r/googleearth

Oh I just feel like venting. I'm thoroughly pissed that they're going to discontinue desktop. Like many, I've used it for years and years to map hikes, explore old maps, find stuff, map out old trails and all the usual stuff. I've tried Earth web, My Maps, and the iOS/Android apps, and simply nothing beats the desktop version. Here's a screenshot of a thing I'm messing with at the moment. Desktop is just so damn nice.

(Is it just me, or does it feel like Google doesn't have a blind clue what they're trying to do with all the different apps? Each of them behaves differently and has its own quirks in how it displays/handles stuff).

Some specific gripes that I've written down:

1. Image overlays. In Desktop, I frequently slap in an image of a map as an "image overlay" and adjust it to align with the basemap. I mostly get these as screenshots from the NLS website (The National Library of Scotland has a fantastic georeferenced maps viewer for the whole UK with historic maps, Lidar, and a bunch of stuff - https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/). This feature is vital. While you can view overlays on the web or My Maps, you can't add or edit them.
2. GE web doesn't allow GPX import!! But My Maps does. Huh?!?
3. Inconsistent handling of widths, fill/border colours. GE Desktop lets you specify path widths exactly to 1 decimal place. GE web will initially display the widths of any imported paths correctly, but will only let you set them to 1,2,3,4,8,12,16,24 for any new paths you create. My Maps has a slider so you can't set a specific numeric width. My Maps doesn't let you specify different fill and border colours for polygons and the android app doesn't display polygon borders at all (admittedly haven't checked this in a while).
4. Set style for folder. GE Desktop lets you set the style for all items within a folder. My Maps has something similar but more clunky. GE Web does not, at least not that I've found.
5. GE android app doesn't let you delete path points! Jesus. You can select, move, create points but not delete them. Come on designers.
6. GE desktop lets you export any part of a project, be it a folder or individual item (right click and save as). GE Web only lets you export the entire project. My Maps lets you export individual layers.
7. The desktop user interface is nice and compact and dense. I like a nice dense tree view of stuff. GE web and My Maps are much more spread out with huge line spacing. Yeah, that's nothing new, most web apps are like that now.

Maybe GE Desktop isn't the best thing in the world, but it's worked for donkey's years, I'm used to it, and I'm happy with it. I just hope that the standalone installer will keep working for a long time to come. I've looked at GIS software like QGIS - no doubt it's amazing, but it looks way over the top for what I need.

https://preview.redd.it/7n658fvlr4jh1.png?width=2121&format=png&auto=webp&s=7bbcab3ab47bab423ef23538e51a60f6955c7362

Hello, so I'm working on editing an airport in my flight simulator and would like to create a line that starts at the end of the runway and stays straight with the runway centerline as it extends out about 10 miles.

Is there a way to do this?

Thanks

As someone who has always used the Desktop version I am absolutely gutted that it's being discontinued so I was wondering: Is anyone gonna work on a similar programme to basically continue it after google abandons it completely?

For over a decade, I use Google Earth for creative projects.

This is a map of an alternate North America that I've been developing over the past few years with the path and polygon tools.

https://preview.redd.it/6m7kbagxokih1.png?width=2226&format=png&auto=webp&s=2ef82e8d0c94ee4fc0f6c1c279496c3a8c924894

And this is a completely fictional continent I drew up in GE using the path and polygon tools ( I used Greenland as a canvas ).

https://preview.redd.it/3b22s065pkih1.png?width=2208&format=png&auto=webp&s=eed8e828459aa4d906a2e3082b0632c6ebf598da

As far as I know, I cannot do any of this in the "new and improved" browser version of GE and if I can, I almost certainly isn't easy.

I tried using the new GE once and I found it to be complete bullshit. It doesn't have half of the features that old GE does and it's camera is much more limited.

Also, Desktop GE once had a bunch of features that Google removed for no good reason. One of these was the USA's counties. Apparently, Google removed this feature because they "no longer had access to up-to-date information on county borders" and I think that's nonsense because the last time a U.S county changed it's borders was in 2001.

From my perspective, GE Browser is just a shitty copy of a superior product and a way for Google to steal people's data.

I’m so mad that Google is discontinuing Google Earth Pro for desktops when their Web/App version is so trash! If they want people to migrate then they need to design the Web/App versions to be as customizable as the Desktop version! I recently moved “My Places” to the Web/App version on my iPad and I’m finding it hard to use because the map imagery won’t load so everything is blurry (I uninstalled the map and it only worked for 5mins), I can’t search for specific things in my library, and my specific customizations don’t exist in the Web or App versions so my map looks terrible. I hope Google does the right thing and completely redesign the Web/App versions of Earth. I think there’s enough of us willing to pay for these extra features if that’s what it would take.