I love learning about different countries, cities, and other places, but I'm not rich enough to go to many of  these destinations.

Luckily, Google Earth is here to give us a glimpse of the world without leaving our rooms or chairs. I particularly like how Google Earth takes a user to the desired place. It initially shows a realistic view of the earth, and then the view zooms in on the desired location entered by the user.

When I first installed Google Earth on my computer, I tried to type in the address of my relative somewhere in Toronto, Canada. Then, the earth on my computer started to spin and zoomed in on Canada. For me standing in front of the computer, the experience was simply amazing: I felt like riding on an aircraft that speeds down to the location.

I initially just typed the town name and so I was shown a high aerial view of Toronto. I tried to zoom in using the slider and I was given a more detailed street view. I zoomed even close until was given the exact location of the house number. I excitedly buzzed my relative through yahoo messenger and confirmed if the color of their house was what I was seeing and he said yes.

Google Earth shows satellite photos of real places. It allows one to hop from one country to another in a matter of seconds. Say for example, one wants to see the Eiffel tower in France and immediately moves to the Great Pyramids of Egypt.

My childhood fantasy of being able to fly was being made real in using Google Earth. I feel like Superman, who travels at a fast speed moving from one country to the other – and like Superman, I don’t mess up my hair.

One of the features I love about Google Earth is that I can pan or move the image very easily. It’s just like moving a piece of paper on a table.

I recently heard that Google has a new service called street view or something. It is likely this will spark privacy issues considering that this will be close up photographs of scenes and events on the streets.

Google Earth itself has already sparked security concerns. But for me, whether or not there is a Google Earth, countries will always have means to spy on its enemies.

The beauty with Google Earth is that many ordinary people can already enjoy earth views which were once enjoyed by limited people like scientists.

I am eagerly anticipated the time when space travel will also be easily affordable to more and more people. For sure it will be a blast. I can picture myself having a vacation for 5 days in a hotel in a low lying orbit in the sky. Maybe this will not be in the most immediate future so for now, I must contend myself with using Google Earth. And yes, Google Earth is free but there are additional services for a price. I am content with the free service, as I can already get what I need.