What are those Google Earth links about?

Google Earth is the hot tip for viewing geographical places on this planet we all call home or as they say on the Google Earth site "Google Earth combines the power of Google Search with satellite imagery, maps, terrain and 3D buildings to put the world's geographic information at your fingertips." You can get a free copy here. If you've never used or seen Google Earth you're in for areal treat. It's fantastic.

If your computer isn't powerful enough to run Google Maps or you don't want to run it you can always use the Google Maps icon to view that map in Google Maps.

This is the Google Earth icon . It will open that map position in Google Earth (which must be installed in your computer).

This is the Google Maps icon . It will open that map position in Google Maps in a new tab (or browser window if you don't have a tabs capable browser). This will allow you to interact with map while you continue to read the text.

When there is a map link in the text, you'll see both icons together like this at that point in the text. Click on the one that meets your needs but Google Earth is highly recommended (once you use it you'll never go back to anything else).