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Google Earth Supported in Non-Chrome Browsers

posted by martyb on Thursday February 27 2020, @11:11PM   Printer-friendly
from the where-did-they-hide-all-the-turtles? dept.

takyon writes:

It took Google three years to add Firefox, Edge and Opera support to Google Earth

When Google unveiled the new Google Earth back in 2017, it switched Google Earth from being a desktop application to a web application. The company made Google Earth Chrome-exclusive at the time stating that the company's own Chrome browser was the only browser to support Native Client (NaCl) technology at the time and that the technology "was the only we [Google] could make sure that Earth would work well on the web".

The emergence of new web standards, WebAssembly in particular, allowed Google to switch to the standard supported by other browsers. The company launched a beta of Google Earth for browsers that support WebAssembly, Firefox, Edge and Opera are mentioned specifically six months ago.

Today, Google revealed that it has made Google Earth available officially for the web browsers Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge (Chromium-based), and Opera.

Google Earth.

Also at The Verge and Thurrott.

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2) by Snospar on Friday February 28 2020, @06:33PM (2 children)

    by Snospar (5366) Subscriber Badge on Friday February 28 2020, @06:33PM (#964254)

    I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by all the negative comments, it is Google after all, but I for one love Google Earth and am glad to welcome it to my Chromium browser running on Linux with no problems at all.

    And don't get me started on the VR version, it is just fantastic, floating about the Earth (as it slowly downloads and renders itself in ever sharper detail).

    My only real gripe is the lack of consistent imagery over the remote parts of the world, some of the stitching together in the Scottish Highlands is atrocious. I suppose there are no people to sell to in those places so no chance of profit. Ah well.

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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Friday February 28 2020, @06:42PM

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Friday February 28 2020, @06:42PM (#964263) Journal

    Yeah, Google Earth is one of the best products they have put out. And they made the $400 version free (as in beer).

    There's a possibility of a community project filling in the missing data, using drones or something.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 02 2020, @09:26AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 02 2020, @09:26AM (#965411)
    I think it might be a good opportunity for Firefox devs to fix more memory leaks in their browser...

    Not sure if they'll do it though...