I love Google Earth, as well. In fact, when Justin and I were downtown (San Antonio) for my birthday in late December, as we were atop the
Tower of the Americas (750 feet tall), I remember remarking to him -- "What we need are the Google Maps popup windows right now, tagging all these buildings and points of interest that we're trying to identify from way up here!"
Ditto on the Street View in Google Maps (maps.google.com). I just recently discovered that parts of San Antonio had finally been mapped, so I burned some time virtually "driving" some local roadways -- pretty cool. Here's the setup they use to create the 360-degree-view stuff for Street View:
Google Maps zoom: here's the device and vehicle behind it - Boing Boing