Google Earth

Chris Baldomero, recent college graduate in industrial engineering in San Jose, Calif., talks about why he can't live without Google Earth.

I like to travel, but I can’t always visit all the places I want. Google Earth lets me escape! After a college friend told me about it a couple of years ago, I started playing around with it. I was hooked. It was weird, though, when I found my house. It sort of made me feel like I was being watched.

I love how you can see the whole Earth in 3-D. Looking at pictures of the sky is cool, too. It’s like virtual binoculars. It’s so addicting, though. I used to spend a couple of hours at a time just looking up places. I would talk on the phone and be fooling around with it at the same time. I also use it to look up places I probably will never go, or for stuff for my classes. I did a report on a country in Africa where people practice voodoo, and of course I just had to check out where it was exactly by using Google Earth.

I like stumbling upon “Easter eggs,” or hidden features, in Google Earth. My favorite feature has to be the flight simulator. You get to pick an aircraft, then you can pretty much fly anywhere you want. It’s almost like playing a video game, but you get to visit real places virtually.

I had to stop using Google Earth for a while, though, because it was getting too time-consuming. Now that I’ve graduated, I can start using it again, but I probably won’t spend as much time on it. I have to go find a job!