Boat watching by Google Earth

One of my jobs at work at the moment is to test the latest version of one our software products. And one of its (many) cool new features is the ability to output results for display in Google Earth. All to often, and especially on a Friday afternoon, its too easy to get distracted and go exploring.

So I got to see this - an eight training on the Thames. The shadow may look like one of Oxford's dreaming spires but is actually London's western waste centre. From the angle of the shadow it was morning, clearly a nice one without clouds, and by the length of the shadows it must have been taken in winter. Indeed probably a day a bit like today!

Struck by the boat watching potential I then checked out this view of the Red Funnel ferry just of Cowes harbour, and imagined what happened next to the two yachts jostling at it entrance.

Finally before stopping to do some real work checked out this picture from Valencia, Spain. In an otherwise empty harbour was this - looks very much like an ACC boat moored up there.

What is absolutely mind blowing to me is that not just we can see all this, but we can see all of this on a 3G mobile phone using the mobile version of Google maps. So almost anywhere in the world as long as there is mobile coverage you can get maps and images to pretty much everywhere. Amazing!

What's your favourite Google Earth / Maps boating view?

Useful links:
http://earth.google.com/
http://www.google.com/gmm