Google Earth 6 arrives with Street View and 3D trees

Google has released Google Earth 6, with the latest version of the digital atlas apparently bringing realism to a new level as well as 'true' integration with Street View.

Google Earth has been a popular tool from the search giants, and has now hit its sixth incarnation.

Google Earth 6 brings what Google is describing as a "truly integrated Street View experience", as well as – wait for it – 3D trees.

Virtually fly

"When Google Earth was first introduced, people were wowed by the ability to virtually fly from outer space right down to the roof of their house," blogged Google Earth product manager Peter Birch.

"While flying over rooftops gives you a super-human view of our world, the ground level is where we experience our daily lives.

"We took our first baby steps toward bringing the Google Earth experience to street level with our implementation of Street View in Google Earth in 2008, which enabled flying into Street View panoramas.

"In Google Earth 6, the Street View experience is now fully integrated, so you can journey from outer space right to your doorstep in one seamless flight."

3D Trees

The next major addition is 3D trees, which bring "beautifully detailed, 3D models for dozens of species of trees, from the Japanese Maple to the East African Cordia to my personal favorite, the cacao tree.

"While we've just gotten started planting trees in Google Earth, we already have more than 80 million trees in places such as Athens, Berlin, Chicago, New York City, San Francisco and Tokyo," added the aptly named Birch.

You can download Google Earth 6 from http://earth.google.com.