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Google Acquires Keyhole Corp.
telstar writes "As part of their ever-expanding online presence, Google has acquired online map provider Keyhole Corp.. Keyhole's technology allows users to perform virtual flyovers of satellite imagery of the earth's surface. The immediate impact of this acquisition is a price drop in Keyhole's service charge. Beyond that, Google does 'not have any announced plans regarding how this technology will integrate with our current products and services.'"
So if they don't yet know how they're going to use it, why did they buy it? I hope Google isn't falling into the trap of buying up companies with cool ideas because they have lots of money burning holes in their pockets. That will lead to overexpansion, and with MS breathing down their necks, they can ill afford missteps in their corporate strategy.
12:50 - press return.
It'd be neat if they integrated this technology with the google local search. Imagine searching for a local business then getting to see it on a satellite map, cool.
Coming soon: Google maps. Better than the rest, because we give you sattelite images of your destination!
With its neverending quest to be able to search everything and anything, perhaphs you'll be able to search the surface of the earth for things in the future through google. Like mapquest but without needing an address, just a starting location then a google search for something as the destination. Come to think of it, that could be pretty cool. What else could they use this for? It can't just be another revenue stream for google can it?
WikiAfterDark.com It's a sex wiki, go now!
This is of course..... not true.
...yet
RegardselFarto
The government will never pass a law stating that we need RFID's to track our positions. Why? Because all the poloticians in DC bangning chicks other than their wives could get caught by just looking up where they are and who is in proximity to them. Once they realize that, it will never pass.
As much a I don't want to don the tinfoil hat, I have to agree with you on this one. Google is starting to get its fingers into so many things, not unlike MSFT. Your post seems to point out the one startling difference... geeks don't despise Google. At least... not to my knowledge.
Is it possible that Google is the "Good Guy" and trying to undermine all the "Bad Stuff" that MSFT does? Or is this just a clever ploy to get all the /.ers excited about Google only to find out they've been pulling the wool over our eyes the whole time?
I CAN'T HANDLE THE DRAMA!!! :P~~~
Proudly supporting the Libertarian Party.
Yahoo alread does a large part of what Google is doing. Google is hardly the only source of any particular service that I am aware of, and it isn't like an operating system lock-in that I can't switch and the others don't have 100% of the software I need, I can pick and choose where to go for every particular service Google offers.
MSFT was an underdog with noble goals once upon a time.
Can you give me a single noble goal MSFT ever had?
I've got more mod points and GMail invi
what can be done will inevitably be done
And here's why that won't wash.
They have no competition at their current price point. Once you charge for a service, all of us non-subscribing, cheap-ass, "I'll just do it myself...better"-type geeks will do an end-run around you and give a better offering away for free.
Linux was first (and pretty much ignored for 10 years), then Microsoft said "hey, if we give away a browser for free, we can kick Netscape's ass!", then Netscape went and open-sourced and gave us Mozilla, which we can run on Linux...etc, etc, etc. Free (as in beer) usually wins. Free (as in freedom) is a no-brainer.
Google's rise to it's current status has a lot to do with the geeks that work at Google, and the geeks that are in charge of Google, so the odds of nefarious plot hatching there are (IMHO) somewhat lower than at MS. They built their business on advertising revenue, rather than liscensing madness, so aside from doing a good job and getting people to look at their ads, they don't have much to push...certainly not in the form of subscriptions (well, maybe a charge for ad-free searching).
Right now, the good thing is that Google is scaring the crap out of Microsoft, and may (eventually) force a change in their revenue model. Short term: Google is still good. Long term: Even if Google forgets how to be good, they won't get away with it...geeks are fickle.
"Murphy was an optimist" - O'Toole's commentary on Murphy's Law
Some people have been playing around with Google's SMS Service http://www.google.com/sms/ and have found if you SMS "Directions" to 46645 you get a reply back "Looking for driving directions? Unfortunately this feature is not yet supported."
Another undocumented feature is for flight times. Try SMSing flight WN 764 and you get the same reply.
This post was inspired by http://www.engadget.com/entry/8423209320818510/
To make personal computing available and affordable to the masses? That was basically their original "mission statement", and was noble enough at a time when computing was basically the domain of the rich.
Would I have ever owned a C64 for under $1000 bucks (at launch) if not in part for it's built-in BASIC interpreter by Micro Soft of Palo Alto?
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
You mean you have better network performance being on the same provider as Keyhole? Gee, imagine that. My average speed to the rest of the world hovers around 300KB/s. My original comment was meant to be critical of their database, not necessarily their pipeline. Serving a multi TB database of image data to a large number of people is bound to cause slowdowns during "peak" hours. However, there are *many* posts in the keyhole forums regarding average speeds of around 40K/s which suggests either capping or database lag.
"...we dont care about the economics; we just want to be able to hack great stuff."
You're right, ver2 does seem slower. What pisses me off more though is the damn nVidia logo that's always there. I understand for the trial version, but I paid for the subscription. Don't make me stare at nVidia's logo (esp. when I have an ATI card).
"...we dont care about the economics; we just want to be able to hack great stuff."
Forgive me, but Microsoft was NEVER an underdog with noble goals. An underdog maybe, but one that was more than willing to use every dirty trick, legal, ethical, or not, to get where it is now.
Even a cursory examination of the history of MSFT is enough to see that.
It is not a condition of becoming a large powerful company that one becomes 'evil'. There are many corps out there that are big and powerful and still manage to be good 'citizens' rather robber barons. It's all in the culture your upper management builds and maintains for the company. I trust Google because everything I've seen from them shows that their culture really is about being good citizens in addition to making a profit. I don't trust Microsoft because everything I've seen from them is about being a cut-throat company willing to do anything they think they can get away with to achieve their goals.