Remember when dreaming of exotic and far off lands was the stuff of imagination? If you wanted a glimpse into the world beyond your own walls you had to look in a glossy travel magazine or, if you were lucky, you knew someone who had recently traveled. It was usually a toss-up as to whether you were more excited than they were about their photos coming back.

Present day, Google Earth’s “Photos” layer already lets you see photo albums from people all over the world. Simply choose a place, zoom in, find the photo icons, and realize five hours later how much time you’ve spent on a virtual walkabout. This new feature makes viewing multiple photos from the same location even easier.

As always, the “Photos” layer must be checked. Once you’re in the vicinity of the area you’re visiting, you’ll notice that the icons representing user-submitted photos are now both large and small. Simply click on one of the larger icons to bring up a cluster of photos and use the left and right arrow keys to view them. The days of clicking individual photos are officially a memory.

Getting a feel for a new area has never been easier. Exploring a potential vacation site, new home, or just enjoying the photos that other people have posted from around the world is now a single key press away. And, I’d imagine, the number of hours people spend viewing other people’s travel albums just saw a significant bump.

Local business owners need to jump on this immediately. You now have the ability to create a cluster of photos around your business, upload them for free, and get a larger icon on the viewer’s screen. You can instantly become a destination rather than a listing. And, at a time when every advertising penny matters, an increase in the size of your photo icon on Google Earth can do nothing but help you.

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Google Earth and Google Maps are two ways for users from all over the world to access accurate data and view the world as it is right now. They are fast, functional and user friendly to ensure everyone, young and old has the opportunity to learn and enjoy from the simple touch of a button. In order to provide the best service possible for their 100 million+ users worldwide, Google has developed an incredibly powerful infrastructure that can process petabytes of data to deliver information instantly.

With such a powerful process in hand, Google has drawn the attention of many governments and even businesses who would like to access this infrastructure to better manage their geospatial data. Here is where Google Earth Builder comes in. Not only will users be able to process geospatial data in a streamlined manner from Google’s own cloud technology but also build their own personal maps, view and securely share these maps with anyone, anywhere and even save on time, management and server cost.

This is just the beginning; the ultimate goal is to slowly provide more of the geo infrastructure to everyone in order to perform tasks simply and easily in the cloud through Google Earth Builder. With the expected launch in Q3, millions are anticipating this newly opened door to streamline business processes and shape a new world of business both online and offline.

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