Introducing Voyager

 

Close lesson
You have completed 0%

Introducing Voyager

A photograph of a compass leaning on a map with some pins in it.

What's coming up?

Voyager takes Google Earth to the next level, weaving its wealth of knowledge into amazing, interactive experiences that take you around the world.

In this activity, we’ll have a look at the places you can go with Voyager.

Start activity

Set sail

Voyager combines everything that's great about Google Earth in the one place.

Rather than just show you maps, it's more like a free online magazine covering travel, nature and culture as it takes you on multimedia tours.

A screenshot of the Google Earth screen with exciting topics you can click on to explore, such as ‘Explore Monaco’ or ‘Discover Poland’.
A screenshot of the Google Earth Voyager Editor’s Picks section with topics available to explore such as ‘Searching for sharks in Street View’.

Take the helm

You'll find Voyager by clicking the ship’s wheel (or helm) icon in the main control menu.

By default, you'll see a carousel of highlights scrolling across the top, with amazing virtual tours, holiday guides, photo essays, videos, audio clips and articles covering a broad range of global topics.

You'll also discover quizzes to help test your knowledge of the world. Click on one to see where it takes you.

Broaden your horizons

Underneath the highlights section is the Voyager menu. It's split into categories to make it easy to find what you're looking for, and includes sections for Travel, Nature, Culture, Games, Street View and Education. There’s also a Layers category, which we'll get to later.

A screenshot of the Google Earth Voyager top menu items.
A screenshot of Google Earth Voyager with the blue navigation button highlighted.

Find your way around

You progress through a Voyage by using the blue arrows to move forward or back.

Any text or icon that appears in blue can also be clicked. Sometimes it's a link to more information and extra photos, other times it might add extra detail to the map.

It's a lot more interactive and engaging than reading a Wikipedia page.

Continue exploring

Once you've completed a Voyage, you can click the ship’s wheel icon again to return to the main Voyager menu and choose another adventure.

Google adds fun activities and quizzes all the time, so it's worth coming back regularly.

A screenshot of one of Google Earth Voyager’s quizzes, this example is a Football trivia quiz.
A screenshot of one of the weather screens Google Earth Voyager offers, this example shows the current global temperature.

Keep an eye on the weather

The final category in the Voyager menu is Layers, which lets you add extra real-time weather information to the view of the world. This includes global temperatures, rainfall, snow coverage and wind speeds, so you can see what's happening across the world.

Layers also lets you see the latest satellite and 3D images added to Google Earth.

Embrace art and culture

Some Google Earth Voyages link to a different Google service called Google Arts & Culture, which you'll learn more about in the next course in this topic: Beyond Google Earth. Google Arts & Culture includes stunning, high-quality images of famous artworks from museums like London's Tate Gallery, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Uffizi in Florence.

A screenshot of the Google Arts and Culture website where you can explore a myriad of different cultures and topics.
A screenshot of Google Earth Voyager in Bolivia.

Dive in

Don't be afraid to lose yourself in Voyager and wander around, just like you would wander through an amazing museum or art gallery to take in the sights.

There's always something new to see.

Congratulations!

You’ve completed the Introducing Voyager activity. You've learned that it can provide you with amazing, interactive experiences that take you around the world.

Coming up next, if you have registered and are logged into the Be Connected website, you’ll now be able to take a short quiz to finish the course. If you’re not registered, you are now at the end of the Google Earth - More than a map course.

An aerial photograph of a winding road in a snowy winter landscape.