Making specialist information available to the masses has always been the Google mantra.

And now, with Google Earth, the free software that marries satellite and aerial images with mapping capabilities, anyone with time on his hands can see detailed imagery of, for example, the Great Wall of China or the Eiffel Tower in Paris. All you need is a broadband-enabled computer and access to the Internet.

“Look! There’s my car,” many Google Earth users have exclaimed while using the service to zoom in on their house.

The software, which requires an installation, is an endlessly distracting source of information and amusement – kind of like Google itself. And now that Google has become a verb in most languages (Who hasn’t Googled himself or someone else?), why not then Google the earth?

Google Earth uses publicly available imagery from more than 3,000 satellites orbiting the earth. Many of these satellites were launched into orbit by Ariane rockets, which are equipped with several SKF bearings and other SKF products.

The images get updated every 18 months or so, although some recent postings on Internet chat groups have lobbied to have more real-time coverage so that Google Earth users could theoretically watch the Olympics via the service.

Either way, Google Earth is the first time satellite images of the earth have been gathered in an easily accessible place.

Now that Google has officially conquered the earth, the Mountain View, California-based firm is seeking other far-flung planetary conquests. Galactic reach is a natural progression, after all.

The Internet sites Mars.google.com and moon.google.com offer unprecedented imagery of these celestial bodies, pinpointing the various landing sites of manned and unmanned rockets and probes, and showing dunes, canyons and craters in the same sort of detail that is available for the cul-de-sacs and cityscapes on Google Earth. Driving directions and the nearest Starbucks, however, are not included, as NASA, which has supplied the photos, has yet to map their locations.

According to the Washington Post, Google has already secured the rights to domain names for Google.Mercury, Google.Venus and Google.Jupiter, with an eye to when images of those planets become publicly available.

But the question remains: When will Google start populating Mars’ and other planets’ craters, canyons and riverbeds with contextual advertisements? No one knows yet, but it should not take long.