I can't say I've used Google Earth in quite a long time -- it was OK last time I used it, but never showed a whole lot of detail around the area I live, and I honestly don't normally care much about the terrain of downtown New York and such like! Expanding the horizons of the app is a good thing, opening up a world of interesting possibilities. Perhaps I can incorporate Google Earth into my own research? (It's not exactly a virtual world in the usual sense... but it seems pretty close sometimes...)