1. Most people don’t realize that what we now known as Google
Earth was originally called Earth Viewer.
The project was created by Keyhole, Inc., a company that received some
of its funding from In-Q-Tel, which was a venture capital firm for hi-tech
companies sponsored and funded by the CIA.
2. Instead of trying to design, create, and release their own
cutting edge technologies, the CIA apparently just invests in smaller firms
through this shell venture capital firm, and reaps the rewards that keep them
armed with the latest information technology and advancements.
3. Nowadays, Google Earth, Google Maps, and Street View have
become invaluable parts of every day life for billions of people around the
world, including advances in agriculture, clean energy, weather patterns,
geological tracking (earthquake, volcano, and tsunami tracking), gaining
information about unfriendly foreign nations (like North Korea), scientific
breakthroughs, solving natural mysteries, and documenting and protecting our
natural environment. Oh, and I almost forgot that it helps us get from Point A
to Point B on our roadways without getting hopelessly lost.
4. Every year, we use Google Maps to help us navigate through
12 billion miles of roads.
5. Since Google Map’s Street View project began in 2007, their
team has driven more than 5 million unique miles of roads and taken tens of
millions of images to document them.
6. There’s even a feature that lets you view where the Google
Street View vehicles are driving at the moment.
7. If you add up all the satellite, aerial, and street level
imagery that Google Maps has collected, it comes to over 20 petabytes of data
(about 21 million gigabytes, or 20,500 terabyte drives lined up and used to
capacity.)
8. Some of you photogs might be wondering what kind of cameras
and image tech Google uses for their Street View project. In fact, each Street
View camera system has 15 lenses that can take photos at an incredibly sharp 65-megapixel
resolution.
9. These 15 lenses take photos simultaneously in a 360-degree
panoramic, and then digitally align the photos to produce seamless images.
10. Google Maps, Google Earth, and Street View images are
updated as frequently as possible with logistics, weather, road, and other
conditions permitting, but that usually comes to an update about once every two
weeks.
11. Not everyone is a big fan of being documented by Google
Earth. In fact, the Middle Eastern country of Bahrain banned Google Earth because
it didn’t want its citizens to be able to see the huge areas of land owned by
the royal family, dotted with swimming pools, mansions, and other opulence
right next to overcrowded slums and villages.
12. The Chinese military inadvertently let the cat out of the
bag on one of their military operations thanks to Google Earth. In 2006, a
perfectly detailed 1:1500 scale model of a border region between China and
India that was under dispute was photographed from above. The scale model of
the terrain was 3,000 x 2,300 feet in size and right next to a Chinese military
complex that apparently was using it to plan mock raids and troop movements.
13. Google Earth has a feature that allows you to recall
historical imagery, and the 9/11 terrorist attacks can be seen.
14. A large number of shipwrecks that rest under the oceans and
seas have been viewed with Google Earth, including the wreck of the Titanic!
15. When Google Earth images taken over Iran’s national airport
were revealed for the first time, Iranian officials were shocked to see a Star
of David – the symbol of Judaism – sitting atop the airport roof. Apparently,
the star was erected and left by Israeli engineers who built the structure
before the Iranian Revolution in 1979 when it was a more peaceful country, but
not discovered for three decades.
16. An archeologist named Angela Micol discovered a grouping of
lost Egyptian periods by surveying satellite images taken by Google Earth.
17. Virtually buried by thick jungle in a remote part of China,
the world’s largest natural bridge was unknown to humankind until Google Earth
observed and documented it. Now called The Fairy Bridge, it spans 400 feet of
solid limestone across a river.
18. A rainforest in Mozambique in Africa – earned the nickname,
‘Google Forest’ after it was first discovered by scientists – as well as the
mountain it spanned - using Google Earth in 2005, as only local villagers knew
about it until then.
19. A lot of good can be done if the technology is in the right
hands. For instance, they’re using Google Maps to track and mark dangerous
landmine fields in Kosovo so others can avoid danger.
20. And scientists have used Google Maps to set up maps of every
recent animal extinction or mass death.
21. Once isolated Tribes in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil have
started using GPS and Google Earth technology to map their lands, monitor
natural resources like rivers and medicinal plants, and monitor for illegal
logging and mining.
22. In an eerie mystery befitting a sci-fi novel, there is a
phantom city that shows up on Google Earth and Google Maps. The non-existent
town was called Argleton and appeared on Google’s projections in West
Lancashire, England before being removed.
23. Law enforcement
agencies around the world have made good use of Google Earth’s mapping imagery,
like the Swiss police force, which spotted a two-acre marijuana farm on Google
Earth.
24. If you’ve used Google Earth, you may notice that it first
centers in on a spot in the middle of the U.S. In fact, default center for
Google Earth is Lawrence, Kansas – the home of the man most responsible for the
technology, Brian McClendon.
25. Concerned about privacy after seeing that your house shows
up in detail on Google Street View? You can request that Google blurs the image
of your own home or address and they will comply.
***
Look for part two of this blog,
with 25 more facts about Google Earth!
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