Thoughts of crop circles always makes me think of "Signs," one of the better M. Night Shyamalan movies. So why are crop circles showing up on Google's home page today? And is it related to Google's last alien-related home page?

Monday is Memorial Day, the day we Americans honor those who have fallen in defense of this country. And for those who can't make the trip to Arlington National Cemetary just outside of Washington, DC, there's a new virtual way to pay tribute to the fallen, via Google Earth.

Google Earth 5.0, or rather its new Google Ocean oceanographic feature, might have found Atlantis. At least that's what aeronautical engineer Bernie Bamford hoped when he found this grid pattern of lines (above) in the ocean floor, at the coordinates N31.381 W24.375. But all hopes were dashed, by Google.

Google Earth 5.0, including oceanographic data which some thought was a separate project named Google Ocean, was launched Monday at the California Academy Of Sciences in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. In attendance was Nobel Prize Winner and former Vice-President Al Gore.

We are all spoiled by browser plug-ins and would much rather use an extension or browser add-in than a stand-alone application that we have to install separately. And that's been my big problem with Google Earth.

After being the subject of many controversies and security concerns, Google Earth is finally finding some true admirers in the academic field. The Institute of Transportation under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in China has developed which will help the drivers to identify the dangerous curves in the road. The institute has taken the help of Google Earth for this job.

A global project to map a distant strip of the universe is releasing its data today to scientists and the public to be used as part of Google Sky, a new feature of Google Earth.

New feature in Google Earth enables users to explore space from their computer

On July 26, Google announced that business and government users of Google Earth Enterprise will be able to view their organization's geospatial data in 2D on a browser, behind the firewall.

New initiative helps nonprofit organizations around the world leverage the power of Google Earth to advocate, educate; new Global Awareness layers from Global Heritage Fund, Earthwatch Institute, TransFair USA