Google Earth Pro is now free

http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2015/01/google-earth-pro-is-now-free.html

by Transisto • 11 years ago

216 70 11 years ago

google-latlong.blogspot.com

... Has tools to measure 3D buildings and other locations, print high-resolution screenshots, view demographic and traffic layers, and even record your virtual trips.

glhaynes• 11 years ago

This page has some info on the differences between the regular edition and Pro. https://www.google.com/work/mapsearth/products/earthpro.html

mden• 11 years ago

This sounds really awesome, but does anyone have an explanation as to why they are doing it? Building something like Google Earth Pro must take many millions of dollars, so why would a company release it for free?

ChuckMcM• 11 years ago

People feel less bad when a large corporation drops all support for a 'free' product than they do for a $400 one?

JoshTriplett• 11 years ago

Perhaps they had few enough customers that the effort of maintaining the "Pro" version wasn't worth it?

Perhaps they're starting to see a handful of people relying on other data sources, so they want to give people an incentive to stick with Google?

ghshephard4• 11 years ago

Google Earth cost on the order of 10s of millions of dollars to write, with a couple of the key companies, keyhole and Where2, being acquired for approx. $40mm. [1] . Google Earth Pro is a small, but very useful addition to the base Google Earth - I know a lot of network designers who get by just fine with Google Earth, and have never availed themselves of Google Earth Pro.

The real cost, of course, is maintaining and serving all that data. I expect that Google, in offering Google Earth Pro for free, ensures that no other competition can slide into this space, and, I also expect the incremental revenue associated with the Google Earth Pro licenses probably wasn't worth the cost of not owning that market 100%.

This is going to make life for a lot of the other GIS vendors even more miserable than it already is - I can see MapInfo being annoyed by this decision. Just spitballing, but perhaps Google is looking at acquiring them (or a competitor?)

[1] http://www.quora.com/How-much-did-Google-acquire-Keyhole-(Go...

7952• 11 years ago

Google Earth has never been a serious competitor for GIS. If they had added more features 5 years ago it may have gained traction.

It is great for viewing and creating small datasets. Viewing larger datasets required a surprising amount of effort in terms of tiling and converting. The tools built into Google Earth were never very good and people were pointed at server products. This was completely at odds with the simple ethos of Google Earth and often lead companies to invest in expensive ESRI products that offered Google Earth support!

Google are concentrating on server products with web interfaces and GE never fit into that. It is fantastic for professional users but Google have no idea how to sell to those kind of people.

threeseed• 11 years ago

If you don't pay for something you can't expect support or updates.

So could be that Google is simply moving that team onto more strategically useful projects. Personally I can't see why they kept supporting this as it isn't core business.

userbinator• 11 years ago

I notice the link "grab a free key" leads to a URL ending with free_trial.html, and that page is a form that asks for plenty of information. The lack of any justification for why something that used to be $399 is now free also feels a bit odd to me... like it's somehow implying that giving Google your name, company, phone number, and other information is, to them, worth more than $399?

atian• 11 years ago

no. what if you were making a product free that you no longer wanted to support?

remember: paying users expect support

a. make free without knowing who is using your project

b. make free with knowing who is using your project

CamperBob2• 11 years ago

neindanke• 11 years ago

Registration is failing for me at the moment.

flomo• 11 years ago

Registration failed for me with a message suggesting such remedies as trying a different email address. Punched in a gmail address and it worked. Perhaps coincidentally.

johnpowell• 11 years ago

Same with me. It failed with that error when I tried with my fastmail email address. Switched to a gmail one and then it worked.

vilhelm_s• 11 years ago

Yep.

Error! Your sign up can not be completed due to We're sorry. We are experiencing technical difficulties. Please try again later..

Intermernet• 11 years ago

Love that error message (I'm getting it as well).

"can not be completed due to We're sorry."

I might start using that as a reason.

ghshephard4• 11 years ago

I registered, but got the following when I tried to download:

http://dl.google.com/earth/client/advanced/current/GoogleEar...

Access to this site is currently restricted

ghshephard4• 11 years ago

Waited a bit, got the email, tried again - Everything worked! I've wanted GooglePro forever - and now I have it - to the point of almost ponying up the $400 of my hard earned money for it.

A really nice post-christmas present from Google.

superdude2• 11 years ago

Years ago before I started at my current job some people had Google Earth (free) on their PCs. But then someone read an updated Terms of Use and determined that we actually needed to be using the paid version of Google Earth so many people had their copies removed from their PCs. Then around the time I started someone read an updated Terms of Use and it was determined that there was no problem using the regular version of Google Earth. So it became part of the standard build. Then about a year ago someone read another updated Terms of Use and determined that we were out of compliance and so we removed all copies of Google Earth from all computers. And then we purchased licenses for Google Earth Pro for only those users who really relied on it. For a yearly per-user fee. And now apparently we can install it for everyone once again. For free.

I wonder if Google realized that a lot of companies and government organizations were confused about licensing or ignorantly non-compliant or just gave up and tried some other program. I know in my department we already installed alternative software for most people. Although nothing is as nice or easy for exploring or creating KML files as Google Earth in my experience.

gcb02• 11 years ago

nope. it is mostly because microsoft been offering those high quality aerial images for a long time on bing maps for free, but since nobody even know there is a bing map, it wasn't a threat. now somehow google feel they are gaining market and decided to counter attack.

raverbashing2• 11 years ago

Yeah, too bad Bing Maps search is a bad joke. Really

You have to specify if it's a Address or a Place (if your initial search doesn't work, which is pretty much always)

DeanCollinsNY• 11 years ago

Uhm google images allow you to see way closer.....

TeMPOraL• 11 years ago

(...) tried some other program. I know in my department we already installed alternative software for most people.

I've never heard of Google Earth alternatives. Any recommendations?

bane• 11 years ago

For a while before there was a free GE, Nasa World Winds had a pretty active community around it.

It would need lots of work to become a real alternative though.

http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov/features.html

jimueller• 11 years ago

Depending on the use case, Falcon View is an alternative.

https://www.falconview.org/trac/FalconView

superdude2• 11 years ago

We're using ArcGIS Explorer (free)which has tons of issues itself but fills the need for a lot of people, or a full version of ArcGIS ($$$).

tga_d• 11 years ago

Linux support is pretty ambiguous. The download link says "Download Google Earth Pro for PC or Mac," the minimum specifications link gives specifications for Linux, the actual download gives you a binary called GoogleEarthLinux.bin, but when installed gives you an outdated (3 years) and non-pro copy of google earth.

ianlevesque• 11 years ago

Which, if I recall correctly, is wine based too. What a mess.

dang• 11 years ago

Discussed earlier today: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8973020.

Negative1• 11 years ago

Beware -- this feels like an email fishing expedition. Sadly, I fell for it and got to the same screen everyone else gets too; poorly worded error with no key.

chrissnell2• 11 years ago

Good, but it's still missing the one key feature that I really need: offline satellite imagery. I guide off-road driving adventures in the western deserts for groups of friends every year. Trip planning is done primary in Google Maps and USGS topos but I occasionally find myself out in the desert and needing to scout a route for a last-minute change but with no way of doing it without Internet and satellite imagery. Yes, it's possible to (legally) cache small amounts of imagery with the stock app but I really want the ability to cache larger areas at high detail. I would pay for this feature, up two a few hundred dollars.

zytek• 11 years ago

I use MotionX GPS and download data from MotionX Terrain maps (which are OpenCycleMaps), good for getting around where I live. You might check coverage on http://www.opencyclemap.org/

maxerickson2• 11 years ago

There's a whole ecosystem of software for building tile databases and viewing them on phones/tablets:

http://mobac.sourceforge.net/

There's also a bunch of "WMS Viewers" that you can point at National Map endpoints (which shouldn't have any licensing issues):

http://raster.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/rest/services

I've never had a use for them so I don't know if one works well and has nice caching features.

matt40772• 11 years ago

Mobac works great, although you have to do a bit of editing of configuration files to get it to work with non-free sources like google maps.

I've used it create maps for long bicycle trips in SE Europe. A highest-detail map of the balkans is about 1GB. I used Galileo Offline Maps to render it on an iPhone.

chrissnell2• 11 years ago

Interesting but it looks like the one iOS client for Mobac is geared towards vector maps, not the satellite imagery.

IvyMike• 11 years ago

still missing the one key feature that I really need: offline

In general, Google has disdain for the very concept of "offline", so I suspect this feature never happens.

irq• 11 years ago

The picture in the page, btw, is of downtown Portland, OR. That's the Willamette river. A fun place to look at in Google Earth.

gulfie• 11 years ago

yes, but when will it stop crashing?

barrkel• 11 years ago

Indeed, I got a pure virtual function call within 3 minutes of zooming around.

jhansen858• 11 years ago

glad i just paid the $400 like a month ago.

uptown• 11 years ago

Request a refund, or see if you can dispute the charge with your credit card if they offer any type of price-protection.

oori• 11 years ago

are google dev working on PC machines? what's up with Retina support?

zx2c42• 11 years ago

Can we get proper Linux support, please?

The current Linux situation with Google Earth is a joke -- 3 years old, crashes, based on wine, no pro features.

RobSis3• 11 years ago

Fortunately, the Windows version of Pro works perfectly in wine.

zx2c42• 11 years ago

Great to know, thanks. Was there anything fancy needed to get it running or did it just run?

ensignavenger2• 11 years ago

I tried to download the Windows version to run it under wine and it gave me the Linux bin. I will have to put a bit more effort into it and give it now that someone has confirmed that it works :) Thanks.

chippy• 11 years ago

I wasn't able to get the movie export working though

UserRights• 11 years ago

Anybody knows a good alternative to this that runs without trouble on Ubuntu and Arch 64 bit Linux machines? Nothing in AUR and I do not feel like hunting for PPA right now.

Meanwhile it would be great if Google could provide a repository with a linux version that runs flawlessly.

Thanks!

sorenjan• 11 years ago

How worried should I be that Google will discontinue Google Earth? It hasn't been updated in a long time, Google prefers web apps, and now this. I prefer native apps, and Google maps can't do everything Earth can do.

Google Earth Pro is now free

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