Google Earth celebrates 1 billion downloads milestone

Google announced today that since Google Earth’s launch in 2005, the software has been downloaded an astonishing 1 billion times.

To celebrate the achievement, Google put together a new website, oneworldmanystories.com. The site aims to educate consumers about what can be done with the Google Earth software with 40 real-world stories about people who have used the software to defend nature, explore far-away lands, follow their dreams and learn more about the Earth.

“Google Earth is probably one of the most downloaded applications of all time in terms of raw numbers,” Google product manager Peter Birch told AFP.

In a statement to Huffington Post, Birch explains that despite the overwhelming popularity of the software, users don’t seem to have picked up on just what the software is capable of doing for them.

They don’t have much of a sense what Earth can be used for,” said Birch. “Really, it’s a very powerful platform for sharing information.”

To give consumers a glimpse into what the software is capable of, Google released a new video for Google Earth that highlights some of the things that can be done with the software, as represented on oneworldmanystories.com. If you’d like to check that video out, you can find it below.

Source: Google, Huffington Post