Use Google Earth to Track Your Mileage
Recently I’ve taken up hiking during lunch. There is a nice mountain trail behind my house the I really enjoy. There are a few landmarks that I generally try to make it to with the time I have available. I was curious exactly how far those landmarks were so I used Google Earth to find out. Curious to know just how accurate Google Earth was, I decided to test it out. I found a local high school track and measured the path around it. .25 miles looks accurate to me!
To use this tool, click the ruler icon and use the path tab to draw polygon shapes.
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July 8, 2009
Tags: google earth Posted in: Technology
53 Responses
I didn’t realise it was so accurate, wow! Nice tip, thanks.
Google earth is ‘to the scale’, I am not surprised that it’s so accurate. You should probably measure trail lengths with a GPS device to confirm your findings. I have used trimble and tomtom devices to measure lengths of race tracks
(I already knew the actual length).
Hi Dustin, great idea. Here’s another useful for Google Earth. A friend is an elementary school teacher and I assist her in putting a virtual history curriculum for her fourth graders and they explore the streets of Rome, Paris, Berlin, Prague as well as cities in America. It’s like an online walking tour.
Google earth is another amazing creation by the GOOGLE.I actually never used Google earth apart from explaining the path of my house to new people.But amazingly everyone to whom i explained reached the right landmark i gave to them. Its a useful and a very fantastic tool,but i never knew it can give you exact mileage also,now can even tell people as to how far my house is and what time is required for traveling such distance.
yeah, Google is in his new decade of innovation, but i don’t think so that this would be accurate too, because there were many errors in Google maps too, many have complained that such maps weren’t updated since months, that was the same case with Wikimapia, let’s see how much works for event managements
That is a good tip. I usually stay on the road, so map my run is usually good enough for me. However, I do enjoy a good hike and this will come in handy to track those. Thanks!
This is a great thing. I am really surprised. I am going now to try this miracle. Thank you!
Here in the UK there’s a site called fizztrain that been using Goolge Earth to let you plan running routes. I started back into medium distance after a long layoff and this tool is invaluable. Google really does know everything about me now!
I had been using Google Earth. I had proven its veracity and efficiency when it comes to geographic information. With no doubt in my mind.
I have never thought that I go for 1.5 mile every day. Great tool, thanks for sharing.
Hey you have revealed an amazing thing about measuring the distance on Google earth. I have basically shifted to a new city and find it really difficult to commute as i dont have idea about the distance and the time thus required in traveling but i guess now you have solved this problem for me.Thank you so much!
I’ve been using Google Earth for a while too. These guys are tracking everywhere around the globe. Really amazing!
Cool. Although I am yet to find something that Google Earth can help me with, I find it a really cool thing. Kinda scary too though.
I’m a avid hiker and it’s a useful tool to plot out trails and also let others know the course of the pathways and level of difficulty. Thanks!
It is funny. I used the same method to measure my route before I bought Garmin Forerunner 305.
Great findings all the way.
as we humans explore some tools we always get to find some new things, which we didn’t know earlier even if they are basics.
so learning tool and exploring on yourself looks different.
Great idea. Google earth is so useful for many things!
That Is just an awesome Tool,
But cant say how accurate it would be,
better will Check once with GPS
Google Earth is really powerful. I bet there will be a lot of more function out in a little bit. At the moment they have new functions almost every week.
Hey ! thanks for sharing such a nice article. I think Google Earth is really very good for searching the location all around the world. Google Earth allows users to search for addresses for some countries, enter coordinates, or simply use the mouse to browse to a location. Keep posting.
I use a similar version of this that is for walkers. I’m guessing it’s the same sort of thing. It’s fascinating to see how far you actually go. Try it for walking, it’s healthier!
Google earth is an amzing creation. Its really useful for working out distances.
I usally use GPS to record it to my car PC. Just let me check this as well.
Oh wow this is trully great. cant believe tech like this is possible.
Yeah i used to love my Garmin GPS until i picked up my I Phone using google maps and the inbuilt GPS is fantastic its just a shame the phone doesn’t cache the maps then it could be used in areas of poor internet reception.
i had no idea you could track distance in that manner. i’ll have to track out my distance when walking around my neighborhood.
Google earth is another amazing creation and I actually never used Google earth apart from explaining the directions and whatnot. But amazingly everyone to whom i explained reached the right landmark i gave to them. Looking forward to updating my cell contract to get a smart type iPhone etc
Britnee
Daily Acid
Oh no, I can see it now. No more making a bonus by claiming mileage back. FD’s all over the world will have Google Maps on their PCs checking the mileage that the staff have actually driven every week.
I remember when google earth first came out I thought and still do it is the coolest thing. Thanks for showing another great feature of google earth.
The results are stunning. I didn’t even expect that Google Earth is so accurate. I’ll use it in future, because we can trust Google Earth as we see and thanks to the author for letting us know about it.
Yet another way to use Google Earth!
The first time I had a look at it I almost couldn’t believe it. We can now see pretty much every square meter on the planet!
I used it to find clusters of apartments when distributing flyers. I read recently about a guy who found what he is convinced is an old boat wreck with lots of treasure. The potential uses seem pretty much limitless …
Huh, I didn’t realize google earth had a measuring tool. I’ve also just used the destinations on google maps, but sometimes I find it to be a bit of a pain. I’ll definately try using google earth’s tool. Thanks for the info.
Thanks for that.. I didn’t know Google could do that.. I also walk at lunchtime and it would be good to know how far I was going without having to wear a pedometer which are notiriously unreliable.
Wow, nice catch! I think Google is using GPS technology on this. GPS has an accuracy of a few feet. I also use Google maps to get the shortest way to any given place, because you can’t tell the difference just looking at it.
I love how Google earth offers walking and public transportation options as opposed to just the best driving route.
I am a trail runner and Google maps is great for not only tracking mileage but also finding new routes.
I recently implemented Google maps with my running routine at my local college. It’s really cool to track your miles.
Sometimes I am in complete awe of what’s available to us through the Internet. Using Google Earth to track your mileage, what a concept! How cool is that!
I really enjoy using Google Earth to go back and look at some of my old neighborhoods that I grew up in. It’s amazing to see how things have changed. Great tip, I will definitely use it. Thank you.
I played with this before as well. I am about to pick up a Droid. Would love to see this as a Droid app! I know it has integrated GPS but curious to see how they use Earth with it.
I didn’t realize how accurate Google Earth was either. I will have to use it to plan my next hiking trip in Colorado. This will definitely come in handy.
I am checking my town area on Google earth. I found that some local area is not yet updated. There new housing area which has not yet appeared on it.
Google Maps is fantastic if you are a boater, it even shows ship wrecks.
Google earth is a fantastic tool, i use it every day, i own a security company and always download the site im am going to survey and place the CCTV cameras on the map, print out and the customer gets to see exactly what the cameras will be viewing.
also use it to measure cable routes and distances for larger scale jobs,
This is a fantastic tool. Cutting back on my leisure travel experiences I managed to walk the Corso Veneto in Rome, cruise the grand Canal in Venice and explore questionable parts of New York’s Central Park at a safe distance.
With information on elevation and distance….Google Earth is an excellent tool for artillerymen all around the world.
hahaa what a great idea. I’ve got a neat little app on my phone that measures how many steps I’ve taken along with the distance I’ve walked & elevation of my route and in what direction.
This is taking it to the next level – nice little hack
Using the GPS on yoru Android phoen you can hook it into Google Maps direct and track your mileage that way. Will map out your entire route too. I’ve used it on bike rides and runs.
It’s very nice to see that Google Earth is always updating new content for the customer. The street view feature was pretty nice and now that mileage tracking is neat!
I picked up my I Phone using Google maps and the inbuilt GPS is fantastic its just a shame the phone doesn’t cache the maps then it could be used in areas of poor internet reception.
there are infinite uses of this feature on google maps. Its really handy that google makes everything to scale. I’m a running and have been using these features on google maps for quite some time to measure running routes on trails and roads. Its really handy for long road runs because you can turn off terrain and look at just the roads and their names. A bunch of sites of utilize this feature now for runners such as mapmyrun.com or trails.com/googlemap.aspx They have formalized the process and you only have to draw lines on the map approximately where you have traveled.
Does anyone know if there is a program that is associated with the Droid and Google Maps that captures the travel information for the day and then feeds it to a spread sheet for tracking for tax purposes? Also if that program does exist does it also have any tracking components for fuel mileage etc.? Thanks
That doesn’t seem very likely yet Pablodsoj, have you tried looking into a GPS system? I do know some of them can do that.
That looks very accurate maybe even more so than GPS. I have been playing around with Google Maps recently and cannot believe all of the work these G engineers must have put into it, I have been trying to find a new house so it is nice when you can see the neighborhood around you in the satellite street view without actually going there
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