<story><title>Google Earth Pro is now free</title><url>http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2015/01/google-earth-pro-is-now-free.html</url><text>... Has tools to measure 3D buildings and other locations, print high-resolution screenshots, view demographic and traffic layers, and even record your virtual trips.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>tazjin</author><text>Where I live (Stockholm) Google Maps has become completely useless at finding anything.&lt;p&gt;It used to be the case that you could search for the name of a store chain (e.g. Systembolaget - the state alcohol stores) and it would show some of their stores on a map around you, nowadays it picks some random one (never close to where you are) and displays that instead.&lt;p&gt;The same thing has started happening for lots of places that it used to find before, that are now seemingly just gone. In the meantime Apple Maps has been consistently improving and is now my go-to maps application on the phone.</text></item><item><author>raverbashing</author><text>Yeah, too bad Bing Maps search is a bad joke. Really&lt;p&gt;You have to specify if it&amp;#x27;s a Address or a Place (if your initial search doesn&amp;#x27;t work, which is pretty much always)</text></item><item><author>gcb0</author><text>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&amp;#x27;t a threat. now somehow google feel they are gaining market and decided to counter attack.</text></item><item><author>superdude</author><text>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.&lt;p&gt;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.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>isaacdl</author><text>Exactly the same thing happens to me here in the midwest United States. If I search, for example, for &amp;quot;fast food&amp;quot;, especially on my phone, it tends to shift the entire map to some random city, state, or town (and sometimes country). It seems to have a particular affinity for the state of Alabama and also the western coast of Nigeria.</text></comment>
<story><title>Google Earth Pro is now free</title><url>http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2015/01/google-earth-pro-is-now-free.html</url><text>... Has tools to measure 3D buildings and other locations, print high-resolution screenshots, view demographic and traffic layers, and even record your virtual trips.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>tazjin</author><text>Where I live (Stockholm) Google Maps has become completely useless at finding anything.&lt;p&gt;It used to be the case that you could search for the name of a store chain (e.g. Systembolaget - the state alcohol stores) and it would show some of their stores on a map around you, nowadays it picks some random one (never close to where you are) and displays that instead.&lt;p&gt;The same thing has started happening for lots of places that it used to find before, that are now seemingly just gone. In the meantime Apple Maps has been consistently improving and is now my go-to maps application on the phone.</text></item><item><author>raverbashing</author><text>Yeah, too bad Bing Maps search is a bad joke. Really&lt;p&gt;You have to specify if it&amp;#x27;s a Address or a Place (if your initial search doesn&amp;#x27;t work, which is pretty much always)</text></item><item><author>gcb0</author><text>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&amp;#x27;t a threat. now somehow google feel they are gaining market and decided to counter attack.</text></item><item><author>superdude</author><text>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.&lt;p&gt;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.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>GFischer</author><text>Yes, it&amp;#x27;s so bad in so many places I actually started a side project &amp;#x2F; startup to provide that functionality :) .&lt;p&gt;We got to a proof-of-concept stage but it&amp;#x27;s currently on hold (the other two cofounders quit&amp;#x2F;don&amp;#x27;t have time for it either), but I think it&amp;#x27;s certainly a need that isn&amp;#x27;t being serviced by Google.&lt;p&gt;My project is called EncontraloCerca, it&amp;#x27;s supposed to be for Uruguay and Argentina first, but when we get to Stockholm I&amp;#x27;ll let you know :) .</text></comment>