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Comment by kmfrk | Hacker News Reader

I think it's a little funny and symptomatic of HN that we can't take a minute to fucking marvel at the fact that we've got something like this in the first place without going over the font or the whatever.

Technology is amazing and moving rapidly, and if we can't take out five minutes to revel in an achievement like this, I don't know what the point is.

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I'd like to agree, but this does nothing in Chromium on desktop, does nothing in Firefox, and won't run in Chrome on my Android phone. It's not much more than hearsay to me that it exists at all. I think a certain amount of HN-grade irritation about that is understandable.

(I'll try it under Windows when I get home, and then maybe feel more celebratory.)

Specially when https://www.google.pt/maps/@48.8660753,2.291107,562a,35y,160... works alright in other browsers, if you have WebGL capabilities on your system.

Indeed. Now that I can agree is a phenomenal accomplishment.

It is pretty on Windows, but disappointing in Chromium on Linux. No error messages, just a loading screen.

The interface is better than the desktop app, but that is just cursory from material design. I cannot tell if functionality has been lost quite yet---which is a common problem with redesigns. According to settings, KML support in this redesign is experimental.

While I agree that it's funny (see Louis CK's cell phones and flying rant), it's IMO a weak argument when you think about it in earnest. This is a post about redesign, so we talk about the redesign. Also if you go further down, the device you're even typing this on is a mind-blowing wonder machine by any historic standard. Heck, the chair you're sitting on is! Things are getting better. And if no one ever complained, they wouldn't.

I find myself often thinking this. Louis CK sums it up really well when he says "everything is amazing and nobody is happy": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8LaT5Iiwo4

I love Louis CK. That's one of his best bits in my opinion. Also perhaps one of the most accessible ones, as his humor can be a bit puerile :)

We do tend to get too pessimistic, but if people were happy and satisfied, things wouldn't improve so fast.

There is nothing new about this. Google Earth the desktop app had all of this for many years now. Google Maps itself had all of this for at least 2 years, likely more now.

I looked at it and have no idea why it took that long to load or how it was significantly different from either Earth or Maps.

E: It also runs a lot more choppy than the desktop version.

We all think it's great. But, I wonder why they basically rewrote what we've had for over a decade with Google Earth desktop. It's a tell that Google isn't making the smartest choices for its users but instead for itself.

Devil's advocate, what exactly can this do that we couldn't do 10 years ago?

What achievement are we revelling in? That they've managed to replicate something a desktop app could already do in javascript?

It's actually using native code via PNaCL. I know it only works in Chrome, and it'd be nice if it was WebAssembly, but maybe they're using stuff that WebAssembly does not yet provide, like threads, simd, etc..

That's only part of the marvel. The other part is the data that enables this. I am not sure 10 years ago Google had the 3D planimetry data it has now (I am looking at my small hometown and seeing it all in 3D, for example.)

Other than that, the web version has some new features, possibilities etc., compared to the old desktop version. But that's more debatable perhaps.

The old google earth was like an atlas and you could look at anything you'd like and draw your own opinions and experiences based on what you saw.

The new one is marketed like the plague of interpretive centers that turn free discovery into a linear factory commodity experience of being told what is important, what to look at, and what facts to regurgitate on command.

I suspect the new one will be very popular for school teachers.

+1. This was just amazing to look at and play with.

When the homepage was 'flying' over the landscape, I was dreaming how cool that would look as the background for my TV.

Apple TV has this as a screensaver option: http://benjaminmayo.co.uk/watch-all-the-apple-tv-aerial-vide...

Indeed, as a maps fanatic, Google Earth/Maps is an awesome toy for me. Could spend hours on it. It's incredibly impressive.

Is it really something new, or is it something old, redone in Javascript, with fewer features, though?

The latter. No substantial improvement and lots of regressions.

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