Art goes digital

The finest details, usually unnoticeable to the human eye, are being picked out of paintings in a new online museum in Google Earth, using the best of the web to enhance a typically offline experience.

The paintings being shown online are from the Prado museum in Madrid, and with the use of Google Earth technology, viewers can zoom in on the small, easily missed parts of some the most famous paintings from the gallery.

Google Earth 5.0 – Oceans, Time-lapse, and Mars!

Google has launched a new version of Google Earth which allows users to explore the oceans, track historical changes over time, create their own earth-tours, and explore the planet Mars.

Google teamed up with scientists from National Geographic, the US Navy and several other oceanographic associations to create the new ocean function which allows users to explore an interactive 3D map of the ocean floor, complete with thousands of data points containing videos and images of ocean life.

Google Earth 5.0 also displays satellite images of locations over a specific expanse of time, from years to decades. For example, you can look back over the last decade and see the melting of the glaciers image by image.

Google Earth's new Touring application allows users to create a shareable, narrated, fly-through tour by using a record button.

Also announced was the 3D Mars application, which was created in conjunction with Nasa. Users can explore the red planet, read geo-located excerpts about different locations, or observe where various Mars Rovers and Landers have touched down.