earthviewer apps Re: whoa

[Gordon Mohr]

Gary Lawrence Murphy cynicizes:
> Hmmm, just as I thought.  In other words, it has no practical uses
> whatsoever ;) 

Tourism is the world's largest industry. Using this
to preview your travels, or figure out where you are,
would be very valuable.

Online gaming continues to grow. Screw "Britannia", 
real-life Britain would be a fun world to wander/
conquer/explore virtually, in role-playing or real-
time-strategy games.

And of course, as James Rogers points out, it's an
ideal display substrate for all sorts of other 
overlaid data. Maps are great, photrealistic 3-D
maps of everywhere which can have many other static 
and dynamic datasets overlaid are spectacular. 

(Combining those last two thoughts: consider the
static world map, in faded colors, with patches
here-and-there covered by live webcams, stitched
over the static info in bright colors... it'd be
like the "fog of war" view in games like Warcraft,
over the real world.)

- Gordon