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The Geo Visitors service is very cool for webmasters. Geo Visitors shows a Google map with pins where people were when they visited a web site. There is a link to this service at the bottom of the forum pages here.

To go with the Geo Visitors service you can use Google Earth. The two are integrated with each other. Google Earth is a "3D" world map. You can zoom in to locations. When using Geo Visitors you can automatically zoom in to where the site users are.

I like to browse around and check out the golf courses. There is a checkbox in Google Earth to show where the courses are. You can even zoom into a green, but of course there isn't much detail. We can't read the greens yet hehe.

Google Earth can be used for other things...I used it to track where a local trout stream goes to look for potential places to fish. I even found a pond nearby that I should check out. It is sort of in 3D. I was scanning a canyon road with huge cliffs...it's wild to automatically pan around while looking straight down the cliffs.

Here is a screen capture of Google Earth:

Wow, that is a really neat feature. Thanks for pointing that out FOR.

Yeah, that is cool. The computer guy at work was showing me that last week.

I've noticed that there are some places where it's so clear you can see cars on the road, and others where it's just plain blurry. For instance, where I'm at, I have to zoom very far out to see anything at all.

Google earth is the bomb! The imagery is up to date with in the last 12 months in most places. I found my Hummer I used in Iraq in our Foward Operating Base we used last year. Of course that also tells you how good the Imagery is if I could find my hummer in Baghdad.

This thing is awesome!

The 3D is really cool when panning over the mountains. I did a little exploring locally (see picture) and also was checking out Alaska, Montana, Washington, and other places. I know where there are golf courses in Anchorage hehe.

I think I'll go on safari now and try to find a lion or elephant.

Yeah, I looked up Anchorage earlier tonight...in fact, just outside downtown Anchorage there appears to be a really nice looking layout...didn't show up with the name or anything though.

The view of my home is at least three years old because the pool I put in back in 2002 isn't there. I even looked out the back window to make sure someone hasn't stolen it!

To go with Google Earth there is a discussion forum. It can be enabled when you click on a landmark for one thing (called something BBS).

The discussion forums is wild. The first thing you see in most posts is a link to Google Earth that shows one or more landmarks. There is a military forum for bases, helicopters spotted flying, underground nuclear explosions, missile sites, etc. Ever wanted to be a spy? There ya go!

Sure, there are privacy issues...you can see where Shaq's house is for instance hehe. He basically lives on an island.

I like to see the general area where people live that visit my site. Golf enthusiasts tend to live where there is great golf hehe. I visited Australia this morning.

I did go on a "safari" last night, but there isn't enough detail in the area. However, there are landmarks with very detailed aerial photos of herds of elephants, etc. taken at that exact spot. Very cool.

Google Earth is the coolest thing I have seen since automatic flushing urinals.

I've enjoyed using Google Earth myself. I do find it interesting that it uses old shots of New Orleans before Katrina.