Here is a useful article about
the difference between Google Earth and Google Maps.
As I understand it (in 2016)
Google Earth comes as two products (both now free)
- Google Earth
- Google Earth Pro
Both come in a
desktop version that you need to download (tilt is done by holding the wheel down and moving the mouse forward or back). The Pro version has some historic map layers.
Google Earth used to come as a browser plug-in but for technical reasons modern versions of Chrome do not support the plugin (and anyway modern versions of Google Maps include much of the Google Earth functionality).
Google Earth (but not Pro) also comes as a
mobile version (which you need to install on your phone).
The differences between Google Earth Pro and Google Earth are discussed in
this post.
