Orientation on the ground before the upcoming trip

Since the "Russian" season in Egypt has not yet been completed, and though we, mere mortals, the Alps do not shine, I decided I did tell you about one of the useful services of search engines. There are questions of online satellite maps.

Very, I tell you, a good thing when you want to go on a journey through unfamiliar places. Especially if you still have not been there. These services I used, before his trip to Sharm el-Sheikh, at the end of summer. And you forgot to tell about it. Therefore, filling a gap in information.

If you look on the network, you will find a lot of online maps as individual cities and countries. I am also interested in online interactive satellite maps. But such cards are presented in three major portals: Google Maps, Yandex.Maps and Bing Maps.

All of them are built on similar principles. You can view maps as: administrative maps, satellite imagery, hybrid (photo plus designations and boundaries). And to switch between types of maps can be any point. Maximum approximation makes it possible to consider the homes and streets with a bird's-eye view. So I even saw some kind of pool in the hotel where I was then rested and the location of the beach.

All the maps have the opportunity to remove the left side panel and push the map to the entire width of the screen. This is done by one click of the mouse on the special button at the left edge of the card. There also is the control panel card. Available to move the map in different directions, decrease or increase the scale, more comfortable orientation.

It is much easier to do it all using one arm. Left-click "grab" the map and moving the mouse, move it. Double-clicking the left button to center and brings the selected point. Scroll wheel scales (decrease-increase) the image. Here, the basic function - they are virtually identical, but slightly differently made. However, all intuitive. If you have a good internet connection (broadband) you can see this in the accompanying online video.

You should also take into account the factor of speed and with the maps. Please note that the map is an image that is loaded from the server system. As you pulling out his window in the map display in the browser may need to wait for long downloads - not in a hurry, in this case. Look for the first administrative map, as it is lighter in weight, and in the right place switch on satellite map (in the case of Bing - "Aerial").

Following points should be taken into account. BingMaps does not work with Opera browser, but only with Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. With Maps Google "and" Yandex.Maps, no such problem - they work in all browsers. However, Google recommends that you use your web browser Google Chrome, which is natural.

Of the considered map, most of all I liked Google Maps. Although, in all cases, satellite photos were made somewhere in the beginning of the two thousandth. This I determined by how the terrain has changed in some familiar place for me. So, if your hotel, built after the 2003-2005 period, it is likely not to find. Nevertheless, the projects, of course, useful. In addition, they are actively growing.

So at Bing Maps can view maps in 3D-form. You can turn the home planet and even a little, to see the relief and some architectural objects. Version, but only a test - not yet perfect, but working. In order to use the need to download the client program (1.8Mb), and then install it - from the Internet load is ten megabytes. Download the distribution you can click on the button in the 3D interface card.

But, of course, the leader of interactive 3D-cards is a separate service Google: "Planet Earth". Download software client and install it, and loading the desired amount of the network. Once launched, you can learn not only the Earth (land and ocean), but also the Moon, Mars and the star world. Map of the world is equipped with features not only to watch photos and video, location-specific, but also add their own photographs. In addition, the individual sites are linked references to articles in Wikipedia, loadable in a separate window, as you wish.

The only thing that the use of solid models, the speed of the Internet should be even larger. If you have low bandwidth connections, it is better to confine planar maps. You can also use separate programs for the computer model to simulate the planet.

This review covers services: Maps Google, Yandex.Maps and Bing Maps: