Google Earth.

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Google calls it a globe that sits inside your PC, but it is so much more than that. Based on satellite and aerial photos, Google Earth [http://earth.google.com], billed as a "3D interface to the planet," recently allowed an Italian computer programmer to locate the remains of an ancient villa (see Luca Mori's blog at http://www.QuelliDellaBassa.org) and Hurricane Katrina victims to see if their houses were OK. (Go to http://www.kathryncramer.com for a clearinghouse and tutorial.)

Images range in age from 1 to 2 years. According to Google, the images are "refreshed periodically." There are no real-time images in the service, but you can import your own, as some people did during the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Different areas are rendered at different resolutions ranging from 1 kilometer per pixel to 6 inches per pixel. That means that a single pixel in the image covers from 1 square kilometer to 6 inches square. At the highest resolution, you can see cars, but not people.

The program comes in one free and several fee-based versions that reside on the user's computer. Google Earth Plus, at $20 per year, offers GPS compatibility, the ability to import comma-delimited files, draw 3-D objects, and print clear pictures. Google Earth Pro, at $400 per year, is the commercial version, offering high-resolution printing, the ability to import 2,500 addresses, and a variety of for-pay plug-ins that let you make and export movies, import GIS data, and more.

The free version, Google Earth, streams world satellite pictures and local facts to your hard drive and makes them accessible through a nonbrowser interface. Find a location and see what sorts of physical features surround it, such as parks, lakes, schools, and so on. This is a great way to scout out neighborhoods you're considering living in. You can also display driving directions. The version available at the time of writing offered 3-D building views for 38 U.S. cities. As you would expect, the free version is not for commercial use. The license also specifically excludes use in the operation of nuclear facilities, aircraft navigation or communication systems, and aircraft control systems, which, as weird as it sounds, might actually apply to Searcher readers who help their patrons and customers use Google Earth.

When you specify an address, you appear to fly to it, swooping lower and lower as you approach. Once you've reached your destination, you can change the elevation of the camera using a slider: + means zoom in, -- means zoom out. Of course, if you zoom in too much, your image will blur as it always does when the resolution is too low. Click on the location itself to get details about it, including links that let you request driving directions to and from the location.

The application doesn't always handle non-U.S. addresses properly. I tried a couple of known places in the U.K., and while the program got close, it ended up a bit confused. Sometimes the pictures appear flawed, with white streaks across them and spidery labels. Closing the application and restarting it seems to fix the problem. You also need to be sure to give the system enough information. Typing "Area 51, Nevada" doesn't work, nor does "the sphinx, Egypt." Not yet, anyhow.

Not everyone is thrilled with Google Earth. South Korea has raised concerns with the U.S. government over images of the presidential "Blue House" and military bases in the country. And by the way, you can see the North Korean main nuclear research facility at Yongbyon.

Here are some capabilities of Google Earth:

• Drive to or from a point using the right-click menu.

• View longitude and latitude for a place.

• Change transparency.

• Tilt and rotate using the middle mouse button or controls on the user interface.

• Drag the view with your mouse.

• View GPS data (Plus, Pro, and EC versions only).

• Select and edit lines and polygons.

• Batch geocode addresses (Plus, Pro, and EC versions only).

• Overlay the photos with GIFs and .ICO files.

• Add a path or a polygon (Plus, Pro, and EC versions only).

• Make movies.

• Input your own data with KML, a data exchange format.

• Select a pre-defined overlay, such as banks/ATMs, coffee houses, gas stations, or even restaurants by cuisine. You can display U.S. congressional districts, crime statistics, and an amazing collection of points contributed by the Keyhole BBS community, including Bob Hope's alleged grave, Tommy Lee's home (which looks about right -- I live near there and know the house), the first Der Weinerschnitzel, and a variety of other crazy places that truly do represent an invasion of privacy. Fortunately for celebrities, there doesn't seem to be a way within Google Earth to search on the text of such labels, so paparazzi and stalkers will have to look elsewhere to find their prey. Clicking on these icons, labeled with an "i," brings up a box that leads to the bulletin board entry (click on "more") framed in a browser window. The other issue with these community labels is that pretty soon, the entire landscape will be so covered with them that you won't be able to distinguish one from another.

• Create a My Places favorites list using the right-click menu when you're over the desired location.

• Add a "placemark."

• Export placemarks in XML format.

• Display a longitude/latitude grid.

• Print.

• Get directions to and from a location, in both text and pictorial forms.

• E-mail the location or the image. (Size depends on the image, but is in the 400k range.) This feature didn't always work properly during my testing. I could e-mail an image of the first location I tried, but after that, the program just kept sending placemarks.

• Do a Google Local search, in which you specify the type of place or product you're looking for as well as the city in which it is located. For example, you can say "sushi" and Los Angeles, CA.

• View buildings. Check the 3-D buildings box in the layer roll-up window at the bottom left. Buildings become visible at about 20,000 feet from sea level. The "eye altitude" indicator at the bottom right shows how high you are. Once you're close enough, you can rotate and tilt so you can see buildings and hills at eye-level. You can actually drive through concrete canyons, although when you do, the buildings appear as gray shapes rather than real edifices. Exaggerating the elevation in the View menu makes elevations appear more pronounced. Try it in San Francisco or New York, or the Grand Canyon, which is pre-programmed into Google's Places list. By the way, if you know how to do 3-D modeling, you can make your own with the arcane but powerful 3ds max application from Discreet [http://www.discreet.com] or a program called DProfiler modeler [http://www.dpearth.com]. You must be able to export your model into KML or KMZ format.

You must have broadband to use Google Earth. Apple computers are not supported at the time of writing, but Google says it's working on a Mac version. Windows-based PCs older than 4 years and Windows-based notebooks older than 2 years may not be able to run the application. You must run either Windows 2000 or XP, with XP recommended. 200 MB hard disk space is sufficient, but 2 gigs is recommended. You need a 3-D-capable video card with 16 MB of VRAM (32 MB or preferably greater). Minimum RAM is 128 MB; minimum CPU speed is 500 MHz. Graphics card compatibility is a major issue, so check the documentation before you attempt to install the program. Google recommends that you always update your graphics card drivers. Google Earth may not run well on media center PCs.

Google specifically states that the address search feature "does not guarantee pinpoint accuracy." That is because the application relies on a geocoded database that attempts to interpolate the location of an address. In addition, the coordinates, elevations, distances, and measurements Google provides are only estimates, so don't try to perform precision tasks using the application.