GPS software firm Trimble Outdoors gets a gold star for being the first to release an outdoor enthusiast multimedia layer for Google Earth. Users download the software to their cellphones and other GPS-capable devices. It then piggybacks on top of Google Earth, providing video clips and the like for featured areas.

Want to check out your local hiking trail before you even step outside? (Well, maybe not your local trails, but the big guys.) Just fire up Google Earth with Trimble Outdoors’ software loaded in and you’ll be able to see the trail and its many hazards right away. Better yet, you can export the data to compatible cellphones so you can see all the hazards and so forth while actually on the ol’ trail.

Look, I think it’s pretty obvious that I’ve never spent a minute of my life in the great outdoors, but I certainly can appreciate checking out faraway, um, outdoor locales, from the comfort of Google Earth. Can’t get itchy bug bites that way, now can you?

Trimble Outdoors in Google Earth [Trimble Outdoors]