While reading Indira Lakshmanan's report, this morning, about a controversial highway that will span Amazon forest area, I was able to fire up Google Earth and zoom in on the road project.

Google Earth is, without a doubt, the coolest program of 2005.

I've used Microsoft's Live Local earth mapping service and it's... OK. Not great, but OK. Microsoft does, where available, incorporate images taken from aircraft which give a closer-to-the-ground view than Google's satellite shots, but navigating from one to the next is difficult.

The Google Earth interface is smooth and intuitive; net integration transparent and fast. And where they have started to offer aerial shots (on a limited basis in partnership with National Geographic, in parts of Africa) Google has seamlessly integrated them into the satellite shots so you can zoom down to the village level and see people walking around. Very cool.

Here, for example, are some elephants in southern Chad, seen from Google Earth.

Pretty amazing, huh?