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Digitizing the Planet: Google Earth vs MSN Virtual Earth vs MapQuest

Cyberspace Has Been Indexed; Next the Search Engines Are Indexing the Physical World
By Jeremy Geelan
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June 19, 2005 06:00 AM EDT
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 36,626
"The next time I lose my car keys, maybe I can just go onto Google and search for them," speculated futurist Paul Saffo (pictured) recently. The director of the Institute for the Future was referring to Google Earth, its "virtual globe" project launched last month at a news conference.

MapQuest must be looking over its shoulder as Google, and now Microsoft too, begin to compete for the 3 million unique users the service currently claims, by entering the online map space. Just as Google has created Google Earth, so Microsoft's MapPoint Business Unit has created MSN Virtual Earth project.

At the Google Earth demo, a 3-D version of the Grand Canyon was navigated virtually.

Saffo told The Washington Post that the digitizing of the planet was a logical extension for Google: "Google has indexed all of cyberspace," he told the paper's reporter. "If it's going to keep growing, it's going to have to index something else - and that something else is physical reality."

Published June 19, 2005 – Reads 36,626
Copyright © 2005 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
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More Stories By Jeremy Geelan

Jeremy Geelan is Sr. Vice-President of SYS-CON Media & Events. He is Conference Chair of the all-new International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo series, of the International Virtualization Conference & Expo series, of AJAXWorld RIA Conference & Expo series, and of the long-running SOAWorld Conference & Expo series. He's founder of Cloud Computing Journal, Web 2.0 Journal, AJAX & RIA Journal and other leading SYS-CON titles. From 2000-6, as first editorial director and then group publisher of SYS-CON Media, he was responsible for the development of all new titles and i-Technology portals for the firm, and regularly represents SYS-CON at conferences and trade shows, speaking to technology audiences both in North America and overseas. He is executive producer and presenter of "Power Panels with Jeremy Geelan" on SYS-CON.TV.

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Most Recent Comments
Earth Satellite Maps - Google Earth Blog 09/02/06 12:04:16 AM EDT

Trackback Added: [Sys-Con] Google Earth vs MSN Virtual Earth vs MapQuest; Sys-Con’s short review of the 3 most popular satellite mapping sites.
Digitizing the Planet: Google Earth vs MSN Virtual Earth vs MapQuest
— ‘The next time I lose my car keys, maybe I can just go onto Google and search for them,’ sp...
Wayne Sanderson 07/30/06 12:56:41 PM EDT

Google Earth needs more layers and layer controle like inferared,electromagnetic and topographical mappeng.Otherwise it is prety dern good