GoogleEarth now available as a browser plugin

I have long been a fan of GoogleEarth, the free earth (and sky) mapping and visualization tool. At their recent I/O conference, Google announced that GoogleEarth is now available as a browser (IE6/7 and Firefox 2+) plugin. That is, instead of having to run it as a standalone program, it can now be used within your Internet browser. (Don't confuse this with GoogleMaps which has a different function.) There is still some development work before you see it appearing on a web site near you, but read more about it here. Go here to install the plugin and see how it works. (See my graphic above.) For those who haven't downloaded the whole GoogleEarth program (why?), this will be a great way to obtain its functionality. I'm also happy to report that it is very fast and responsive.