Google Earth Pro Goes Free

(RTTNews) - Tech giant Google Inc. (GOOG) has ditched the hefty $399 annual subscription fee for its professional mapping tool Google Earth Pro and has made it available for a free.

Google has for years offered the Pro version of Google Earth for a hefty $399 per year subscription rate; however, it has now decided to share its services with everyone for free. Meanwhile, the company did not disclose any reason for making it free now.

Google Earth Pro is a business-oriented upgrade to Google Earth, with the most feature-rich version of Google Earth available to the public. The Pro version includes additional functionality like movie making, GIS data importer, advanced printing modules, and advanced radius and area measurements.

Users will be greeted with "Sign up is no longer required for Google Earth Pro," when they click the sign-up page for Google Earth Pro. Users just have have to download it and use their e-mail address to sign in while using the license code GEPFREE.

GOOG is currently trading at $526.41, down $2.83 or 0.53%, on the Nasdaq.