Reading Time: < 1 minIn an effort to get more cities modeled in 3D, Google has created a new category in the 3D Warehouse titled “Help Model a City“. They’re encouraging users such as yourself to go in there and help create some of these models. So far they have five cities listed — Ann Arbor, Michigan : Amherst, […]
Google Earth/Maps
Stephen Chau, product manager for Google Maps, addresses Street View privacy issues
Reading Time: < 1 minFreakonomics has an interview with Stephen Chau, the product manager for Google Maps. Their questions all address the new Street View feature of Map. In the interview, Chau addresses some of the privacy concerns that have been raised. Some snippets: “At Google we take privacy very seriously. Street View only features imagery taken on public […]
Factory in Malaysia is offering ad space on its roof
Reading Time: < 1 minKumomo, a Malaysian company that owns a large factory, is offering up ad space that would be viewable in all of the various mapping systems (once the area gets updated again). They’ll be using a company in California, RoofAds, to do the installation. I imagine that we’ll be seeing quite a bit of this kind […]
JetBlue providing Google Maps in seatback TVs
Reading Time: < 1 minThe Google Lat Long Blog just announced that JetBlue is now providing fliers with Google Maps in their “signature seatback TVs”. On top of that, they’re asking customers to take pictures out the window during their flight, note the location with Google Maps, then send the pictures in. The top 10 photographers will win roundtrip […]
Microsoft unveils “instant answer” for MSN.com and Live.com
Reading Time: < 1 minFollowing on the heels of both Google and Yahoo, Microsoft’s “Live” search now shows an interactive map as the top result if you search for a precise location (full story on their blog). While its noticeably later than Google or Yahoo’s implementation, I must give them credit for taking it a bit further than either […]
Maybe Google Earth really IS aiding terrorists
Reading Time: < 1 minThis story might end up getting blown way out of proportion… The Smoking Gun is reporting that one of the men arrested in the recent JFK airport terror plot had been using Google Earth to get details on the facility. Apparently the terrorists used Google Earth to share information about various physical aspects of the […]
Some other tidbits about Google Maps from last week.
Reading Time: < 1 minMike Pegg at Google Maps Mania just posted a short summary of new features in the Google Maps API that were revealed at the Google Developer Day last week. There are a number of items in there, but the main one I missed was the ability to add live traffic data to your API map. […]
Microsoft and KML support
Reading Time: < 1 minWhether or not Microsoft’s Virtual Earth will ever support the KML format is becoming an interesting topic. Logic would seem to point to “yes”, but that’s not necessarily the case. This topic was brought up at the “birds of a feather” meeting at Where 2.0 last week (discussed here). Their response was not great. When […]
Why did Google create Street View?
Reading Time: 2 minThe more I think about it, the more I question why Google spent so much time and money implementing “Street View”. Sure, it’s neat — but isn’t it just a temporary (and unnecessary) step? With the advancements in 3D buildings in Google Earth (and Virtual Earth, for that matter), making your own “Street View” of […]
The state of Google Earth
Reading Time: 2 minThis was going to be a pretty boring post, since Google hasn’t revealed much about Google Earth lately. I expected some big news last week at either Where 2.0 or the Google Developer Day and there was almost nothing said. It was quite a let down. Then this morning Google announced a huge image update! […]