Google Earth also features many layers as a source for information on businesses and points of interest, as well as showcasing the contents of many communities, such as Wikipedia, Panoramio and YouTube. Google updates with new layers often. Many Google Earth layers, such as Panoramio and Google Earth Community layers, are updated daily with entries from the respective websites.

Borders and labels

Contains borders for countries/provinces and shows placemarks for cities and towns.

• Borders: Marks international borders with a thick yellow line (borders with territorial disputes with thick red lines), 1st level administrative borders (generally provinces and states) with a lavender line, and 2nd level administrative borders (counties) with a cyan line. Coastlines appear as a thin yellow line. Displays names of countries, 1st level administrative areas, and islands.
• Labels: Displays labels for large bodies of water, such as oceans, seas, and bays, and populated places.

Places of interest

A collection of business listings provided by many local services.

Panoramio

Shows many of the most relevant pictures uploaded onto Panoramio's website.

Roads

Displays available road networks. The colors and signs displayed vary depending on the type of roadway.

• Limited-access freeways and tollways that are part of widespread networks such as the International E-road network, United States Interstate Highways and many other national road networks are represented by orange lines.
• Other freeways are marked with pale orange lines.
• Some roads in Japan are indigo.
• Other important roads, generally those most travelled, highest capacity, or bearing a road number, are labeled with yellow lines.
• All other roads are labeled white.
• Some pedestrian walkways and private roads are signified by transparent white lines, especially when greatly resembling a road intended for public automotive traffic.

Buildings in 3D

Further information: SketchUp, Google Building Maker, and Google 3D Warehouse

Shows many 3D computer building models in many cities, in these styles:

• Photorealistic: Shows many buildings in a realistic style, with more complex polygons and surface images.
• Gray: Low-detail models of city buildings designed for computers that may not have the capability of showing the photorealistic models.

Any real world building can be created for Google Earth via a number of avenues:

• Users can create their own 3D buildings with Building Maker. This browser based tool allows users to match 'boxes' to aerial imagery of certain cities. Low learning curve resulting in lower quality 3D buildings.
• Users can download SketchUp a 3D modeling application that allows users to create detailed digital representations of real world buildings. Provided the models meet Google's criteria, they can then be uploaded to the 3D warehouse and accepted to Google Earth
• There are now several companies, certified by Google,^[101] that provide a service creating and maintaining 3D buildings for customers. These companies generally provide high detail models.

In 2009, in a unique collaboration between Google and the Museo del Prado in Madrid, the museum selected 14 of its most important paintings to be photographed and displayed at the ultrahigh resolution of 14,000 megapixels inside the 3D version of the Prado in Google Earth and Google Maps.^[102][103]

In June 2012, Google announced that it will be replacing user made 3D buildings with an auto-generated 3D mesh. This will be phased in, starting with the larger cities. The reason given is to have greater uniformity in 3D buildings, and to compete with other platforms already using the technology such as Nokia's HERE maps and Apple's iOS maps. 

Locations available with the auto-generated 3D mesh:

Google Street View

Main article: Google Street View

Weather

• Clouds – Displays cloud cover based on data from both geostationary and low Earth-orbiting satellites. The clouds appear at their calculated elevation, determined by measuring the cloud top temperature relative to surface temperature.^[104]
• Radar – Displays weather radar data provided by weather.com and Weather Services International, updating every 5–6 minutes.^[104]
• Conditions and Forecast – Displays local temperatures and weather conditions. Clicking on an indicator displays a 2 Day Forecast (Example: Monday Morning, Monday Night, Tuesday Morning, Tuesday Night) forecast provided by weather.com.^[104]
• Information – Clicking Information allows users to further read up on where Google Earth gets weather information.^[104]

Gallery

• Ancient Rome: Launched by Google on November 12, 2008.
• Discovery Networks: Shows geographical information from the Discovery Channel.
• European Space Agency: Shows many satellite images taken of Earth.
• Gigapan Photos: Images from Google's Gigapan project.
• Gigapxl Photos: Photographs taken using Gigapxl.
• Google Book Search: An application of the Google Book search in Google Earth.
• Google Earth Community: User developed content hosted on Google's official Google Earth Community Forum.
• Google News: Shows news stories from many worldwide news sources.
• NASA: A showcase of many satellite images, overlays and features from NASA.
• National Geographic magazine: Shows many features from the National Geographic Magazine.
• New York Times: A collection of news stories from the popular New York City newspaper.
• Rumsey Historical Maps: Shows a collection of historic maps, dating back to the 1600s.
• Travel and Tourism
• 100% Pure New Zealand
• Egypt Tourism
• Japan Tourism
• Korea Tourism
• Kyoto Tourism
• South Africa Tourism
• Turn Here: City Video Guides
• Walt Disney World Resort

• Trimble Outdoor Trips: A collection of hiking trails with recordings.
• Volcanoes
• Webcams.travel: A collection of webcams around the world
• YouTube: A collection of popular videos on YouTube.

Global awareness

A collection of services spreading global awareness. The layer was provided by Google Earth Outreach.

• Appalachian Mountaintop removal
• ARKive: Endangered species
• Earthwatch Expeditions
• Fair Trade Certified
• Global Heritage Fund
• Greenpeace
• Jane Goodall's Gombe Chimpanzee Blog
• The Earth from Above with Goodplanet
• The Elders: Every Human Has Rights
• UNDP: Millennium Development Goals Monitor
• UNEP: Atlas of our Changing Environment
• UNICEF: Water and Sanitation
• USHMM: World is Witness
• War in Darfur
• WaterAid
• WWF Conservation Projects

Ocean

• Animal Tracking
• ARKive: Endangered Ocean Species
• BBC Earth
• Census of Marine Life
• Cousteau Ocean World
• Explore the Ocean
• Marine Protected Area^[105]
• National Geographic
• Magazine Quiz
• Ocean Atlas
• Ocean Expeditions
• Ocean Sports
• Dive Spots
• Kite Surfing Spots
• Surf Spots
• Shipwrecks
• State of the Ocean
• Marie Tharp Historical Map
• Underwater Features

Placemarks and overlays

• North Korea Uncovered – An extensive mapping of North Korea's economic, cultural, political, and military infrastructures, featured in the Wall Street Journal.
• King's College London's Collection of KML databases
• STScI's community contributions to Sky website
• Google Earth Anomalies- Satellite imagery of documented, scientific anomaly sites including mound sites and unexplained circular features via Google Earth
• Virtual Prospector - BLM ownership maps, USGS topos, geologic maps via Google Earth Plugin