Take a tour of 100 000 more locations worldwide with Google Earth

Google just made touring the world from the comfort of your phone and computer even easier. As if it wasn’t enough that you could spot some turtles under the sea in Australia or casually wander over to the Arctic Circle in Street View, you can also now take virtual tours of even more places in Google Earth. Its latest update to contributed over 100 000 new tours of popular international destinations to the program’s tour guide feature, as well as some 3D flyover and user-generated snapshots.

According to Google, the desktop, iOS and Android versions of the app now feature even more tours of cities and places in over 200 countries, as well as informative snippets from Wikipedia and more than a million panoramic photos uploaded by Google Panoramio users. You can click on any panorama to view it in fullscreen mode, and rotate to take a look at a place from any angle. The updates offer a more “immersive and educational exploration of your favourite places”, according to the Google Earth team.

Google Earth’s tour guide feature, which was introduced in June last year, suggests local places of interest and conducts a short pre-created “tour” of the area via virtual flyover in cities like Rome, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The updated version of the desktop and mobile apps are already available without additional downloading — if you already have them installed, you can begin exploring.