Strategic insights
Virtual Earth Explorer

I am an explorer - a virtual Earth explorer that is. It used to be with Google Earth and their nice coverage of satellite images from all over the world. Then came Microsoft with Live Local and their even more impressive "Bird's Eye View"

Bird's Eye View are aerial images of most major cities in the USA, and it is better than what can be found using Google Earth.

One cool feature is that you can rotate the images and get 360 degree views. And, since each rotated picture is taken at different points in time, you can see more things going on down below.

Example: Air Force One (or SAM 29000 as it is called when the president is not onboard) is only visible when viewed from the south, but not from the north, east or west.

Here you can see the Seattle Seahawks practicing (also only when looking from the south).

This rotate trick allows you to potentially see 4 times as many things - seriously improving the fun factor of exploring.

Other cool earth image locations

A great site for nice findings is "Bird's Eye Tourist". It is neatly categorized and easy to use. It is definitely worth a look.

My favorites are (in no particular order):

• Helicopter in mid-flight
• Saturn V Rocket
• Delta Jet Taking Off
• Sailboat Race
• Air National Guard F-15 Eagles
• Kite Surfer
• Airplane on Building in NYC

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BTW: Many people think that Google was the first company to feature satellite images for the public, they are not. Microsoft launched TerraServer back in May 1997.