Perception of Google Earth

Wednesday, 21 June, 2006

I was down at my local 4x4 garage this week and happened to mention that I had generated a Google Earth KML file of the off-roading tracks in the area. I have downloaded parts of a national database showing offroad rights of way; whilst I could get pen, paper and OS map out and plot the starts and ends of the tracks, it seemed eminently more sensible (!) to load them in to Google Earth. After a bit of tooing and froing I’ve loaded the data in and am very pleased with it. Google Earth has some Cities Revealed data for the UK (amongst others I believe) and the 15cm imagery is really very good at depicting where tracks start and end. Anyway, I mentioned this to two of the mechanics and one got the response that one actively used Google Earth whilst the other hadn’t heard of it. This demonstrates the “appeal” and “market weight” of Google. This was then followed up with the comment that whilst it was OK, it was a bit old and wasn’t really up to date. I still find it strange that those of us “in” the industry find free access to such high resolution imagery remarkable, while those outside take it for granted GI really is still small fry….

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