When you think Google, you probably think of search, even though they have lots of other projects (and they hope you remember Google Plus more). One of them, Google Earth, is getting a major upgrade: 3D cities.
Yes, Google Earth has had 3D buildings for some time, but at best they’ve looked like crudely done LEGOs. But this new addition for mobiles is much more ambitious. They’re using aerial images generated by outside contractors to build the cityscapes, shot from a 45-degree angle.
Google has released a video of the imagery, and it’s incredibly detailed. You can even see the trees.
Peter Birch, a product manager for Google Earth, told The Daily Mail: “We’re trying to create the illusion that you’re just flying over the city, almost as if you were in your own personal helicopter.”
The 3D imagery of metro areas is expected to make its way to mobile platforms later this year. Some other news that users of Google’s own Android platform are going to love: offline support for Google Maps is expected to show up in a few weeks.
If you like this, then you’ll want to check out some cool satellite imagery from GeoEye, as well as some of NASA’s high-resolution images of the Earth
