Posted 11/13/09 at 05:05:13 PM by Bart Salisbury

Advances in technology can be amazing. At the same time they can be threatening. Especially when they crash into existing cultural predispositions, as Google is finding out in Switzerland. Apparently, the Swiss (and a few other countries in Europe) are fond of their privacy. And, in their opinion, Google’s Street View poses a direct threat to that privacy.

The Swiss penchant for privacy is old news--who doesn’t know about the strict anonymity of Swiss banking laws? It’s not surprising, then, that the country’s federal data protection commissioner, Hanspeter Thuer, announced it would take Google to court unless it did a better job protecting the privacy of those it captured with its Street View cameras. In particular, Thuer wants better blurring of faces and license plates, and a lower camera view so that things not normally viewable from the street, such as walled gardens or private streets, would not be shown.

Google’s Matthais Meyer respond by saying “We believe that Google Street View is absolutely legal, also in Switzerland.” The company, he said, would “vigorously contest” the case.

This is not Google’s first run-in over privacy concerns. Japan has already made Google agree to reshoot images from a lower camera angle; Germany has demanded erasure of raw footage of faces, house numbers, and license plates of individuals who don’t want to appear in Street View; Greece has so far said no to Google’s requests to photograph its streets; and villagers in Buckinghamshire in England formed a human chain around a Google van to block it from photographing its streets.

Street View is an amazing technology. I used it to successfully track down locations for photographs I took last year in Tokyo--even on small, out-of-the-way side-streets. But is the loss of individual privacy too high a price to pay for my convenience?

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Posted 11/02/09 at 07:46:08 PM by Jason Barry

Google CEO Eric Schmidt is ready to put the hard times behind him and his company to usher in a new crowd of technological innovators. On the Google blog today, Alan Eustace, senior vice president of engineering and research, made an open offer to anyone who thinks they can make a difference to seek out Google for employment.

In the entry, he cites the success of Google Earth, Android, and Google Chrome as reasons to be technical innovators. He quoted Schmidt saying, “Innovation is the technological pre-condition for growth.” Eustace reiterated that the Google Chrome was the last in a long line of Google projects to receive the Founders Award, a multimillion-dollar stock bonus to all team members. "(The) future is shaped by small teams of creative people who want to make a difference. We're on the hunt for these kind of people -- let us know if you think you're one of them" said Eustace.

This is a much different attitude from earlier this year when Google made job cuts or lost some employees who felt their career path were best suited elsewhere.

Do you think you have what it takes to create the next Google Earth? Chrome? Gmail? Check out the postings on the Google site, or duke it out with your competitors on the comment board.

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Posted 10/14/09 at 07:34:06 AM by Pulkit Chandna

Google’s rendition of our planet is ready for a massive 2D to 3D transition with the launch of its browser-based Google Building Maker tool for Google Earth. It is a new tool that lets almost anyone create 3D buildings for Google Earth. All you need is a Google account, the latest version of Google Earth and some rudimentary imaginative faculty to hit the ground running.

The internet giant defines the new tool as the progeny of “Google Maps and a gigantic bin of building blocks.” At the moment, it is possible to create 3D building in around 50 cities across the globe, though the 3D buildings can be viewed from anywhere in the world. The user is free to choose any building in the cities currently covered by the tool.

The model has to be created using the existing aerial shots of the selected location and 3D shapes. The finished product can then be submitted for review to the Google 3D Warehouse (an online repository of 3D models). If chosen, it is added to Google Earth’s 3D building layer.

“One of the best ways to get a big project done — and done well — is to open it up to the world. As such, today we're announcing the launch of Google Building Maker, a fun and simple (and crazy addictive, it turns out) tool for creating buildings for Google Earth,” Google’s Mark Limber (Product Manager) and Matt Simpson (User Experience Designer) wrote in a blog post announcing the launch of Building maker.

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Posted 06/29/09 at 05:22:12 PM by Andy Salisbury

While the world has proven itself capable of misusing Google Earth in many different ways, its latest application has been to steal fish.

That’s right folks, it would appear that high end fish thieves have been employing the same software that was used to find a downed aircraft, to find valuable koi in people’s back yards. According to Police Community Support Officer Gregory, “Google Earth shows what is in your garden and you can see people’s ponds. One of the properties targeted has an eight-foot fence and is set back from the road. The pond is in the corner and can’t be seen. Unless you were standing right next to the wall, you wouldn’t be able to hear the running water.”

And, while they make a riveting point, Google stands up very well under pressure. A spokesperson of theirs replied: “Google Earth is built from information that is available worldwide from a wide range of both commercial and public sources. As such, Google Earth creates no appreciable increase in security risks, given the wide commercial availability of high-resolution satellite and aerial imagery of every country in the world. Criminals could use maps, phones and getaway cars but no one would argue that these technologies are responsible for the crime itself, that responsibility lies with the perpetrator.”

Talk about a verbal smack down.

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Posted 04/28/09 at 05:36:28 PM by Andy Salisbury

Google Earth has already been used to find Atlantis (sort of), help British looters, and even allow you to explore Mars. But, thanks to a determined rescuer, it’s now been used to track down previously hidden airplane wreckage.

Volunteers searching for the wreckage of millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett’s airplane had come up empty handed in all previous attempts to find his whereabouts. However, shortly after the team had given up hope, one of the rescuers found a picture of a forest fire that had been taken the same day as the crash on Google Earth, and thought that it was in the similar area. After alerting the family and setting up a website, they were able to find the exact area where the picture was taken, and the wreckage.

Sadly there wasn’t a happy ending for the families of the two that were lost in the crash, Marcy Randolph and William Westover, but it does provide closure.

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Posted 04/22/09 at 02:30:31 PM by Florence Ion

Earth Day is the one hippie-holiday of the year everyone can partake in—it’s a celebration of this giant rock we call home! This annual event strives to bring awareness and appreciation for the Earth’s environment. Some people throw festivals or plant trees, but what about those of us who wish to celebrate Earth Day in a technology-friendly way?

Dust off your Google Earth application (or download it, if you don’t already have it) as we’re going to show you five amazing things Google Earth can do to celebrate Earth Day.

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Posted 02/15/09 at 03:45:01 PM by Justin Kerr

Some people harness the awesome power of Google Earth to view distant lands they may never reach, take in a crime in progress, or maybe even find a 3 billion dollar shipwreck. At least that’s the claim of Nathan Smith, a Los Angeles musician who appears to have spotted the remains of a Spanish barquentine while zooming in on a shoeprint shaped object in the Aransas Pass in Texas. This assumption was based on historical records which put a lost barquentine (three massed sailboat) near that location south of Refugio, Texas, in 1822.

After consulting with a few experts, he traveled to the location which just happens to be the private ranch of the late Morgan Dunn O’Connor. The result of this drama will end up being decided in the courts with the family of Mr. O’Connor and Mr. Smith in a bitter dispute over salvage rights. If the courts determine that the land is located within a navigateable waterway, the first person to find the wreck is entitled to the spoils, otherwise the bounty goes to the O’Connor family.

As if this wasn’t complicated enough, the state of Texas is also considering its options because it disputes the existence of a commercial waterway near the wrecks location. If this is proven true, the state might have found a surefire way to balance its books come budget time. U.S. District Judge David Hittner will rule on the salvage rights within two months time.

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Posted 01/14/09 at 05:00:39 PM by Paul Lilly

With a struggling and uncertain economy, chances are a trip to Madrid probably isn't in the cards for the immediate future. But just because you might not be planning an overseas vacation doesn't mean you have to miss out on some of the sights; namely the paintings taking residence inside the Prado Museum.

Thanks to a collaboration between Madpixel, Google, and  Prado Museum, 14 works are available for viewing through Google Earth at an astounding 14-gigapixel resolution. That's 14 BILLION pixels, and 1,400 times the resolution of a 10MP camera, or up to 100-thousand times that of a normal digital camera. The ultra-high detail allows you to zoom in close enough to see the painter's brushstrokes, Google says.

This marks the first time Google has worked with a first class museum in a project this size, and more artwork is expected to be made available every day for the next two weeks. In the meantime, virtual visitors can also take a tour through a 3D model of the Prado Museum.

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