If you don't use the Chrome browser, Google Earth has been off limits for years now, but this week that changed as Google finally launched Earth for other browsers.
In a post on Medium, Google software engineer Jessi Beck and tech lead manager Jordan Mears, announced support for Google Earth on other browsers including Firefox, Edge, and Opera.
It's taken years to reach this point, but it's all thanks to WebAssembly, which allows high performance native applications to run on the web.
Google switched Earth from being a desktop application to a web-based experience back in 2017.
Google Earth is written in C++ and then run in a browser using Native Client (NaCl), which meant you could only access it using the Chrome browser.
Google argues NaCl was the only way to get Earth's code running well in a browser back then, but with the development of WebAssembly (Wasm) as an open standard, it's meant the required performance is now available across all browsers without NaCl.
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Google ported Earth from NaCl to Wasm and then spent the last six months testing across multiple browsers through a public beta.
Although Google says there's still some polishing to do, Google Earth is now available to all Firefox, Edge, and Opera users.
One prominent browser you'll notice is missing from that list is Apple's Safari, which Google intends to add support for in the future.
