Advertisement

Google Earth is reinvented for new era, with storytelling and AI

The new service includes guided interactive tours with partners including BBC Earth, Nasa and Sesame Street, and much more embedded information taken from Google’s massive knowledge database

Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Google Earth unveiled the revamped version of the application (here showing Paris) at an event at New York's Whitney Museum of Art. Photo: AFP/Timothy Clary

Google has launched an updated version of its free Earth mapping service, weaving in storytelling and artificial intelligence, and freeing it from apps.

Advertisement

“This is our gift to the world,” says Google Earth director Rebecca Moore.

“It’s a product that speaks to our deepest values around education and making information available to people.”

A new “Voyager” feature enables people digitally exploring the planet to be guided on interactive stories told by experts, with partners that include BBC Earth, Nasa, Sesame Street, and the Jane Goodall Institute.

Google artificial intelligence will be put to work for Earth users in the form of “knowledge cards” that let them go deeper into online information about mountains, countries, landmarks or other places being virtually visited.

Advertisement

It will also make suggestions on other locations based on armchair explorers’ previous searches.

loading
Advertisement