General
Exploring Google Earth
In this course, you'll discover how easy it is to travel the world using Google Earth on your computer.
In the following activities, you'll learn how to navigate your way around Google Earth, use the Street View and Layers features to see more detail, and add Placemarks to places of interest.
To get you started, below is a short, animated video introducing you to the wonderful world of Google Earth.
Transcript
Welcome to "Exploring Google Earth". Google Earth is like an interactive digital atlas. It shows you the whole planet right down to your own home. In this video, we are going to use the Chrome browser to travel to Uluru with Google Earth. This demonstration will show Google Earth on a computer, the steps are similar on a mobile device. Let's explore Central Australia. To begin, type earth.google.com into your web browser. A virtual globe will appear. From the menu on the top left, click on the Search bar and type in Uluru. As you type, other places to explore will appear below as suggestions. Click on Uluru, Petermann NT at the top of the list and watch as Google Earth flies you straight there. You'll see the Earth from a bird's-eye view as you zoom down, all built from real satellite imagery. Take in the 360-degree views.
When you use Google Earth, you're looking at recent aerial and ground-level photos rather than real-time images. That means people can't use Google Earth to spy on you. You can learn more about Uluru from the information card on the right. Click the right arrow to view more photos or scroll down to see more information. Saving a location makes it easy to find without having to search for it again. You can click on Save to project to get started, but for now, we'll close the information card by clicking the cross in the top right. Now, let's look at some of the map controls in Google Earth.
Click 3D to see the landscape in 3D. Click the minus symbol to zoom out for a view of the surrounding areas. To get another perspective, hold down the Shift key on your keyboard, then click and drag the mouse to tilt and move around the map. For a different view, click the 2D icon. This shows a flattened, birds-eye perspective of the map. For a closer look, click and drag the Street View icon to where you want to go. Imagine that the little person you're dropping on screen is where you would like to drop yourself onto the map. You can drop the Street View icon wherever there is a blue line or circle. Now, let's look around. Click the white navigation arrows to explore the area.
You can also click and drag left or right, down or up to get a better view of your surroundings. Once you're finished, click the back arrow at the top left of the screen to exit Street View. To find a new location to explore, place your cursor over the map and use the wheel on your mouse to scroll up and head back out into space. Where will you go next?
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1
What is Google Earth?
9 min
2
Getting started with Google Earth
9 min
3
Find yourself on Google Earth!
7 min
4
Exploring the world with Google Earth
10 min
5
Finding places special to you
6 min
6
Become a Google Earth champion!
6 min