Earth Calling Google
I’m not the first to post about this, but one of many who have and will. I love how Google announces all of their new and cool tools so secretly. It’s almost like they don’t care. They just kind of toss a nifty tool out here and there with the comment, “Here you go; give this a try.” The same is true, to some extend, with their new tool, Google Earth. Now this isn’t new to some, as many geeks and techies know, Google Earth game from the software application Keyhole, which Google purchased and was strictly selling as a retail version for some time. Now they have split the product into a few different versions: Google Earth, Google Earth Plus, Google Earth Pro, and Google Earth Enterprise. All of these versions have the same basic features such as building rendering, typography, places of interests, roads, etc. The difference is scalability and added features such as faster streaming of imagery and database integration features.
I captured some screen shots of various places I have been, lived and would like to go. I downloaded the application a couple of days ago, so I’m still tinkering with it. It’s more or less, hit or miss when it comes to downloading. They only allow downloads at certain times. Just keep your eyes peeled, or if you’d like, for close friends, I have a copy on my machine that I can toss your way (10 MB). I decided to open the application, pick a few points of interest and then let it stream for an hour or so while it built some of the 3D modeling and typographic features of certain areas. I still have not caught on to how the application streams, what it streams and what, if anything, it stores, but it’s pretty efficient.
I really think Google is doing things right and pushing technology in a direction that it has not moved in for some time. Just think about it, five years ago, we were excited about rollovers, Flash intros, MP3’s and Pentium III chips running at 500 MHz. Now we can take our entire music library with us on a device the size of a deck of cards (with high resolution digital cameras coming in at the same size); desktop computers with dual core chips allowing for, theoretically, four processors in a home computer; mapping the globe and visiting anywhere in the world without leaving your seat; and many more services I can’t even begin to name. I use to say, “What will the next five years hold?” Now I ask, “What will the next month or this year hold?”
July 5th, 2005 at 3:10 am
Google continues to come up with ingenious services! I thought their map system with the satellite imaging was great, but Google Earth tops that!
The thing about Google not announcing it to the world that they have these types of services is that they are still in beta. Gmail is beta. Froogle, Maps, Earth, Groups and so on; these are all still beta services and not wholly intended for the mass market - though what Google’s definition of mass market is we may never know.
But I agree with you that Google is definitely pushing the envelope. They are innovating the way that we perceive data.
And just wait, there’s more Google fun just around the corner… Eric Schmidt has referred to “the payment services [they] are working on”, so we’ll see what happens when Google takes it’s logic and brainshare and applies it to such a service. I, for one, am excited!
PS - I’ll get back to you on that email.
I just haven’t been doing email lately for some stupid reason.
July 6th, 2005 at 10:17 am
I’m intrigued about these “pay services” and where Google is heading in the future. As far as email; get back to me when you can. I know you’re busy.