Google's satellite imagery software has truly changed the way we look at the globe. The application lets you zoom in on any part of the world and for some places, observe from a few meters away.

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.

If stars is what you are into, turn to the Space mode and navigate among the constellations.

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

Google Earth is as of yet an unequalled application. Browse around the world, zoom into streets or go up and gaze at the stars. Millions of possibilities.

Download Google Earth 4.3 Beta in Softonic

While Google Earth remains the undisputed navigational heavyweight master of global mapping, Microsoft have weighed in with a reasonable effort.

This beta version of Virtual Earth combines local search with maps and aerial photography. Microsoft have included satellite imagery with maps in its local search results for quite some time but with Virtual Earth, the display is focused primarily around maps and aerial views. You can zoom in and out of maps or images, and drag the images around within the display at leisure and the basic search interface is similar to MSN's local search with "what" and "where" forms to specify what you're searching for. In addition, text results for searches are displayed in floating popup windows on the left side of the display. Aerial photographs are overlaid with labels, showing street names, landmarks, and other features, even including directional arrows for one-way streets plus permalinks saves a screenshot of everything open in Virtual Earth, including the map view location and search results.

It may not be in the same class as Google Earth but this is one of Microsoft's better efforts it has to be said.

Download Microsoft Virtual Earth Beta in Softonic

Let’s say you’re a bit of a catastrophic person, worried about potential Earth events like volcanoes and earthquakes, maybe near where you live. Earth Alerts is just the program you need to have the situation under control and make you feel safer. At this stage, it only provides data for American cities, but maybe in the future the rest of the world will be reassured about fires, severe weather conditions and, as we mentioned, seismic activity.

To start monitoring a city, just click the New Location option you find in the Settings menu. Normally, if you write the name of city the program should find it in its database and automatically fill in all the information, like Time Zone or Weather Zone, which otherwise could be tricky to insert manually. Add as many cities as you like to receive regular updates during the day.

On the left side of Earth Alerts’s window, you have the list of your chosen cities, with the corresponding volcano, fire and earthquake alerts and also severe weather indications. There is also a global overview with ongoing Earth activity, with a special Tsunami and Tropical section in addition to those mentioned above.

Earth Alerts provides regular updates on Earth geological and meteorological activities, both globally and for specified American cities. Information is presented in a clear way, although you shouldn’t expect to receive lots of it every day… hopefully.

Download Earth Alerts 2008 1.74 in Softonic

EarthBrowser delivers a 3D model of the earth with constantly updating live meteroligical information to your desktop. Exploring the earth is fun and easy with a point-and-click interface that lets you rotate and zoom to any desired location. EarthBrowser's dynamic nature makes it an information resource that is useful and fascinating to use.

Highlights of the program include:

• Global weather forecasts for over 17,000 locations
• High resolution 1km/pixel satellite map of the Earth
• Live hurricane and tropical storm tracking
• Satellite cloud animations are updated every 3 hours
• Live earthquake map with magnitudes and links
• Live ocean buoy data for over 250 buoys
• Daily fire hotspot display
• Hundreds of dynamic webcams all over the globe
• Political borders/Tectonic plate boundaries
• Times in cities of all world time zones

Download EarthBrowser 3.0.4 in Softonic

Have you ever wondered what life is like on the other side of the world, just on a normal day like today? Stop wondering: now you can see it.

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'll never have seen before.

You're 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 Fools Satellite Live 1.0 in Softonic

Staring at the moon has something romantic about it, doesn't it? But I'm not sure if staring at this virtual moon produces the same effect.

Moonphase is an astronomic tool that tells you exactly what the moon phase is at this very moment – or on any day you choose from the program's embedded calendar. It works with any location on Earth, which you can select by entering the correspondent latitude and longitude numbers or simply by clicking on the map (much easier, huh?).

Besides displaying the moon phase and using attractive animations to switch from one phase to the other when you change date or location, the program doesn't really offer much more: no configuration settings, no location search box. Well, at least you get the sunrise and sunset times as a free extra.

Moonphase is a simple astronomy tool especially developed for those of you who feel a special attraction towards our satellite.

Download Moonphase 3.1 in Softonic

Google Maps Images Downloader is a cute tool that help you to get small tile images from Google Maps. All downloaded small images are saved on the disk. You can view downloaded maps by MapViewer.exe Or you can combine them into a big BMP map by Combine.exe.

Note: The downloaded images are only for your personal purpose, non-commercial use.

Download Google Maps Images Downloader 4.25 in Softonic

Not content with monopolizing the search world, Google is now busy making a splash in several other areas including, rather bizarrely, 3D design. Tradtionally, 3D modelling software commands a pretty high price and SketchUp aims to provide a basic alternative to industry mainstays like 3DSMax and Cinema4D – for free.

3D illustration can be a complex affair, but SketchUp keeps things as simple as possible, making for a far less daunting experience than you’ll get with many professional 3D apps. Technical jargon is kept to a minimum. For instance, the ‘Extrude’ tool is renamed to the more obvious ‘Push/Pull,’ and there are countless other examples.

The hand-holding doesn’t stop there, as the program features some rather helpful guide-snapping when you draw rectangles, and circles. For those unfamiliar with drawing in a 3D plane this is a god-send as the program helps you find the end and middle points of lines and squares and tells you if you’re on the right track. The program is able to predict where you want endpoints to meet and snaps them shut for you, saving lots of time.

In terms of its toolset, SketchUp comes with pretty much the usual collection of drawing and filling tools, neatly gathered within a left-hand toolbar. Other options can be accessed via the menu system, or you can choose to place extra palettes on the workspace to save wading through menus. Of particular note is the ‘Materials’ palette, which contains over 100 different preset swatches, such as vegetation, metal and glass. The Shadow Settings palette is also worth keeping to hand, as it allows you to apply realistic shadows via simple sliders.

As Google’s software portfolio matures we’re starting to see more and more integration between its products and we like the way that you can export models you create in SketchUp into Google Earth. Once you’ve done that, you can send images of your 3D designs mapped on satellite through email or upload to free storage space at Google’s 3D Web Warehouse.

There are few flaws within the program but perhaps the most annoying arrives when extruding curves. It becomes quite difficult to realise domed surfaces because of the cumbersome nature of the Extrude tool, although pushing and pulling straight lines is considerably easier.

Although it lacks some of the advanced features of many of its heavyweight rivals, Google SketchUp provides a refreshingly simple approach to 3D graphic design and modelling. This makes it perfect for anyone who’s thinking of dabbling but doesn’t want to shell out a fortune to start with, and doesn’t have an intimate knowledge of CAD technology.

Download Google SketchUp 6 in Softonic

The main ActiveEarth window consists of an image of the earth and a control tray with clocks and information. The application is completely resizable, and the image is designed to look great at any resolution.

The image of the earth is a composite image showing which portions are currently in day or night. Both the day and night images are composites of thousands of satellite images resulting in gorgeous, cloudless pictures of our globe. In the night image you can even see city lights around the world!

The main map can be displayed in a rectangular, lat-lon projection, a rounded, Robinson projection, or as a globe that is centered on the current "more information" city. Right click on the map to change the projection and optionally show the city labels and map corner objects.

Download ActiveEarth 2.1.2641 in Softonic

NASA released World Wind six months before Google Earth, yet it failed to make as much of an impact. However, anything coming out of the prestigious American aeronautics administration is definitely worth a closer look. So what sets World Wind apart from Google Earth?

World Wind's real selling point is the quality of its satellite imagery. World Wind reveals Earth in many different perspectives thanks to the large variety of maps. Blue Marble exposes Earth in its true colors, Landsat 7 gives you high resolution imagery, and MODIS can display time relevant data such as earthquakes, fires or floods. Browse over mountains and observe the snowy peaks, the clouds, and the different colors of the rock, with incredible precision. Be aware though that the lower you go, the more detail will appear, and World Wind will take more time to process the image.

A digital globe wouldn't be complete without its own search option. Find a destination by typing its name in the search tool located on the top bar. Landmarks are particularly well catalogued. If you select the landmark finder tool from the top section, World Wind will exhibit small tags for all locations it considers of significance. Click on the tag and you will be directed to the Wikipedia page for that particular landmark, where you'll be able to read all about it. It is important to point out however that the search function in World Wind is not as good at finding cities as it is with landmarks.

Another of World Wind's assets is its usability. Zoom in over the map using the rollover button of your mouse and skim to parts of the screen with your mouse. The more you focus down on a place the more names of cities and significant locations pop up. These can clog up your screen however, so you'd be wise to configure World Wind to only show the information you need, like country borders and urban areas.

To set itself apart from Google Earth, World Wind provides two original tools. Capitalizing on its lunar explorations, the aeronautics administration lets you view the Moon in extremely high definition. Focus in on its craters, deserts and plains and search for Apollo 11's landing site. Additionally, World Wind recreates the infamous Oregon trail mapped out by American adventurers Lewis and Clark at the beginning of the 19th century, stretching out from Independece, Missouri to the Pacific state of Oregon. World Wind points to significant landmarks which should be of interest to students or history amateurs.

World Wind is as good a digital imagery program as Google Earth. While the image resolution process can be sluggish, World Wind manages to set itself apart thanks to its landmark finder and fun tools like the Moon visualizer and the Lewis & Clark trail.

Download NASA World Wind 1.3.5 in Softonic

It is cross-platform, free and open-source version of NASA World Wind software. WW2D allows you to explore Earth using satellite imagery, topographic maps and image from other data sources also providing large placenames and boundaries database and allowing you to install community-made add-ons for even more information about our planet.

In basic configuration WW2D uses images from Blue Marble (1 km/pixel), LandSat7 (15 m/pixel), USGS Topo Maps, USGS Digital Ortho imagery, USGS Urban Area imagery. WW2D is designed to dynamically download needed data from internet, however you can download data you want for faster access and offline usage.

Download WW2D 0.99.88 RC1 in Softonic

Motherplanet Earth Explorer integrates high-resolution satellite imagery (1km resolution) with kinds of map layers such as political boundaries, coastlines, rivers, lake and island boundaries, 267 countries and regions, 40000+ ranked cities, 15000+ islands, and 1700+ noteworthy historical earthquakes since 1980 into a fantastic 3D earth globe.

You can specify what kinds of map layers to be shown, rotate the globe, click right mouse button and pull/push to zoom in/out the current map view, measure distance between any two points on the map, etc.

Key features:

• A 3D bird's-eye view of our beautiful earth
• Photo-realistic satellite imagery at 1km resolution covered entire earth globe
• Integrates with several kinds of map layers
• Rotate/Zoom in/Zoom out functions lets you observe our beautiful planet at any point
• Three kinds of operation modes (Drag, Center, Measure)
• Measure distance between any two points on the globe
• Intelligent tips when your mouse moves upon a location
• Sort country/city/island/earthquake table
• Save favorite maps with BMP, JPEG formats

Download Earth Explorer 4.6 in Softonic

With Arm Map Explorer you can:

• Study physical and economic geography
• Explore the Earth surface using dynamic interactive maps
• View maps with a coordinate grid
• View state capitals, large cities, international airports, world landmarks
• Print and save map images

Arm Map Explorer recreates all the functionalities of Google Maps on your desktop and adds extras. Map Explorer lets you locate and view any place on the planet using dynamic interactive maps. These maps are draggable, meaning no need to click and wait for graphics to reload each time you want to view adjacent parts of a map. Viewing locations on maps in Map Explorer resembles the way you use a regular street map.

In addition to the features offered by Google Maps, Map Explorer allows you to view a map with a coordinate grid on it, get precise coordinates of any location on the map and move to a location based on specified coordinates. With the help of the object tree, you can instantly locate and view capitals of states, large cities, world landmarks, monuments, international airports and other locations. You can save a map as a file or print it to use on a trip. Map Explorer can help you study geography, both physical and economic. The program will display a satellite view of any location that you can zoom in and out and pan in any direction.

Download Arm Map Explorer 1.0 in Softonic

Using the MapCreator software you can - easily and without cartographic knowledge - create physical maps of a very high quality. Physical maps emphasize the natural features of the earth's surface (mountains and valleys, vegetation, water...). The very great amount of geo-data necessary for this has been integrated in the software. Convince yourself of the qualities of MapCreator by looking at some maps.

Creating maps with MapCreator is really easy, the user interface has a completely graphic representation offering numerous possibilities for creating maps:

• The map extract can be freely adjusted. For a particularly fast setting of the map extract, ca. 100 pre-defined map extracts have been supplied additionally
• For representing land and sea, a ca. 2.3 GB data base for terrain heights, sea depths, vegetation and satellite photos is available. Land and sea can be represented in relief. The distinctness of the relief is adjustable
• Inland waters can be represented in very high quality. The edges of the water are drawn softly, the width of the river increases with its course. The quantity of water drawn can be adjusted
• In addition, borders, towns and a grid can be drawn on the map
• Any symbols required can be drawn on the map
• The maps created can be stored in the picture formats BMP, JPG, TIFF, PNG, TGA, PBM, PGM and PPM and can be further processed using all normal graphics software

Download MapCreator Free Edition 1.0 in Softonic

This screensaver creates a satellite map of the world, showing the areas where the sun is currently shining. This allows you to literally watch the world go by whenever your computer is inactive or you go away from your desk.

Download EarthWatcher 1.1.1 in Softonic