"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."