Fresh Version of Google Earth Expected Today!

The Mountain View-based company Google is expected to roll out a new version of Google Earth later today, according to rumors launched by the Google Earth Blog. At this time, there's no download link available and the old download page gets you to the old 4.2.205.5730 version released back in November 2007. However, it seems like Google prepares to update the downloadable mapping technology to version 4.3, a special edition of the program which will include lots of major updates, as it follows (credits to Frank Taylor of the Google Earth Blog):

• Street View inside Google Earth - As rumored weeks ago, Street View will be here soon. And, yes - the images will be viewed with the Photo Viewer. That answers the question.

• Imagery Dates - You will now be able to easily see the dates when imagery was taken for most imagery (but, not all - simply because the date data isn't always available from the many imagery providers delivering to Google).

• New navigational controls - New features enabling better ways to look around at 3D buildings and 3D terrain using new navigation gadgets and your mouse or keyboard.

• More 3D buildings, faster loading - Faster loading 3D building models, and faster rendering as well. New photo-textured cities (it will be interesting to find out how they were made, where they came from, and how many new cities are included).

• Day/Night Lighting - Real-time sunlight lighting option. Time slider control of the sun position. Expect a more realistic looking view of Earth from space. This has been done before by others, but now it will be available built-in and supported by Google.

As I've mentioned in the subtitle, you should be back soon to get the download link for the new Google Earth version. As you probably know, Softpedia is a website which brings you the hottest software updates on the market, so in case you're interesting in a certain program, check out the Windows section.

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