                                    1000 pixels                                                4800 pixels
Import GIS data                                                                                                        ESRI .shp, MapInfo .tab
Import addresses in bulk                    Manually Geo-locate each address    Automatically Geo-locate up to 2500 at a time
Import large image files                      limited to texture size                             Super Image Overlays
Supplemental Layers                                                                                             Demographics, Parcels, Traffic Counts
Create premium movies for export                                                                       HD 1920x1080
Measurement tools                             Line, Path                                                   Line, Path, Polygon, Circle, 3D Path, 3D Polygon
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