Google Earth Pro has a set of three layers that are not found in the standard version of Google Earth. They are “US Demographics”, “US Parcel Data” and “US Daily Traffic Counts”. As the names suggest they only have data for the US. If you open a popup for the Parcel Data layer a notice appears stating that all three layers will be removed from Google Earth on January 29th, 2016. There is also a link to this page which explains that the Parcel Data depends on Google Maps Engine which was deprecated in January 2015 and is set to be shut down on January 29th, 2016.

From what we can tell based on comments on the announcement thread and emails on the subject that we have received, it is the US Parcel Data layer that will be most missed. There appear to be quite a lot of people who use it on a daily basis and before Google Earth Pro was made free of charge, they paid for it specifically for access to the Parcel Data.

The Parcel Data layer includes outlines of ‘parcels’ which are pieces of land with a unique identification number used for things like ownership records, tax assessment and zoning. The information associated with each parcel varies considerable depending on the local authority.

As far as we know there is no single alternative source for free parcel data for the whole of the US. However, a number of sources are mentioned in the comments of the announcement thread.

Parcel outlines can be seen in Google Maps, but the associated data is not available, nor is the ability to search using an Assessor’s parcel number (APN) as you can in Google Earth Pro. You can also use the Google Maps API to make the parcel outlines more visible in Google Maps. See the the announcement thread for more details.