It's good to have a healthy skepticism about the claims of the
> hype-driven technology industry. But there are times when even a
> hardened skeptic has to admit to amazement and delight at the sheer
> coolness of some of the things you can do on a personal computer
> today. And one of those "wow" moments happens the first time you run a
> new program called Google Earth.
As someone who works with topo and satellite info as part of my work, I find Google Earth to be basically fluff with little substance. (aka, hype).
Sat data are expensive and all Google is doing is baiting with some metro area stuff. Most of the country is junk photos. Maybe they will eventually have real coverage for a whole lot of money. Terraserver.com is a lot better and a lot more honest about this stuff.