Google Earth hits 1B downloads

Search giant Google reached a milestone this week after its Google Earth software was downloaded more than one billion times since the service was launched in 2005. Brian McClendon, Google Earth and Maps vice president of engineering, said the feat was achieved six years after Google Earth was first launched. "Today, we’ve reached our own one billion mark: Google Earth has been downloaded more than one billion times since it was first introduced in 2005. That’s more than one billion downloads of the Google Earth desktop client, mobile apps and the Google Earth plug-in—all enabling you to to explore the world in seconds, from Earth to Mars to the ocean floor," he said in a blog post. McClendon said one billion is no mean feat, noting traveling from the Earth to the Moon three times would measure one billion meters. He recalled Google Earth starting out as Keyhole Inc., which Google acquired in 2004 before launching Google Earth in 2005. "We’re proud of our one billion milestone, but we’re even more amazed at the way people have used Google Earth to explore the world. When we founded Keyhole, Inc. back in 2001 (the company was acquired by Google in 2004), we never imagined our geospatial technology would be used by people in so many unexpected ways," he said. McClendon said Google has set up a website, www.OneWorldManyStories.com, to collect stories from people all over the world who use Google Earth to "follow their dreams, discover new and distant places, or make the world a better place." Among the success stories he cited were those of:

• Professor David Kennedy of the University of Western Australia, who used Google Earth to scan thousands of square kilometers in Saudi Arabia and Jordan
• Professor Kennedy, who discovered ancient tombs and geoglyphs dating back at least 2,000 years, all without leaving his desk in Perth
• Architect Barnaby Gunning, after the April 6, 2009 earthquake near L’Aquila Italy, encouraged his fellow citizens to start rebuilding the city virtually in 3D, with the online urban planning seeking to aid city planners and architects
• Retired English teacher Jerome Burg, who created Google Lit Trips, which uses Google Earth to match places in famous books to their geographical locations. This encouraged students to create connections between the stories they read in school and the world they live in.

"We hope you enjoy the site, and that it illustrates how some of those one billion downloads of Google Earth have been making a difference. You can explore these stories right in your browser with the Google Earth plug-in or download the KML files to view in Google Earth," McClendon said. — TJD, GMA News