Google's Geo

Google Maps and Google Earth have now become almost as essential as the Google search engine itself. Whenever I am going to a conference -- Google Maps provide valuable information about the locality where the conference will be taking place, and where I will be staying. Now, Google has gone one stage further and sponsored a satellite -- through the company GeoEye. According to Dylan Tweney's blog, "the satellite will be able to take photos at a resolution of up to 41 centimeters -- enough to get a pretty decent photo of your Mustang convertible, but not enough identify the redhead in the passenger's seat.
Because of a deal GeoEye has already signed with the U.S. government, Google will only get data with a resolution of 50 centimeters, News.com reports.
A second satellite, GeoEye-2, slated to launch in 2011 or 2012, will have a resolution of 25cm, company representatives promised." The satellite also supports a colourful Google sticker -- although it is on the part of the satellite launcher that will return to Earth. This interesting development introduces an interesting new era for commercial mapping of the Globe -- where technology often reserved for national government agencies is now being used for the benefit of the masses.