Google’s Satellite Search

I previously discussed how I believed Google’s purchase of Keyhole, the 3D mapping company, was a very bold and possibly critical move in their future. I said at the time that in Keyhole, Google holds all the building blocks to make the next killer app – one that changes the world just as much as Netscape did when it was launched back in 1994.

Back in ‘94, there were already web browsers, but Netscape did something different; it combined graphical and text content and showed it in a way that meant that users didn’t have to go and make a coffee whilst waiting for a page to download – it made the internet useful, and that changed the world.

Today, Google begins to publicly build what may be it’s killer app; integrating satellite images from Keyhole into the Google Maps search. With Google Maps it’s now possible to search for Sushi in Palo Alto, and use a satellite image of the area, annotated with the results of your search.

It’s not as sophisticated as other dedicated mapping websites yet, but it has an advantage: the content window is not restricted and small, which on other sites makes map content tantamount to useless – it’s a map, it’s meant to give an overview, and if the view-port is tiny then the effect is diminished – another triumph for the Google Interface, never cluttered, never annoying.

It’s important to note that Google achieve all this over the web, with no client to download, so it’s instantly accessible to all, without the perceived hassle of installing an application. The next step, and I’ll be interested to see how it’s achieved, is to integrate Keyhole’s 3D functionality. Google have already proved their willingness to go release an application that integrates with a web based search (Google Desktop), so although they may go “stand alone”, I would not be surprised if we see an extension to the desktop application that provides a full 3D interface to Google’s web and local searches.