i dunno how many of you all may have used the satilite map feature on google before, but it's pretty cool. now there is this new free software called google earth. it is a great satilite software and is just really cool to use. i would definitely recommend trying it.
Yea, my dad told me about it a few weeks ago. Its realy cool to mess around with. Im mad though, cause when I zoom in on my town, its all blurry, and i cant see stuff, but other places it looks all real and you can see everything clearly.
Yep, it's cool stuff. Google has some really interesting things out, and it will be something of great interest to watch where they are heading in future months. I find this of particular interest. Free Wi-Fi? Get Ready for GoogleNet. A trail of hidden clues suggests Google is building its own Internet -- and might be looking to let everyone connect for free. <NOBR>By Om Malik, </NOBR>September 2005 Issue What if Google (GOOG) wanted to give Wi-Fi access to everyone in America? And what if it had technology capable of targeting advertising to a user's precise location? The gatekeeper of the world's information could become one of the globe's biggest Internet providers and one of its most powerful ad sellers, basically supplanting telecoms in one fell swoop. Sounds crazy, but how might Google go about it? First it would build a national broadband network -- let's call it the GoogleNet -- massive enough to rival even the country's biggest Internet service providers. Business 2.0 has learned from telecom insiders that Google is already building such a network, though ostensibly for many reasons. For the past year, it has quietly been shopping for miles and miles of "dark," or unused, fiber-optic cable across the country from wholesalers such as New York's AboveNet. It's also acquiring superfast connections from Cogent Communications and WilTel, among others, between East Coast cities including Atlanta, Miami, and New York. Such large-scale purchases are unprecedented for an Internet company, but Google's timing is impeccable. The rash of telecom bankruptcies has freed up a ton of bargain-priced capacity, which Google needs as it prepares to unleash a flood of new, bandwidth-hungry applications. These offerings could include everything from a digital-video database to on-demand television programming. An even more compelling reason for Google to build its own network is that it could save the company millions of dollars a month. Here's why: Every time a user performs a search on Google, the data is transmitted over a network owned by an ISP -- say, Comcast (CMCSK) -- which links up with Google's servers via a wholesaler like AboveNet. When AboveNet bridges that gap between Google and Comcast, Google has to pay as much as $60 per megabit per second per month in IP transit fees. As Google adds bandwidth-intensive services, those costs will increase. Big networks owned by the likes of AT&T (T) get around transit fees by striking "peering" arrangements, in which the networks swap traffic and no money is exchanged. By cutting out middlemen like AboveNet, Google could share traffic directly with ISPs to avoid fees. So once the GoogleNet is built, how would consumers connect for free access? One of the cheapest ways would be for Google to blanket major cities with Wi-Fi, and evidence gathered by Business 2.0 suggests that the company may be trying to do just that. In April it launched a Google-sponsored Wi-Fi hotspot in San Francisco's Union Square shopping district, built by a local startup called Feeva. Feeva is reportedly readying more free hotspots in California, Florida, New York, and Washington, and it's possible that Google may be involved. Feeva CEO Nitin Shah confirms that the company is working with Google but won't discuss details. Google's interest in Feeva likely stems from the startup's proprietary technology, which can determine the location of every Wi-Fi user and would allow Google to serve up advertising and maps based on real-time data. So is Google about to offer free Net access to everyone? Characteristically, the company is cryptic about its goal. "We are sponsoring [Feeva] because [it is] trying to make free Wi-Fi available in San Francisco, and this matches Googles goal to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible," says Google spokesman Nate Taylor. "We don't have anything to add at this point about future plans." To which we speculate: Today San Francisco, tomorrow the world. Link to article: http://www.business2.com/b2/web/articles/print/0,17925,1093558,00.html
yeah, it's neat. not a program we'd use everyday, but something to fuck around with every now and then. and yeah, google has given us a lot of great free software/things in its time. where will they stop?
dude, someone needs to kill this company. Im not joking. Google and Microsoft are going to take over the world. Im not even joking. I will take bets now.
thats wierd, i actually like google. and yeah, i've used that, mostly for getting a rough idea of location for geocaching
MS and Google are competitors google is the best thing to happen to the internet since.....well since its conception
well yea, of course thats what they want you to think. Untill one day you'll get some bullshit letter in the mail you owe all your money and children to Microogle. Laugh all you want now, cuz in a bit, were all fucked.
Google Begins Limited Test of Wi-Fi Service By Adam Pasick LONDON (Reuters) - Google, the online search leader, confirmed on Tuesday it has begun a limited test of a free wireless Internet service, called Google WiFi. The existence of the Wi-Fi service, which offers high-speed connections to the Internet over short distances, is confirmed by public pages on the company's Web site and was first reported in a Silicon Valley newspaper in July. Google spokesman Nate Tyler said the current test is limited to two public sites near the company's Mountain View, California, headquarters -- a pizza parlor and a gym -- located in the heart of Silicon Valley. "Google WiFi is a community outreach program to offer free wireless access in areas near our headquarters," Tyler said. "At this stage in development, we're focused on collecting feedback from users. We'll determine next steps as the product evolves," he said. Free wireless communications would take Google even further from its Internet search roots and move it into the fiercely competitive world of Internet access providers and telecommunications companies. Tyler said the project was started as part of a Google engineer's "20 percent time project." Google encourages its engineers to spend 20 percent of their work time developing independent projects. Several of Google's new products have grown out of such projects, including Google News, contextual advertising program AdSense and social-networking test project Orkut. The Google Web site has several references to Google WiFi but provides few details. One page (http://wifi.google.com/faq.html/) refers to a product called "Google Secure Access," which is designed to "establish a more secure connection while using Google WiFi." The company has already launched a sponsored Wi-Fi "hotspot" in San Francisco's Union Square shopping district in April with a start-up called Feeva. In July, the San Jose Mercury News reported that in exchange for using the free Google WiFi service, customers would be required to load a copy of Cisco's secure network software and Google's "toolbar" program on their laptops. Speculation about a forthcoming Google WiFi service was stoked in August following an article in Business 2.0 magazine, which argued that the company was considering building a U.S. broadband network capable of targeting specific advertising to users based on the location of their Wi-Fi. As evidence, the magazine pointed to what it said was Google's purchase of unused, high-capacity fiber-optic network connections left over from the telecom bust earlier this decade. Google responded saying that such purchases were natural for a company with one of the larger Web sites. But the company has declined to discuss its broader plans. Analysts have voiced concerns that Google could extend itself too far beyond its core business, while acknowledging that its vast financial and engineering resources could produce results. "Becoming a service provider would be quite a stretch for Google, but considering the billions of dollars Google could throw at the problem it could become a reality," Ovum analyst Roger Entner wrote in the wake of the Business 2.0 article. Google, which is rapidly expanding beyond its core Internet search service, introduced an instant messaging and Web telephone calling service called Google Talk in August. Its shares were up 1.5 percent to $308.30 in trading late Tuesday afternoon on the Nasdaq exchange. "I think strategically it absolutely makes sense but its profit and loss impact remains unclear," said Jefferies & Co. analyst Youssef Squali. By Adam Pasick Link to article: http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2005-09-20T200610Z_01_SCH038745_RTRIDST_0_NET-GOOGLE-WIFI-DC.XML Google Raises 4.2 Billion in Stock Sale Price of second offering set at $295 a share Already flush with cash, Internet search firm Google significantly bulked up its coffers Wednesday by raising nearly $4.2 billion in one of the largest-ever second stock offerings. Google set a price of $295 a share late Wednesday on the 14.2 million shares it sold to select investors. The new shares could become available for trading on the Nasdaq stock market as early as today. The company's underwriters -- led by Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse First Boston -- priced the shares 2.6 percent below Google's closing price of $303 Wednesday. In most offerings such as these, underwriters seek deep-pocketed buyers who will purchase large chunks of shares. Institutions such as hedge and mutual funds were the most likely buyers, not individuals. "This is a way to get a block of shares at a single price and at a discount,'' said Internet analyst David Edwards of American Technology Research. ``People will buy into this when they want to buy into a big position.'' The offering boosts the Mountain View company's cash to about $7 billion. Google has not said what it intends to do with the money, and analysts are divided over to whether expect any large acquisitions. Google's acquisitions have historically been relatively small, and they often focused on buying unique technologies and engineering talent. But Google has been thought to have more lofty ambitions with possible interest in high-profile Internet companies such as Internet phone company Skype and Chinese search engine Baidu. Skype, however, is about to be acquired by eBay. And Baidu executives have said they are content to remain independent for now. "I wouldn't expect them to buy something immediately,'' Edwards said. ``It was a good opportunity to raise capital. It was smart to do it in this time frame.'' It's not unheard-of for large, successful companies to sit on large piles of cash, though investors sometimes pressure them to pay dividends when they do. Microsoft has $37.8 billion in cash, for example. "There's not any indication what it will be used for,'' said Jim Friedland, senior research analyst at SG Cowen. ``It may sit in a treasure chest or be used for acquisitions. I would like to know. Given that they generate so much cash, why do they need the dollars? But they don't talk much about their company.'' Google went public with its first stock offering on Aug. 18, 2004, selling 19.6 million shares at $85 apiece and raising $1.67 billion. A year later, following a strong upward march in its stock price, Google announced plans for the second offering. Google sold 14,159,265 shares in the latest offering. Befitting the company's interest in math, Google chose that number because it matches the eight digits that come after the ``3'' in Pi -- the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle. The company already had 173 million shares in circulation, not including the special class of shares owned by Google's two founders and Chief Executive Eric Schmidt. Experts did not expect the addition of 14.2 million shares to the pool to significantly affect Google's stock price. After trading below $300 for the past several weeks, Google's shares have surged in the past week, hitting $315.53 in midday trading on Tuesday. It closed down $8.68 a share in regular trading Wednesday at $303. Francis Gaskins, editor of IPODesktop, an IPO research Web site, said he assumes that most of the institutional investors who bought shares in the second offering are unlikely to turn around and sell them on the open market. "I don't think they're buying them to the flip them,'' Gaskins said. Google's second offering is the largest such offering in 10 years, according to Bloomberg News, trumping the $3.99 billion secondary offering by Goldman Sachs Group in 2000. Mercury News Link to article: http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/12647076.htm
Why is this so popular now? I remember a couple years back I used to look at satellite photos all the time.. and yes, the same as this type in your address and bam
the government is supposedly worried about google earth being used by terrorists to plan attacks, even though the pics are like 1 yr old, you can type in white house and there it is personally i love playing with it, and think its a step up for directions from mapquest
they have pictures of new orleans from august 31st of this year, so I doubt the pictures are ten years old. I love using that to try and 'find my way around' before I actually leave to go somewhere. I just moved to a pretty huge city, and compared to my home town of less then 15,000, its fucking impossible to find my way around.
It even says the pictures are old, some of my neighbours houses aren't even built yet. But my mom is a realtor and she works mostly at home, she lets me use her application thing with her login sometimes and you can get crystal clear pictures