We know you're an XP user, Gaieus, because I posted that link 5 posts ahead of yours... must... tune.... out.... crazy.... Mac.... users.... 
. But thanks for thinking of us, and thanks for all your work in the community of SketchUp!
Barry
Google Department of Redundancy Department
Sorry, I had to wait until I knew this posted before saying more:
We're working on a fix for this, but basically Google Earth -> Get Current View and Google Earth -> Place Model (PPC only) are having issues. I'm also noticing slowness (give it 2 minutes) on bringing up "Share Model" that may be Safari 3.0.4 related. We'll hunt that one down, but please share anything you notice. Thanks.
Oh, one other thing: let the indexing run and complete before making any conclusions. Especially on a MacBook. There have been some reports of this, so check it again today assuming you left the machine on.
Tim - we've tested Leopard on earlier versions and noticed there are a couple of OpenGL issues fxed, one on the video driver on your MacBook & Mac Mini, another on the 24" iMac. We haven't observed beach balling on SketchUp in the situations you mentioned, so I'll get on that today and see if we can recreate what you're seeing. Do you have 1 GB memory or 2? I'd also launch /Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor.app and take a look at your system's performance and memory usage.
10.4.11 updated you to Safari 3.0.4, which is the same Safari version in Leopard. We'll figure this out, but in the mean time, click on the "Home" icon at the upper left of the window and everything should load. Thanks.
Barry
It's a memory issue... you can avoid this during setup by changing your model dpi to your screen dpi (usually 96 on XP, 72 on Mac OS X). Only render at higher dpi's when you're ready to print. We are working on (a) more description to what's happening when the red x appears and (b) dealing with memory in a better fashion.
(bjanzen)
In what way is it not zooming extents in your scene, and if you send to SketchUp and select all, does it zoom as expected? Confirm that the model in SketchUp and LayOut is sync'd... any more details appreciated.
bjanzen