If you work on Google Earth, you really have the sensation to manipulate something. To have the capability to move and rotate a model of the Earth is really powerful, especially in information visualization. In fact more the user is involved in the interaction with something, more the interaction becomes transparent. And transparency of the interaction layer means direct connection to information.
Anyway Google Earth is an application which requires more study. I haven’t see very exciting examples of information visualization, but two works worth to be cited. One is an animation of international flights from the most important USA airports, the other is a really nice visualization of world oil consumption. In the picture, the red color represents on the left the USA and on the right the China oil consumption.
World Oil Consumption by John Jason Fallows
