Not content to lease data from others who have satellites, Google today launched its own satellite into space. Via BeetTv, thanks Andy.
Talk about web meets world….this is yet another indicator of the integration of virtual and physical. And it brings Google one step closer to what I think could be the company’s Waterloo – a viral meme that Google is sensing too much, knows too much, and is too powerful. It may not be rational, but no one ever accused humans of being entirely rational.
Update: Apparently Google does not own the satellite, just the data….
With great power comes great responsibility. Hoping a moratorium on “Do no Evil” hasn’t been put in place…
As it relates to perception, “Do No Evil” is the problem actually. Best of luck to GOOG’s new satellite.
It’s not Google’s satellite. They don’t own even 1% of it. They’re simply the exclusive purchaser of the imagery coming off of it.
Actually Google is not even in the “exclusive purchaser” of GeoEye-1 imagery, only the “the exclusive online mapping site” for data from the spacecraft. GeoEye will sell the imagery to many other customers, including the US government, which helped fund the spacecraft’s construction under the NGA’s NextView program.
“own own”?
a second read wouldn’t hurt, would it? just a quick skim?
I have to tell you, I came onto this blog because I wanted read a bit more about the author of a book I may want to buy, The Search.
However, I find this post from Battelle to be irresponsible, at best. The facts are inaccurate and the update doesn’t adequately clarify the misleading info.
Not encouraging…….
Scary. First they record our needs, desires and preferences. Next they took over email and added google apps. Now they want to look at every corner of the world. I thought Microsoft was scary, but this is becoming another nightmare.
What part of “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” do you not understand??
Every step closer Google gets to doing this, everybody freaks out like Google didn’t say this was the goal in the first place. Pay attention people!
Dana:
Don’t let a post keep you from buying the book. It’s great. If what you are looking for is a google kiss ass book, then forget it, but if you want to learn about search, then spend the measly sum. It shouldn’t be that hard a decision if you are really into the subject matter.
Yikes, Neil. How could my comment have been so misinterpreted?
The subject matter (Google) is irrelevant. The fact that an author is willing to hastily post a misleading information is relevant.
Thankfully, some of us believe accuracy matters. And it gives us pause …and sends up a flag…when we notice someone doesn’t.
This is just freaky. While Google seemingly does great things for us technologically, it just seems like they’re getting too close for comfort.
“It may not be rational, but no one ever accused humans of being entirely rational.”
You’ve never run into economists or libertarians, eh?