On Friday, Google officially started offering Google Earth Pro as a free download. Previously, the service was aimed at business users and was priced at $399 per year.

The service offers features that are not found on the standard version of Google Earth, such as the ability to print high-resolution images, view traffic data, and record HD movies. Google Earth Pro also allows you to measure area, radius and ground circumferences, and use GIS data.

In order to take advantage of all these features, you will have to sign up for a free Google Earth Pro account. Google will then send you an email with a key that activates the full Pro version of the software. To sign up for a free key, fill out the following form. Once you have the key, download Google Earth Pro for Mac or PC from this following link.

Google Earth Pro requires a computer with at least a Pentium 4 processor, 2GB of free hard drive space, and at least 1GB of RAM, and Windows 7 or later. For Mac users, Google recommends similar hardware requirements and at least Mac OS X 10.6.8 or later.