I can see my car from here!

Jun. 28th, 2005 at 5:38 PM

Google has just released Google Earth, its tool for exploring and examining satellite imagery. Best thought of as a Picasa for satellite imagery, Earth replaces Keyhole.

You can fly around the globe, and then zoom in to the detailed satellite images. I'm pretty sure I can see my car parked just down the road from our house... And the basic version costs nothing. Well, nothing but your time!

Not as deep and educational as NASA's World Wind, but quicker and a little bit more fun.

You will need a fast PC and a broadband connection to get the most out of this...

Current Mood: happy
Current Music:Shpongle - Are You Shpongled? - and the day turned to night

Comments

( 13 comments — Leave a comment )

srallen

Jun. 28th, 2005 09:43 am (UTC)

OK... admit it...

How much is Google paying, anyway?

Dammit, man, I'm at work! I need to... work... for some reason that's not very clear to me at the moment.

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sbisson

Jun. 28th, 2005 09:45 am (UTC)

Nothing!

I can't work out why they keep giving shit this good away...

Well, actually I can - it's all about the eyeballs. How long before you get to see satellite views of every In-and-Out burger in the US?

Oh bugger. Now I need to get to the west coast for my burger fix.

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ffutures

Jun. 28th, 2005 11:39 am (UTC)

It's all about you buying the super duper version.

Absolutely wonderful. All it needs now is for someone to add Sunnydale California and the Hyperion Hotel in LA...

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drplokta

Jun. 28th, 2005 09:56 am (UTC)

Cool application. But it looks like their satellite photos of Green Park and St James's Park were taken when there was snow on the ground. White Park, anyone?

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sbisson

Jun. 28th, 2005 10:01 am (UTC)

The pictures seem to be at least 2 yars old. The new flats down the road aren't there...

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nmg

Jun. 28th, 2005 10:29 am (UTC)

Looks like it's a simple rebranding of the Keyhole application, which is hardly surprising.

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profundo_rosso

Jun. 28th, 2005 11:09 am (UTC)

Is Keyhole the same as this one?

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nmg

Jun. 28th, 2005 11:33 am (UTC)

Keyhole was a company that Google acquired earlier this year. Their application was a satellite image viewer that allowed the user to zoom into a globe of the earth. As far as I can tell, Google Earth is almost exactly the same; the only notable difference is that Keyhole supplemented the satellite imagery with aerial photography. Neither have decent images of the UK, alas.

The Multimap image data seems to be different, but I do like the way that it overlays OS map tiles on the satellite image - Google could learn from that.

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marypcb

Jun. 30th, 2005 10:36 am (UTC)

I *think* Multimap has the Millennium Maps - aerial photos of the whole of the UK, used for Big Books in which you can see our house by the white gravel the previous downstairs idiot put on the flat roof.

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nmg

Jul. 1st, 2005 12:54 am (UTC)

I had wondered that when I looked at the Multimap images, since they're clearly aerial photography and not satellite...

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