Google Earth not only displaces satellite images but it also includes terrains and sometimes 3D reconstruction of buildings. You can look for directions and businesses, just like in Google Maps and pinpoint areas or draw on maps straight in Google Earth.

Google Earth includes a very wide, and constantly increasing library of layers, which you can add to the map to enrich your experience. You'll find all sorts of information, from historical landscapes to national parks, regions where you can find endangered species or tourist spots. Google Earth will also showcase more news related information such as forest fires or tsunamis.

But Google Earth is not limited to terrain, and with every new version, it adds new sources of satellite imagery and information about other areas in the world. Say you're really into stars; then you should turn to the Space mode and navigate among the constellations. Or, if you prefer exploring the seas, enable the Water surface option and learn all the secrets about oceans and marine creatures. What's more, the latest version lets you travel in time by providing you with a new Historical Imagery function that allows you to see the evolution of certain locations during the past few years.

Moving around in Google Earth is incredibly intuitive thanks to the multiple navigation tools. Some areas will show less information than others, and Google Earth is known to use up a substantial amount of bandwidth, but it remains a fascinating piece of software. Recently updated to include Google Street View, you now don't have to make the choice of which Google mapping tool you want to use when planning routes and inspecting the globe.

Google Earth is as of yet an unequaled application. Browse around the world, zoom into streets, gaze at the stars or dive into the ocean. Millions of possibilities.

Download Google Earth 7.1.1.1580 in Softonic

Satellite Live is an impressive mapping application with which you can view satellite imagery from any location on the planet, traveling from one place to another with just a mouse click and zooming in and out at your will. In a way it works very much like the popular Google Earth but with a slight difference: Satellite Live offers live, real-time images.

The program uses former military technology that has now been released to civilians. Software developers have quickly taken advantage of it, producing a striking piece of software like you've probably never seen before.

You'll be able to watch people actually walking down the street, parking their cars, buying groceries from the market stall or going for a walk in the park. Obviously the program only shows images from public and open areas so forget about peeking into somebody's bathroom to witness private stuff. Nevertheless, Satellite Live features an extraordinary zoom level with which you won't miss a single thing.

The program includes also a locating feature (which finds any place on Earth in a matter of seconds), an embedded screen capturing tool and navigational buttons to move around maps. However, there's no support for extra information layers yet.

Bear in mind that the level of detail may vary from one place to another, which means that populated areas such as New York, Los Angeles, London or Tokyo have more image quality than the Nevada desert or the Amazon jungle. In any case, Satellite Live is still an incredible application that opens a window to the world from your own computer.

Satellite Live lets you witness what's going on in any location on the planet, in real time. Though the level of detail may vary, it's still an impressive app with which to learn how life is in other parts of the world.

Download April Fool's Satellite Live 1.0 in Softonic

Making use of a vast satellite imagery database – actually the same as the free version, Google Earth Pro displays locations from all over the world, enabling you to zoom in from the image of the whole planet to the streets of any capital city. As a Pro version user, you're supposed to enjoy a faster performance, but we couldn't really notice any difference.

Another interesting feature included in Google Earth Pro is the ability to record videos with your movements around the world, which you can use to illustrate trips or even give directions. You can choose different resolutions, but record only in WMV format.

Technical support assistance, Premium print and a GID data importer are other additional capabilities of this Pro version.

However, taking into account that both versions share the same image database, which in the end is Google Earth's biggest value, you may as well use the free version.

Download Google Earth Pro 6.0 Beta in Softonic

World Explorer makes uses of Google Maps and Street View to take you to over 350,000 locations pointing out and highlighting popular sightseeing spots along the way. There are geo-location tools to help you locate exactly where certain spots are if you ever want to physically visit them and a trip planner helps you plan real trips.

The navigation window in World Explorer is a bit small - it would be nice if you could increase the size of it. There also seems no way to enable 3D street viewing. However, I like the way that it uses Wikipedia to give additional info on each location and instantly allows you to calculate the distance between various hotspots.

World Explorer is a great learning tool for anyone interested in geography and sightseeing.

Download World Explorer 1.0 in Softonic

The demo version itself is pretty limited, as a watermark constantly appears over the map, and you can't update the map and get the latest locations and roads, unless you actually purchase the application.

RouteBuddy is a solid mapping application for anyone serious about preparing a long journey and wanting to monitor their location via a GPS.

Download RouteBuddy 2.5 in Softonic

MacENC is about as professional as it gets when it comes to GPS navigation. It's designed mainly for mariners who need a real-time display of where they are in the World at any one time. It displays your position on what are known as Electronic Navigational Charts and raster format BSB and Softcharts, making it a highly flexible tool. To use it, simply plug a GPS device into your Mac and watch your vessel moving in real-time. You can check plot points marking your route so you can see where you've come from.

MacENC can also be useful simply for plotting trips without a GPS device since one is not essential to use with the charts. Handily, MacENC is also compatible with Google Earth and a professional mapping tool known as X-Traverse. Because this is a tool designed for professional use, it's very hefty to upgrade although if you're seriously wanting to use your Mac for maritime adventures, it's probably worth it. The big disadvantage of MacENC is that you need a GPS device although some applications, such as GPSRouteX, allow you to plot your route in Google Earth using your Mac as a GPS device if rudimentary tracking - and not plotting - is all you need.

MacENC is only for the professional mariners out there who want to use their Mac and GPS device to make navigation a whole lot easier.

Download MacENC 7.5 in Softonic

Knapsack is a program which will not only allow you to plan your travel itinerary but also write down all your experiences, keep your photos and even keep a checklist. The application integrates a map, which is the best way to pin down the locations you want to visit, and have a global view of your trip. You can create checklists for all sorts of things, like things to bring on your trip, places to visit or friends you might want to meet on the way.

Working similarly to iTunes, Knapsack allows you to create groups and smart groups by which to organize all your different trips. You can even create sample trips for the future, a great way to get an idea of how you'll have to schedulle your next vacations.

Obviously, Knapsack is not as precise as a blog, and you won't be able to interact with other people and let them comment on your trip. However, Knapsack is a useful tool to plan everything for your trip and then print out your itinerary and planning lists.

Recommended for students going on gap years, or just anybody looking to plan well their next vacation.

Download Knapsack 2.1.7 in Softonic

However, Google's groundbreaking Earth navigation application isn't the only option out there, as Marble proves. Marble is a Virtual Globe and World Atlas that allows you to learn more about the Earth. It enables you to pan and zoom around the planet, inspect landmarks, places and roads, and is enlivened by lots of useful links to Wikipedia articles.

You do all the standard things like measure distances, lay down place markers and obtain coordinates for a specific location. One nice little feature is that you can also observe the cloud cover in a particular location and even lay 'filters' over the globe. These include a topographic map, satellite view, street map, Earth at night, and temperature maps. Marble has therefore clearly been designed more with educators and classrooms in mind than Google Earth.

The downside of Marble is that it's rather selective in the regions it covers. Western countries are annotated and illustrated in great detail, while the rest of the world - especially the southern hemisphere - is lacking in information.

Marble is an interesting alternative to Google Earth that's completely free to use and ideal for educators.

Download Marble 0.8 in Softonic

A small control panel allows you to switch between layers in Google Maps, Google Earth, TNT Open and TNT Map Viewer.

Download TNTmap Widget 070423 in Softonic

The program actually works both ways, so you can receive data from your GPS and save it to your Mac or send data to your Garmin GPS. You'll need to make sure you have a USB to serial adapter to connect your GPS to your Mac to be able to use the application.

iGPS lets you choose whether you want to send or receive only waypoints, routes or both types of elements. Thanks to the drop down menus you can choose exactly which waypoint or route you want to select. You'll be able to save the information in GPX format which can then be read by any Garmin GPS device.

The trial prevents you from saving and sending to different GPS so you'll only be able to try it with one device.

iGPS makes receiving and sending GPS waypoints and routes to and from your Mac really easy.

Download iGPS 2.2.1 in Softonic

There are three types of quizzes: cities, countries and flags. You have no time limit and can skip a question if you don't know the answer. And if you're feeling really smart, you can decide to take on the world and have questions coming from any continent. World of Where seems particularly directed for US users as it can also quiz you on American States. Try it out and see how much you know about geography.

Download World of Where 3.8.1 in Softonic

Google Earth is ideal for doing this and Geotagger allows you to do so. Simply drag images over the location you wish to insert into them in Google Earth, and then drag them onto the Geotagger icon. Once tagged, the information remains with it as metadata and can be imported directly into the likes of iPhoto, Flickr, Panoramio, etc. Of course, the latest version of iPhoto already supports its own Geotagging so to some extent, Geotagger is redundant for that particular app.

To target where you want to geotag in Google Earth, you use a pair of cross-hairs to mark the location. It can be a bit tricky to pinpoint the precise location you took them and an integrated search function would have been useful. Note that Geotagger uses an external utility known as exiftool to create the Exif data that your photo is then tagged with.

Geotagger may have been superseded by geotagging functions in Google Earth and iPhoto but for those photo apps that still lack it, it's a quick and easy solution.

Download Geotagger 2.0 in Softonic

GeoEdu is an atlas complete with geographic data from many different continents, countries, and oceans. It helps you to learn the people, language, size, and location of any country and its flag. GeoEdu is also useful for helping you learn what geographical terms refer to. For example, it helps you to learn the difference between a region and a dependency, a state and a country, and other basic terms that you need to be familiar with. In this way, it's suitable for both kids needing to learn more about the world, and adults who have forgotten a lot of elementary geography.

The most useful learning tool is the Quiz mode that allows you to test your knowledge. The developer claims that there are over 10,000 questions in there. You can pick from eight types of question and choose the countries that you want to focus on (although this trial only allows you to choose the American continent), and even select regions within each country. Most interesting is the 'Voyage' options, which allow you to physically take a journey across borders while learning and answering questions along the way.

While GeoEdu is an excellent learning application, technically it leaves a lot to be desired. I was constantly plagued by a 'The file cannot be modified' warning that popped up several times before I'd even configured the program - and similar error messages appeared while I was using it.

GeoEdu is an excellent learning tool, especially for teenagers and young adults, although it needs some technical bugs ironing out before it really impresses.

Download GeoEdu 1.31 in Softonic

Online maps like Google Maps or Yahoo! Maps are precise, but they don't really let you add that much information.

Meander is really easy to work with and you can add all sorts of informations and reminders on your map without actually messing it up.

Not only can you plot points for your route and measure distances, but you can also keep up a journal with specific observations on points in your hike.

Afterwards, you'll be able to export or print your map with observations and share them with anyone.

We were a little disappointed that it did not allow to save presets though. Also, first time users might be a little confused because Meander doesn't actually load a map.

You have to place the application over your Mac to make it work.