Google Earth

Originally called Earth Viewer, Google Earth is a program which gives the viewer acess to a virtual globe, from a birds eye view. It was developed by Keyhole, Inc. and is compatible with most operating systems. The features found in Google Maps are also present - you can search for businesses, get directions etc. Tools allow you to zoom and pan across the detailed, 3D Earth. Superimposed aerial photos and satellite imagery are the basis of the program's design, which is available in three version. Google Earth (free), Google Earth Plus ($20 per year) and Google Pro ($400). The program also now includes a virtual galaxy and you can explore the planets and stars. The latest version of Google Earth is 4.3.

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Tags

A tag is a keyword, term or category label assigned to a set of information, such as text, images and videos. A set of data will usually have several tags assigned to it and the tags effectively act as links to related information. Tags are useful when dealing with large amounts of data and on sites such as Flickr, where photos must be organised, tags help a lot (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/). The picture below should indicate what a collection of associated tags usually look like.

Wikis

Wikis are websites that allow the user to create and edit pages, as Wikipedia does. The term wiki is Hawaiin for "quick" and developed from the fact that users can easily edit the information that the website contains. The obvious fault in this concept is sammers/vandals. While this may lower the trustworthiness of the site's information, on Wikipedia for example changes are managed effectively. There are monitors and content controllers and 'damage' is easy to undo. Examples of wikis include Citizendium and obviously Wikipedia.

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