Google Earth Pro is now free

#1

Post by Transisto » Sat, Jan 31, 2015, 3:54 AM UTC

... Has tools to measure 3D buildings and other locations, print high-resolution screenshots, view demographic and traffic layers, and even record your virtual trips.

Google Earth Pro is now free
google-latlong.blogspot.com

Re: Google Earth Pro is now free

#2

Post by glhaynes » Sat, Jan 31, 2015, 5:14 AM UTC

This page has some info on the differences between the regular edition and Pro. https://www.google.com/work/mapsearth/products/earthpro.html

Re: Google Earth Pro is now free

#3

Post by mden » Sat, Jan 31, 2015, 5:22 AM UTC

This sounds really awesome, but does anyone have an explanation as to why they are doing it? Building something like Google Earth Pro must take many millions of dollars, so why would a company release it for free?

Re: Google Earth Pro is now free

#4

Post by userbinator » Sat, Jan 31, 2015, 5:24 AM UTC

I notice the link "grab a free key" leads to a URL ending with free_trial.html, and that page is a form that asks for plenty of information. The lack of any justification for why something that used to be $399 is now free also feels a bit odd to me... like it's somehow implying that giving Google your name, company, phone number, and other information is, to them, worth more than $399?

Re: Google Earth Pro is now free

#5

Post by neindanke » Sat, Jan 31, 2015, 5:24 AM UTC

Registration is failing for me at the moment.

Re: Google Earth Pro is now free

#6

Post by flomo » Sat, Jan 31, 2015, 5:28 AM UTC

neindanke wrote: post #5

Registration is failing for me at the moment.

Registration failed for me with a message suggesting such remedies as trying a different email address. Punched in a gmail address and it worked. Perhaps coincidentally.

Re: Google Earth Pro is now free

#7

Post by ChuckMcM » Sat, Jan 31, 2015, 5:28 AM UTC

mden wrote: post #3

This sounds really awesome, but does anyone have an explanation as to why they are doing it? Building something like Google Earth Pro must take many millions of dollars, so why would a company release it for free?

People feel less bad when a large corporation drops all support for a 'free' product than they do for a $400 one?

Re: Google Earth Pro is now free

#8

Post by vilhelm_s » Sat, Jan 31, 2015, 5:28 AM UTC

neindanke wrote: post #5

Registration is failing for me at the moment.

Yep.

> Error! Your sign up can not be completed due to We're sorry. We are experiencing technical difficulties. Please try again later..

Re: Google Earth Pro is now free

#9

Post by JoshTriplett » Sat, Jan 31, 2015, 5:29 AM UTC

mden wrote: post #3

This sounds really awesome, but does anyone have an explanation as to why they are doing it? Building something like Google Earth Pro must take many millions of dollars, so why would a company release it for free?

Perhaps they had few enough customers that the effort of maintaining the "Pro" version wasn't worth it?

Perhaps they're starting to see a handful of people relying on other data sources, so they want to give people an incentive to stick with Google?

Re: Google Earth Pro is now free

#10

Post by ghshephard » Sat, Jan 31, 2015, 5:32 AM UTC

mden wrote: post #3

This sounds really awesome, but does anyone have an explanation as to why they are doing it? Building something like Google Earth Pro must take many millions of dollars, so why would a company release it for free?

Google Earth cost on the order of 10s of millions of dollars to write, with a couple of the key companies, keyhole and Where2, being acquired for approx. $40mm. [1] . Google Earth Pro is a small, but very useful addition to the base Google Earth - I know a lot of network designers who get by just fine with Google Earth, and have never availed themselves of Google Earth Pro.

The real cost, of course, is maintaining and serving all that data. I expect that Google, in offering Google Earth Pro for free, ensures that no other competition can slide into this space, and, I also expect the incremental revenue associated with the Google Earth Pro licenses probably wasn't worth the cost of not owning that market 100%.

This is going to make life for a lot of the other GIS vendors even more miserable than it already is - I can see MapInfo being annoyed by this decision. Just spitballing, but perhaps Google is looking at acquiring them (or a competitor?)

[1] http://www.quora.com/How-much-did-Google-acquire-Keyhole-(Go...