# Google Earth

31 Hacker News commenters recommended Google Earth and 18 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 9 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend it for exploring the globe, importing GPS tracks and experiencing scale in VR; critics say the web and desktop versions run slowly and feel dated.

## Why people recommend it

- Immersive VR experience (5 comments): "Load up Google Earth VR, plop yourself in front of your childhood home and feel more than you expected." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45910695)) "VR gives you SCALE in a way you simply can’t perceive on a flat screen." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49835217)) "It's actually really cool in VR. You feel like Godzilla." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47170354))
- Fun for exploring the globe (4 comments): "I was hooked on making the globe go round and round and zooming into strange and wonderful places." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49106425)) "This site combined with Google Earth got me hooked on aerial photography" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48569700)) "geek out/recommend a Google Earth/Wikipedia rabbit hole" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48361920))
- Handles large datasets well (2 comments): "Earth Desktop is useful for one thing: mapping large datasets onto a globe." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49750239)) "The desktop version feels way snappier once the datasets get big." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48840698))
- Builds spatial sense and scale (2 comments): "very spatially informative & makes directional intuition memorable upon arrival at the real world destination" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47565720)) "VR gives you SCALE in a way you simply can’t perceive on a flat screen." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49835217))

## What people warn about

- Slow performance on web and desktop (4 comments): "it doesn't work on linux either. (Technically it does, just incredibly laggy compared to chrome)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48807140)) "It wasn't designed to properly squander^Wuse current computing power" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48844117)) "Didn't realize google earth's performance had gotten that bad" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49478037))
- Political place-name and policy concerns (4 comments): "Their display of "Gulf of America" without "Gulf of Mexico" and "Lake America" without "Lake Ontario" is at odds with their declared policy." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50289817)) "they also haven't exactly taken a purely principled stance in the past either" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50290564)) "All I'm seeing is the Trumpy names no matter where I look." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50291620))
- Old base, rarely updated (2 comments): "Google Earth VR was essentially abandoned and hasn't been updated at all since 2018" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47170451)) "The desktop version is just too old, built on a 20-plus-year-old base." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48841435))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [StreetComplete](https://hackerapproved.com/p/streetcomplete.md): 93 recommend
- [OS9Map](https://hackerapproved.com/p/os9map.md): 9 recommend
- [Bing Maps](https://hackerapproved.com/p/bing-maps.md): 5 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Google Earth", https://hackerapproved.com/p/google-earth/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).