As mentioned in earlier posts, I have spent a great deal of the past 18 months on the road, for business purposes. One tool that I have found very useful is Google Maps. With Google Maps (as well as other mapping programs), I can show my family the details of my travels, including sattelite imagery of the places. It has worked for every location that I have looked for, anywhere in the world, and with quite good resolution.
One question that I have always had is, what is the impact of these programs on security? Do they provide too much information to terrorists? Can they be used during wartime, to provide our enemies with an advantage? With the invasion last Friday of Georgia, by Russia, I got my answer.
While trying to figure out where all of this was taking place, I opened Google Maps. Lo and behold, within a very short time of Russia's invasion of Georgia, Google had pulled all of the internal information from the maps, not only for Georgia, but for most of the Caucasus region, including Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. Nothing remained for these countries, other than their borders and large bodies of water. It was a bit eerie to see an image like this, but at the same time, comforting to know that Google has the technology to keep itself out of events like this.
Here is a sample of the image available on Google Maps:
The URL for Google Maps is: http://maps.google.com/
-steve
TM said...
Steve
Good review on Google maps, but I believe that like all technology based tools it too will go away in light of Garmins. Now the true test is will Google and mapquest bot engage this technology change and survive.
August 14, 2008 at 7:14 PM
Jean said...
I prefer Google Earth to Google Maps:
http://earth.google.com/
You can still see streets, and you can even get images along many streets with street view (they send cars with cameras around to capture images)
and the stars in the sky are correct.
and I just downloaded a KML that adds real time satellite data. You can get it here:
http://adn.agi.com/webServices/
(choose Google Earth Satellite Database)
Zoom out at the equator and you can see all of the geosynchronous satellites (and a few moved off orbit 'cuz they're dead.)
Way cool!
http://adn.agi.com/webServices/
September 14, 2008 at 10:15 PM
Jan said...
I love Google maps and use Google 3D - being able to see things in 3D. I especially like the Sky Maps - can't wait for the 3D version. Here is the URL: http://earth.google.com/sky/index.html
September 17, 2008 at 8:51 PM