The Google Earth application can be used to measure distances between places on the planet, and additionally, if you are interested, you can even measure the elevation profile of a place, or between two places. This data may not be very useful for everyone, but if you are intricately planning a trip, the elevation profile will be a very useful statistic to have for the report.
One thing that geography buffs really want to see is the ability to include and apply topographical contours on the virtual globe, and for some reason, Google has not added this feature into the application yet. The actual reason for this is yet to be known, but by the looks of it, Topographical data tends to have a few pointers that may be too sensitive to make public, and until they can work on a solution o this, it doesn’t;t seem likely that they will add in the feature.
Adding topo Maps will involve procuring the same from the authorities around the world, and although they are public records in most countries, there are some regions that are prohibited, and frankly, I believe it is a bit of a hassle for the company to get behind it. Yes, there are some third-party apps that can help you get a topo overlay for certain regions of the world, not all of the maps are completely accurate.
