Those Apple defying upstarts, Google have updated five cities with Google Earth this week, they normally only update three cities, and of those five cities, there are in South Africa, which could be presumed as a prelude to the upcoming FIFA 2010 World Cup in South Africa, reports fromtheold.

Perhaps Google Earth expects a large audience to use Google Earth during the World Cup, but anyway South Africans can now enjoy Google Earth showing Pretoria, Port Elisabeth, and Bloemfontein, and delivers outstandingly clear images of said cities.

The other two cities of the five to gain Google Earth are Barcelona in Spain and Mulhouse in France, and just so you can see what Google Earth looks like when it comes to Barcelona, we have a video for your viewing pleasure below.

Barcelona now joins Valencia and Madrid as Google Earth 3D cities, and as you can see by viewing the just over one and a half minute video below, Google Earth does show off Barcelona’s architecture rather well…enjoy.