It’s interesting how Google Earth, a mashup that seemed like a nice plaything when it first appeared, inevitably in beta, is now going seriously mainstream.

I recently watched ITN News in the UK screen a dynamic 3-D map of Lebanon and Israel on their main bulletin, badged “Google Earth”. It was excellent and a huge improvement on their usual drawn diagrams.

As Google’s many experiments in “Web 2.0″ become commonplace off the computer, how long before Google itself brands itself as mainstream media?