Tech Shout!

Search giant Google has launched an improved version of its renowned online mapping program.

Google touted the changes as the first major update to Google Earth since it was launched a year earlier.

“We are excited to celebrate the one year anniversary of Google Earth and the Google Maps API with new technologies for these products,” John Hanke, director of Google Earth and Maps, said in a release.

“In the past year, we have had more than 100 million unique Google Earth downloads and have enabled over 30,000 websites to create mash-ups combining their own geographic data with the Google Maps API.”

You can download it for free at http://earth.google.com. One of the upgrade’s cooler features: More verisimilitude. You can now see buildings in three dimensions without donning 3D glasses. A file format allows Google Earth travelers to share three-dimensional models of buildings and landscapes. Since the new version covers four times more terrain, about a third of the world’s peeps can now get a bird’s-eye view of their homes and favorite haunts.

Google Earth was made available for the Linux operating system as well as for Windows and Macintosh systems, and the mapping service was localised in French, Italian, German and Spanish, the company said.

High-resolution mapping imagery was improved fourfold, according to Hanke.

Feedback from website developers inspired the company to clear the way for “Google Maps-powered mash-ups,” a reference to websites that merge their own data with maps, Google said.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt hailed the company’s mapping products as “one of the defining opportunities around search.”

Google also announced a fee-based licensing option for members of the “enterprise community” interested in using Google Maps for tasks such as tracking shipments or mapping customer locations.

Google outlined the changes at a “Geo Developer Day” at its campus in the Silicon Valley city of Mountain View, California.

“The enthusiasm of the geo-developer community encourages us that these geo-based tools are connecting users to information in new and innovative ways,” Hanke said.