Goggling Google Earth

Groundspeak unveiled the new Google Earth networking function on waymarking.com this week and it seems like it will be a fun new addition to the features on the Website. Not being a techie-type person, I'm still mucking around, trying to figure out what I'm doing. At this point I haven't found a way that it can make my life any easier, however, it is fun to look around at where a category's waymarks are located.

I did notice that I had typed in the coordinates of one of my "Musician Statue" waymarks wrong when I submitted it which showed the statue of classical composer, Grieg, somewhere out in the middle of the Cascade mountains rather than in the middle of the University of Washington campus in Seattle. Nice to get that fixed as there's a geocacher that checks the coordinates of many of my waymarks and emails me whenever he finds a mistake. I don't even know the guy, so it's a little creepy.

Anyhow, I think that the Google Earth feature will at first be just a fun addition, but as it is refined will become a useful tool. I'm looking forward to the day when you can waymark along a route - a feature available on geocaching.com. Of course, there may be some amazingly helpful feature to Google Earth that I'm missing. I mean, we're over a month into the new updated search functions and I'm still figuring out how to use them to their full capability. I'd love to hear how you guys are using Google Earth, so send some comments as to how you are incorporating this new update into your waymarking routine.

PS: How often are the photos on Google Earth updated? I looked at the Seattle Sculpture Garden arial and in the pic it showed it before construction started. The shot of my neighborhood is at least 8 years old. Call me an airhead, but I thought this was live - you know, like you could catch a guy picking his nose or something?!