I had an unpleasant surprise recently, while researching a 5k route in Columbus, Ohio.
The overhead image of downtown seems to have changed. The old view was nice and clear. The new view seems to have been obtained when the sun was low in the east. As a result, the shadows of the tall buildings somewhat obscure the streets and curblines. It is still usable, but not as nice as the view I remember, which had the sun overhead and all the streets clearly visible.
I marvel at Google Earth, at the way the individual overhead views are gotten from the various cameras and melded into the seamless pictures created by whatever computing machinery Google uses.
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