Google adds a 3D tour of Disney World to the latest version of Google Earth (4.3), which lets you "zoom down Main Street, USA, fly around Cinderella Castle, explore Spaceship Earth and climb the Tree of Life."

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Plenty of companies and individuals have integrated Google's map systems into their site, but not many of us have the depth of material the ABC can boast. The national broadcaster has begun trialling a new service, ABC Earth, which currently includes access to news services (updated every five minutes) and a range of archival news material, accessible as a layer within the Google Earth client (no browser-only version yet). It'd be good to see this extended into other content -- how about location filming links for Summer Heights High?

ABC Earth

Windows only: The freeware Google Earth plug-in integrates Google Earth with your web browser, embedding the 3-D glory of Earth in Firefox or Internet Explorer. The results, which you can see in the video above, are impressive. There isn't a ton of Google Earth plug-in integration on the web yet, but check out the samples to understand the possibilities, like switching between Google Maps and Earth on-the-fly. The Google Earth plug-in is Windows only, supports Firefox and Internet Explorer.

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Google Earth has added geo-located Google News stories to its many useful layers, giving users of the desktop app access to national headlines and local news. Starting today, users can expand the "Gallery" node in their left-hand "Layers" menu and click "Google News" to have tiny newspaper icons displayed on their map. Click on a news icon, and you get the first paragraph and relevant links to the story. For tracking election news or seeing what's happening in your neck of the woods, Google Earth has become a pretty handy tool.

Sure we've all downloaded a free copy of Google Earth, the big G's eye-popping desktop map application, and flown around the planet with a heightened sense of awe at how cool the whole thing is. But have you done anything else with Google Earth since then? Traveler Anick Jesdanun used Google Earth to create a robust photo tour of a trip through Antarctica and South America, and found the software powerful but complicated and difficult to intuit—especially for friends with whom he shared the resulting KML file.

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Windows/Mac/Linux: Google Earth has updated and integrated Google Maps Street View, meaning that not only can you soar over the globe with Google Earth—you can also hit the streets and look around when you get tired of flying. In addition to Street View, Google Earth 4.3 promises time-lapse videos of sunrises and sunsets, improved speed, and better 3D graphics. It's also added new first-person controls so using the software feels closer to what it feels like to play a video game. Google Earth is freeware for all platforms.

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Talk about your green-friendly mashup  - mybabytree.org lets you can sponsor a tree planting through WWF (World Wildlife Fund) - and then lets you see the exact area of forest your tree is growing in, thanks to Google Earth.

Trees cost $US5.50 (about $6) each to sponsor via PayPal. The trees are being planted in Indonesia as part of a venture by WWF. Once your payment is processed, you get an email informing you that your tree will be planted in a few days: "Once that is done, we will mail you the exact location and you will be able to see your tree on Google Earth."

The Ecogeek blog pointed out that while the resolution in Google Earth isn't quite good enough to be able to make our your particular tree, "even now the context is nice". This idea is geeky, I like. :)

Buy a tree and watch it grow thanks to Google Earth [Ecogeek]

Google Earth is a great way to explore our gorgeous planet and indulge in a spot of geo-porn, and it's just gotten even more beautiful and accessible, with the addition of a new layer of  photos by French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand.
The series of nearly 500 photos, entitled "The Earth from Above" feature aerial views of the earth - many taken from hot air balloon.
The cool thing is there's also a new gadget you can add to your iGoogle home page so you'll see a different image from the photo set every day. At the bottom of the gadget window is a "View in Google Earth" button which lets you switch from viewing the photo on your homepage into seeing the area on Google Earth. Very neat.
The photos come paired with information and statistics about the current environmental situation they depict. This information comes from GoodPlanet.org, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the promotion of sustainable development.You can find the iGoogle gadget and a YouTube interview with Yann here.
And in case you're wondering - the photo above is Grand Prismatic Spring, at America's famous Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.

The recent Google Earth update introduced lots of new layers, but one extremely useful layer that passed under our radar (as it were) at first glance was the addition of a new weather layer. The layer includes radar information, current conditions, and forecasts pulled every 15 minutes from Weather.com and a cloud layer that updates hourly from the Naval Research Laboratory. So if you're already obsessed with Google Earth for its stargazing and live flight tracking features, now you've got one more use for the freeware, cross-platform atlas.