Google soon to drop Google Earth Plus license.

[c.vestal]

May or may not be a big deal for you. I would guess most who use Earth Plus for ability to import GPS, can now use the free one.

Here Is the e-mail I received from Google today:

Dear Google Earth Plus Customer,

As a valued Google Earth customer, we want you to be the first to know that Google will no longer offer Google Earth Plus. With new enhancements to Google Earth released this week, we believe the needs of many Google Earth Plus customers will be met with Google Earth 5.0, which is freely available to all our customers. For those customers who require additional capabilities and faster speeds, we have a special offer to try Google Earth Pro free of charge for two months. If you like it, you can buy it with a limited-time discount only available to our Google Earth Plus customers.

The latest version of Google Earth lets customers import and track global positioning system (GPS) data. Our Google Earth Plus customers told us GPS tracking is one of the main reasons they choose Google Earth Plus. Now, since you can use this feature for free in Google Earth 5.0, there's little separation between Plus and the free product. In order to simplify the decision of which version of Google Earth best meets our customers' needs, we decided it no longer made sense to continue Google Earth Plus.

As a current user of Google Earth Plus, you have several options:
Stay with Google Earth Plus. You can continue using Google Earth Plus for the time being, until either your license expires or until we come out with a new version of Google Earth. Learn more
Use the standard version of Google Earth. You can now import and track GPS data in Google Earth 5.0 without having to pay an annual fee. Learn more
Try Google Earth Pro. Google Earth Pro includes additional features to let you to do even more with Google Earth. For example, print and save images with 3x higher resolution for your documents and presentations, import GIS data, and import up to 2,500 rows of spreadsheet data. As a loyal Google Earth customer, we are offering you a two-month free trial of Google Earth Pro and the opportunity to purchase a one-year subscription for $99 (regular price of $400). Enter this promo code PLS2PRUS (PLS2PREU for Euros and PLS2PRUK for British Pound) and follow these instructions to sign up.
We believe that Google Earth or Google Earth Pro will continue to meet your needs for exploring rich geographical content with the same easy-to-use features that you've come to love about Google Earth Plus. Please note that the imagery in both Google Earth and Google Earth Pro is exactly the same as the imagery in Google Earth Plus. If you have any questions, please contact us via the Google Earth Help Center.

The Google Earth team
earth.google.com
To unsubscribe, click here or send an email to: removed

Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
earth.google.com

© 2009 Google Inc. All Rights Reserved. Google is a trademark of Google Inc.

[Jamie Z]

Google is awesome. Why charge for something when you can give it away free?

So... what exactly does it do?

Jamie

[Skippii]

Anyone see Jon Stewart today?
His guest was a guy saying that the main problem with the Internet is that so much of it is free, or supported by ads, and he wants many more companies to start charging--not so much subscriptions, but more per-use fees.

[the venturer]

Never read such good news this morning. Already released on the site.