How is google earth better than google map?

Is there a way to put information stored in an Access database in Google Earth and map it?

• Here is what we do now: We have an original list of address and zip codes, we also have an Access database with a list of address and zip codes. We plug in the original information and Access spits out the address and zips that match (closest proximity). What we want to do: I hate Access, it's awful...is there a way to use Google to do this? I really just need the addresses to match, I don't need a map with Google but will use it if it's easy.

• Answer:

  If you're looking for a "3 closest stores that carry our products" type of thing, there are programs that do that without using Google. (They do have a database of longitude-latitude for locations, though - sort of what you're probably doing now.) The algorithm is basically - convert the address to lat-long. Calculate distance to nearby lat-longs in the database. Display the n closest ones. You could use Google Earth, but you're just getting your data from their database instead of from your own.