By now you have heard about user-friendly Google Maps and how they can be applied to enhance your business. Now, tighten your seatbelts and make sure your seat backs and tray tables are in the up right and locked position because we are about to blast off with an incredibly powerful new mapping system that will spoil you forever when it comes to locating things anywhere on our planet

Google Earth is a freely downloadable application from Google that has taken the idea of online mapping to a whole new, well ...dimension! Google Earth seamlessly combines high-resolution photographs (from space and/or aircraft) with maps of nearly ever square inch of the United States (and a good portion of the remaining civilized world too).  And, these views are not your ordinary two-dimensional maps, because in addition to photos of the mapped area, they contain elevation information as well. This gives you a more realistic 3-D perspective of any area you are viewing. We will first review some of Google Earth's basic capabilities and then explore how they can be applied within a real estate marketing context.

Come Fly With Me!

With Google Earth you can "fly" into the Grand Canyon or the blown out crater of Mount St. Helens or through downtown Manhattan. You can rotate or change your angle of view and easily travel in any direction just by dragging it with your mouse. In essence, Google Earth gives you a set of "virtual eyes" that allow you to see the world in a way that not even orbiting astronauts could do using a high-powered telescope. 

Demo	CLICK HERE to see a brief Flash movie on how this part of the Google Earth interface works.

And this my friend is just the beginning of what Google Earth is capable of doing...

Insight Through Layers

Perhaps the best way to think of Google Earth is as a rich mapping interface that lets you customize the information you can see for any particular area you view. For most metropolitan areas, Google Earth lets you overlay different kinds of information that are location specific and important to our day-to-day lives. For example, if you want to see the schools, school district boundaries, churches, restaurants, etc. in an area you are currently viewing, it's just a matter of checking the appropriate box in the Layers window. Google Earth comes pre-installed with over 40 layers you can view on your maps.

Demo	CLICK HERE to see this in action.

As rich and elegant as this is, Google Earth also can be customized with just about any kind of overlay you can imagine —as long as you know how (or know someone who knows how).

X Marks The Spot

When you type in an address into the "Fly To" field, Google Earth will literally cause your view to "fly" to that location (very cool to watch!) and then identify your chosen spot with an icon. Google Earth lets you put any kind of icon you want there. It also let's you associate text, photos, and links to Websites that show up in a special "flag" window when you click the icon. While this does take some programming, the results can be stunning.

Some Way To Use Google Earth For Real Estate Marketing

Google Earth utilizes a special text document called a "KML" file, that when double-clicked, will pre-load locations and all the information related to those locations. Well, the IT folks at Prudential Preferred in Chicago didn't take long to figure this out and incorporate it into their listing search experience.  In fact, they set it up so that their listing KML file is automatically updated every three hours, thus keeping the listing data fresh.

Demo	CLICK HERE to see a short Flash video on how this progressive company integrated Google Earth into their online marketing.

More and more people are learning the "language" of customizing Google Earth (they undoubtedly can be found on Elance.com and Guru.com, two virtual service provider networks mentioned in several of my earlier articles.)  Here are some of the things a reasonably talented Google Earth "techy" can do for your Web presence:

• Mapping of Weekly Open House Tours - that includes a short description of the home, the times it will be open to the public and a link to a PDF flyer.
   
• Neighborhood Tours - including numbered icons that when clicked tell a short blurb about the feature in question and perhaps have a link to a virtual tour of that particular spot.
   
• Nearby Recreational Tours - showing different shaded overlays for golf courses, parks, etc. and include a short description of each one.

The possibilities are limited only by your imagination.

Just A Few Caveats...

Now that you are all excited, let me bring you back down to Earth (so to speak) about some of the current limitations:

• Not everyone can run Google Earth - this program requires a great deal of computational horse power, especially with respect to using the latest graphics display cards. Computers sold today should have no problem, but a low-end system or those that are more than 2 years old may not be compatible. Also, Google Earth currently only runs on PCs, the Mac is not supported. This means it will be a while before the majority of mainstream real estate consumers will be able to enjoy the benefits of seeing your listings this way.
   
• You need the "Pro" version to map a large number of locations - Google Earth is free to use for viewing locations, but mapping significant numbers of them or for commercial purposes requires at least a "Pro" license. Current pricing can be found at the Google Earth Home page.
   
• Seamless integration into your online marketing requires the use of a programmer - Google Earth as it currently stands is not suitable to simply put in a number of addresses and let it do it's magic.  Practical application requires a seamless connection from your database of listings to create a KML file that your visitors can click on to launch the program with all the locations pre-installed.  However, it will not be long before 3rd party providers will start offering this as an add-on service to your IDX or VOW service. In fact, one firm in Denver, CO, the Blue Fire Group, Inc. is already doing this to map listings to the Web-based Google Maps, the poor cousin to Google Earth. Their service is called my Mapping Buddy. It's not a great stretch to imagine them offering a similar service to map listings via Google Earth.
   
• Listing addresses do not always map accurately - sometimes the address of a property does not map to the correct location in Google Earth. 
  
  

  Demo	CLICK HERE to see an example of this using my own home.

  
  It would seem that Google Earth would map latitude and longitude coordinates accurately, however for lack of a GPS unit I was not able to test this out with my own home. What this means is that if your MLS listings do not store confirmed latitude and longitude coordinates, you can expect to experience mapping errors.
• Things sometimes change quickly, Google Earth does not - obviously the accuracy of maps and (especially) photos will change over time as new developments arise, old ones are torn down, etc.  Google Earth utilizes a collage of photos that have all different origination dates. Keeping photos of the entire surface of the Earth is a big job, even for Google. Currently it is not clear how often Google intends to update its geographical information.

While Google Earth may not be a practical mapping solution for everyone, it is the future of where mapping is going. Its elegant interface and relative ease of customization makes it the perfect substrate for any kind of geographically related information, even if it is not available yet today. For example, it is not too hard to imagine seeing weather and traffic patterns someday being added as overlays, and so on.

And lastly, Google Earth is just plain fun to use, and it gives everyone who uses it the perspective we are all in this together. No boundaries, no borders —just one big, beautiful Blue Marble that we all share in our journey through space. You once had to be an astronaut to get that kind of view, well... not any more!

Mr. Internet® is the alter-ego of Michael J. Russer, an internationally recognized Internet speaker, trainer, author, and strategic consultant to the real estate industry. He's dedicated to helping real estate professionals leverage their people skills into profit on the Internet. You'll see his column on REALTOR® Magazine Online every month and in the magazine quarterly. Send your Internet questions to help@askmrinternet.com or you can visit his Web site at http://www.russer.com or his newsletter at http://www.epowernews.com.

This article is reprinted in its entirety from the January 2006 issue of REALTOR® Magazine by permission of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. Copyright 2006. All Rights Reserved other than mentioned above. Mr. Internet® is a registered trademark and Ask Mr. Internet!™ is a trademark of RUSSER Communications.