Google Earth Pro is now Free! Why the excitement?

Source: www.tipandtrick.net

I have been a regular user of Google Earth for some years. Which I apply in planning, visualization of places, entertainment and of-course  in virtual traveling to some interesting places in the world.
After some years i discovered some drawbacks of Google Earth, hence the need to purchase Google Earth Pro which costs a whooping sum of $400.

Guess what? Friday, January 30, 2015 at 10:31 AM, Google announced through  their blog  "Google Earth Pro is now free" 


In their words

"Over the last 10 years, businesses, scientists and hobbyists from all over the world have been using Google Earth Pro for everything from planning hikes to placing solar panels on rooftops. Google Earth Pro has all the easy-to-use features and detailed imagery of Google Earth, along with advanced tools that help you measure 3D buildings, print high-resolution images for presentations or reports, and record HD movies of your virtual flights around the world.

Starting today, even more people will be able to access Google Earth Pro: we're making it available for free. To see what Earth Pro can do for you—or to just have fun flying around the world—grab a free key and download Earth Pro today. If you're an existing user, your key will continue to work with no changes required "

I for one was very excited and I had to download it immediately before they revert the announcement..lol!

Google Earth Pro Screenshot

A friend asked me "Why the excitement?" A whole lot, I answered.
Anyways, I think it will be nice to share the Difference between Google Earth and Google Earth Pro with us.

Google Earth basically provides entertainment and information for personal use while Google Earth Pro offers powerful features for professional and commercial use. However, the imagery is  the same in both platform, they can be differentiated by  their functionality:

Google Earth 

Intended for personal, non-commercial use, the free version of Google Earth sends you on an interactive, 3D exploration of the planet through terabytes of aerial and satellite imagery. With the free version of Google Earth, you can:

• Zoom in on locations 
• View 3D terrain and buildings 
• Search for hotels and dining locations 
• View dozens of other point-of-interest (POI) data layers 
• Layer multiple searches, save results to folders, and share with others as kml/kmz
• Import GPS data, which allows you to read tracks and waypoints from select GPS devices

Google Earth Pro

For personal, professional and commercial uses, Google Earth Pro is the ultimate research, presentation, and collaboration tool for geographic information. If you're using Google Earth for business purposes, Pro is the version for you. Pro includes all features available in the free version of Google Earth, in addition to the following:

• Measurement tool (for Line, path, Polygon, Circle,3D path and 3D polygon; in all metric and imperial quantities) 
• Data importing, which allows you to ingest up to 2,500 locations by address or by latitude/longitudinal coordinates 
• The highest resolution printing and saving capabilities with some map elements such as Title, legend,scale etc., which enable larger, clearer printouts (up to 4,800 pixels) 
• Additional tools like Movie maker (which allows you to export movies of zooms and tours), Tables and Regionate.
• GIS data import, which allows you to drag and drop SHP files, GeoTiffs, Generic Text (.txt, .csv), MapInfo(.tab),MicroStation(.dgn) etc.  
• Premium printing, which enables you to print high-resolution images up to 11" x 17" (4,800 pixels)

 You see why I'm excited ?