Dave's Favorites: Satellite Photos From Google

I never should have told my wife about Google Map. You see, she has something of a satellite photo obsession; when I told her about Keyhole's free trial last year, she lost hours of her life flying over her childhood homes from space. Now, it looks like Google could be fueling her habit: Its satellite maps are free.

Enter any street address in its Search field. A heartbeat later (depending on the speed of your connection), you'll see a computer-generated map with a pinpoint on your desired location. But click the Satellite link in the upper right corner of the screen, and you're treated to a high-resolution satellite map of the same locale. Zoom in, zoom out, pan around--it's fun!

Of course, these satellite photos are free, so there are some trade-offs. For example, you can't zoom in to the highest levels of detail, like you can with a commercial satellite photo site like Keyhole. But the pictures you do get look great. And you can get turn-by-turn directions with the route overlaid directly on the map. That's pretty neat, too. If you love satellite photos of the earth as much as my family does, try out Google's newest site.