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Google Debuts Street View and Mapplets
Today at the O'Reilly Where 2.0 Conference Google unveiled two new map features. An O'Reilly blogger describes Street View, which uses 360-degree street-level video from Immersive Media to enable neighborhood walk-throughs in (for now) a few selected areas. The other new feature is Mapplets, which let you embed Google Maps mashups in any Web page. Much more coverage is linked from TechMeme.
ORLY? MAPLETS RLY? NO WAi!
It has been noted that Google chose not to recognize Memorial Day with an altered logo, as they do with many other holidays.
A reader forwarded the following reply from Google, about their continuing failure to mark Memorial Day; it's the same reply they've given for at least three years running.
Thank you for your note. We appreciate your interest in seeing a Memorial Day Google logo. If we were to commemorate this holiday, we'd want to express reverence; however, as Google's special logos tend to be lighthearted in nature, this would be a particularly challenging design. We wouldn't want to create a graphic that could be interpreted as disrespectful in any way.
We have a long list of holidays that we'd like to celebrate in the future. We have to balance this rotating calendar with the need to maintain the consistency of the Google homepage. We really value your feedback regarding the Google logo, and please be assured that we're actively pursuing ways in which we can acknowledge Memorial Day and other such occasions in the future.
Regards,
The Google Team
By "in the future," they apparently mean sometime in the next century or so.
As for their claim that they want "lighthearted" logos, how "lighthearted" were those melting glaciers they used on Earth Day?
Here was Google's reply in 2005 when people asked why they didn't mark Memorial Day.
We have to balance this rotating calendar with the need to maintain the consistency of the Google homepage.
Furthermore, Google's special logos tend to be lighthearted in nature. If we were to commemorate Memorial Day, we would want to express reverence, rather than mirth. This would be a particularly challenging design. We would not want to, in any way, create a graphic that could be interpreted as disrespectful. In light of the mail we have received about this, we are actively considering designs we could display on this day next year. We welcome any suggestions you may have.
To show you how transparently false this excuse is, here's the logo Google used for Australia & New Zealand's ANZAC Day, the Aussie/Kiwi equivalent of Memorial Day.
And here's their logo for Canada's Remembrance Day, which they've been running for several years:
And here's the British Remembrance Day logo from 2004:
In truth, Google is willing to honor the fallen of every country--except their own.
yet another flash related story on slashdot
when will you learn that we are not interested in this fucking crap any more
This is a giant ad for a Flash player. I thought Google was more clevererer.