Peter at the Virtual Globes Directory sent me this and thought I would give it a try. Peter has a pretty good write-up on his blog about this, but here is my first look at it.  (Check the Update at the bottom as I figured out what I was doing wrong)

Skyline, as you know, is firing lawsuits at google for patent infringement. Well, they have now entered the virtual globes market with their own release of SkylineGlobe. I am not yet that impressed.

On the skyline website they have these interesting screen shots from all over the globe. But unless I missed part of the download.. all I see are just “parts of the globe”, and while they ARE interesting and cool to see.. I don’t see how to get to the rest of the globe. I can only seem to look at just six locations on the globe. And not see the whole globe..

Here are some screen shots on the skyline site of their application in use. Looks nice right? Now here is when I use it.

Here is the start page you see every time you load TerraExplorer

This is the “welcome / how to use page”, Notice how the only way to start seeing any imagery is the six links to the right. Ok, we’ll start there and go to Chicago.

Interesting layout, you have your imagery in the large right window, some information and toolbars in the bottom right. There are also tree links and an overview map on the left. See that little red airplane? That is “you” and the red lines going out are your field of view.

Here you can see the 3D buildings in TerraExplorer, they do look a lot nicer than the Google Earth buildings.

The buildings also cast shadows.

Clicking on a location takes you to that location and opens a snall information window.

But, what about the rest of the globe? Well here is the best I was able to get:

No overview window anymore, it is black now. 70000 Meters seems to be the max height, I could not go any higher. Panning around, I actually run out of imagery and end up in a black “no-mans-land”.

So, if this is all this beta has to offer.. this is nothing to really “scare” GE, Virtual Earth and NASA World Wind.

It is just a beta so improvements should be around the corner.. but navigation REALLY needs improvement.. TerraExplorer has replaced Google Earth for “worst navigation interface” in my opinion.  Navigating in TerraExplorer is just not that intuative, once I found the “flight navigation” console and got it to display, I was able to move around a little easier.

It is an interesting application… but not yet one I’ll be loading up daily or weekly just yet.

Update:

Ok, I have found something out.. the GlobeExplorer shortcut on the website is what you needed to click to get the global view (”Existing Users” link).  Well, that is not straight forward that that is something you should do

So, looking at this version now..

Navigation is a little improved over the TerraExplorer view.  But the imagery seems to be worse off, US is covered well.

Sydney Australia, which is Terra Explorer is in 3D .. is not even viewable in GlobeExplorer.

Now, I do like how the layers transition as you zoom in closer:

But for the most part, it is not any better than anything else already out there.  Will have to check into this more and see what else can be done and what, if anything, is better than the offerings already out.