Not+just+an+Atlas

Google Earth is not (just) an Atlas
You've seen that a 3D model of the Earth underlays the imagery shown by Google Earth. The satellite images are draped over this elevation model. When you tilt your view, you can see a very realistic landscape.
 * ==But wait, there's more!==

That's better than you get in most atlases. If that's all that Google Earth could do, it would be a good resource. But Google Earth does much, much more.

Google Earth has brought together satellite imagery from all over the planet. And it continues to collect new images. Periodically, the image database is refreshed and many areas that once had only low resolution satellite images suddenly are shown in great detail.

Even high-resolution areas are periodically replaced with more recent views.

Other basic display capabilities include borders (national and regional), place names, and roads.

The basic capabilities of Google Earth have also attracted many organizations. These groups have added their spatial data as layers.

Google Earth Layers
You select layers in on the lower left side of the screen.

Often Essential Layers (there should be a checkmark in front of these)
You will turn these on and off as needed. These are the layer that you should know about and use frequently.

[x] Geographic Web [x] Panoramio [x] Roads [x] Borders & Labels [x] Terrain

Interesting Layers (check mark these if you are interested)
These layers are interesting, but probably lower on the priority list.

[x] Gallery [x] Gigapan Photos [x] Gigapxl Photos

A Note for the Future
Google Earth will add more layers. You should periodically scan the layers that are available to see if there is something of interest. Here are a few layers that are included that may be of interest.

[x] Global Awareness (a lot of layers that pertain to conservation and related topics) [x] Weather (several layers that give you a perspective of the weather, such as cloud cover or radar images) for large areas of the Earth. ||