It tracked hurricanes and tropical storms; it discovered a Roman villa; it remembered 9/11 tragedy in 3-D; it tracked Ramses’ journey; and it often doubles up as a flight simulator - yes, you guessed it right. We are talking about the oh-so-inevitable Google Earth yet again.

Every other day, it is in the headlines either with its updates or innovative applications. The latest from its stables is its tie-up with Discovery channel. Now, using the Google Earth interface, you can zoom in on a location and watch Discovery’s video clips, be it a city in America or Europe, a US national park, diverse wildlife, an adventure trek or a historical landmark.

Discovery, which operates more than 100 networks in 170 countries, will integrate streaming video of locations like Yellowstone National Park, the Great Wall of China, Trafalgar Square and the Taj Mahal into Google Earth. Over the next few weeks, Google will include a globe icon, linking users to a series of two-to four-minute videos from Discovery's archives.

While Google is eying to get a wider adoption of its application with the tie-up, Discovery pins hopes on increasing its ad revenue and plans to expand beyond cable programming, including developing a new Internet-based subscription learning service.

This is yet another example of premium content holders and Internet destinations teaming up to bring enhanced offerings to users. Similar experiments like Google Earth’s association with British Airways in providing travel and tourist information to its passengers and Microsoft Virtual Earth’s lead in guiding business travellers reach their appointments will sure open new vistas in location based services.