The Olympic Torch Goes Live on Google Earth

Since the Olympic games are quickly approaching, people are always interested to find out the latest news concerning the upcoming competition. Not to mention the Olympic torch, which started its world tour a few days ago in order to visit certain locations on the world. As you know, this is quite a tradition and people celebrate the arrival of the torch in their city/country, so tracking its route is somehow important for some users out there. So, the folks at Google have decided to take advantage of their own services, namely Google Earth and Google Maps, in order to allow Internet users to do it.

That's why you're now able to access a special Google Maps mashup, codenamed Torch Relay, which lists all the cities supposed to be visited by the torch along with a small amount of information about these locations. For example, having a look at the map shows us that the torch is currently crossing Istanbul, Turkey, and will arrive in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on April 5.

What's interesting is that the Mountain View company has also created a special image collection for Google Earth users, which means you can also track the route of the torch straight from your desktop, using the search giant's downloadable application.

In order to do this, you have to download a special KML file, available here, and import it into Google Earth. The import of the file can be done by going to File/Open and selecting the downloaded file. Then, click on the "2008 Torch Relay" link placed inside the Places/Temporary Places box and choose the city you want.

In case you want to download the latest version of Google Earth, you can take it for free straight from Softpedia using the following link.