Google Earth 4.0 out of Beta

It’s official: The most recently released version of Google Earth, 4.0.2722, has been declared non-beta. If you haven’t dowloaded a new version of Google Earth in the last 48 hours, download it here, for Linux, Mac and PC.

The Google Earth website sports a snazzy new look (okay, by Google standards) that highlights the new default layer for 3D textured buildings. One new useful (to me) page: A product comparison between the Free, Plus and Pro versions.

Lastly, the EULA hasn’t changed, much as I wish it would: You still can’t use Google Earth Free or Plus “in any commercial or business environment or for any commercial or business purposes for yourself or any third parties.” I know it’s legalese, but if a secretary can’t use Google Earth from work to book his boss’s hotel rooms instead of using Internet Explorer, which includes Virtual Earth 3D (and which has no such legal restriction), then that is a tangible handicap working against the adoption of Google Earth as a geobrowser replacement for the ordinary browser.