Google Earth/Maps and Competitors

By

Vivian Velasquez

DIS 19 Fall 2007

Image Resolution and

Accuracies: Google Earth

At least 15 meters per pixel Up to 15 cm (6 in.) in Las Vegas and

Cambridge. Some incomplete updates: New Orleans Some land presented at sea level; Salton City

(-200 ft), California and Death Valley (-286ft)-though it is not, obviously.

Arctic polar ice caps completely absent from Google Earth

False Color An image depicted in colors that are different from “faithful full-

colored” photograph; “colors [that] represent measured intensities outside the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum” (Wikipedia)

True Color “image of a subject is an image that appears to the human eye just

like the original subject would: a green tree appears green in the image…” (Wikipedia).

Competing ServicesAOL Mapquest: Aerial Image

Ask, map directions: Aerial

Windows Live Local: hybrid, zoomed

Windows Live Local: Bird’s Eye

Windows Live Local: Bird’s eye

Windows Live Local: Bird’s eye

Yahoo Maps: Satellite

Rand McNally: Street map

Google Maps: Hybrid

Google Earth, zoomed

Google Earth: zoomed

GlobeXplorer

Copyright “Currently, every image created from Google Earth using satellite

data provided by Google Earth is a copyrighted map. Any derivative from Google Earth is made from copyrighted data which, under United States Copyright Law, may not be used except under the licenses Google provides. Google allows non-commercial personal use of the images (e.g. on a personal website or blog) as long as copyrights and attributions are preserved.[29] By contrast, images created with NASA's globe software World Wind using Blue Marble, Landsat or USGS layer, each of which is a terrain layer in the public domain. Works created by an agency of the United States government are public domain at the moment of creation. This means that those images can be freely modified, re-distributed and used for commercial purposes” (Wikipedia).

Purpose of Google Earth?

Educational purposes: K-8 classrooms? http://www.google.com/educators/gaw.html

“Geography Awareness Quiz” Entertainment Practicality: know where things are in the

globe Suggestions?….

The Privacy Question?

How many of you would be bothered by the fact that anyone using “G” Earth can possibly zoom in on you or your car’s license plate?

Does it matter? Good for law enforcement?: FBI, CIA, local police… Is this Big Brother? Do we have reason to complain? Threat to National Security: “In October 2007, The Guardian

reported that Arab terrorists are using Google Earth to plan their Qassam rocket attacks on Israel” (Wikipedia).

Google Blurrs Image…

Royal Stables in The Hague, Netherlands