I’m not one to gush over a program or service, but I’m making an exception for Google Earth and Google Local. Google Earth, if you haven’t already experienced it firsthand, is a little unnerving at first. You plug in a location or address, and the program displays an image of the earth, then zooms right down to street level. Plug in another location, and it zooms back out, then back in. Yes, I know it’s not real time satellite imagery (far from it), but I still can’t help but pretend to be Jack Bauer trying to locate those nerve gas canisters before it’s too late. It’s like having a slice of the NSA in your den. OK, not really, but still, it’s very cool. If one day, we log into Google Earth and see vehicles and people moving about, then we know we’re all in trouble (George W. jokes aside).

Even more amazing to me is the version of Google Local I downloaded to my BlackBerry 8700c. My wife and I were having dinner recently at Red Robin (say that a few times fast) when I said I wanted to stop by an OfficeMax afterwards for some supplies. I knew there was an OfficeMax nearby, I just couldn’t remember exactly where. The old way would be to dial 411, but why not use Google Local? I typed in the search: OfficeMax Schaumburg IL. It came right back with the address, phone and pinpointed location on the map. I could toggle back and forth between Map and Satellite views; zoom in and out.

When I go out on customer site visits, I usually have a pre-printed map of their location with me (from MS MapPoint). It’s habit. But now I have the capability of doing quick map look ups anytime, anywhere (I have cell service anyway). Yes, it’s not a GPS-enabled solution, but that’s OK for my needs.

I can see why industry analysts are hyping location based services so much. It’s just so darned convenient. A little spooky and big-brotherish if you ask some, but nobody is forcing these things on you if you don’t want them (yet).

So kudos to Larry and Sergey. Now how about a quick ride in Google’s Boeing 767? Hey, asking is free.

Tags: gps, google earth, directory, google local, ms mappoint