Google updated it’s famous Google Earth software (which is a really nice toy, actually) with new data. There are now high-res shots available for most (or maybe all?) of Germany.

However in regions like eastern Munich, where Google Earth already had high-quality shots, these have been replaced with older imagery. I believe that these “updated” images are one to two years older, judging by some missing construction sites. I’d date the previous shots to October 2004, the new ones to October 2003.

Given that Google just added satellite imagery for germany, I guess they’ll add map/street data to google maps for germany soon, too.

And did you know that you can run Google Earth using Wine on Linux, too? The 3D display is working okay, just the menus don’t render correctly.

Oh, and some fun: type “Frankfurt, Germany” into Google earth. It won’t take you to the well known financial city in germany, with the international airport, but instead to the “less important” “Frankfurt an der Oder” close to the border to poland. If you want the other Frankfurt, you have to type “Frankfurt am Main, Germany”.

Oh, and “Torino, Italy” is the only continental european region with street maps available on Google maps.