Google really is taking over everything...

Google has invaded my PC and my classroom...

I have abandoned browsers like IE, Firefox, Opera and now use Chrome.
Google is the new vernacular for "to inquire or ask".
Now Google Earth has invaded my classroom.

Not only does Earth allow you to get directions and satellite photos, it allows my students to visit places around the world without the annoyance of airlines.
In my unit on Europe in Geography, students created a fantasy vacation with no limitations except to stay in the continent and the allotted 10 day travel time. What they found and showed blew us all away.
I used Earth to give mini-tours of places using a common theme like castles or cathedrals to help students think of sites to see. They not only used Earth for basics like distance, direction, and travel time, but they also used it to show pictures of places they were "visiting" and often discovered amazing off the beaten path sites that a regular textbook or Google-ing would have found. Then to top it off, several used Earth's tour option to share their learning with the class via a projector and Smartboard.
The user submitted and maintained content gave my students ample resources to draw from, including links to hotel websites and reviews of resturaunts to the best best time to visit Plaza de St. Pietro in Rome.
As a caveat, however, I had a few parents complain that the program had created an internet hog in their student and they asked about how to troubleshoot the problem.