As written at OgleEarth, Google Earth was used by an Italian systems analyst named Luca Mori to discover a Roman Villa. Apparently he noticed an anomaly near his village of Sorbola and called in some professional archeologists who took a look and discovered a previously undiscovered Roman villa. Read the story at OgleEarth here. Luca’s story was picked up in an Italian TV news story.
Google Earth use definitely goes beyond casual sightseeing and for finding directions. It’s a very versatile tool and I’m sure many other scientific discoveries will be made using it for visualization purposes.
UPDATE: It turns out that because I can’t read Italian very well that the true story is apparently he used Google Maps initially to make the discovery, but that he could view the site “particularly well with Google Earth”.
About Frank Taylor
Frank Taylor started the Google Earth Blog in July, 2005 shortly after Google Earth was first released. He has worked with 3D computer graphics and VR for many years and was very impressed with this exciting product. Frank completed a 5.5 year circumnavigation of the earth by sailboat in June 2015 which you can read about at Tahina Expedition, and is a licensed pilot, backpacker, diver, and photographer.