Google's All That

Well, maybe not.

At a sizable risk of getting injured in a stand against prevailing currents of pop-culture, I have discovered a flaw in the much vaunted Google Earth service. In fact, I find this discovery to be somewhat reminiscent of the lone scale missing from Tolkien's mythical dragon, Smog, in The Hobbit. Yes, with only one scale missing, the powerful dragon was brought low throw a single arrow. And yes, what I'm about to share is one missing scale in Google's all-pervasive power - it's all-seeing eye.

First, to set the stage. Perhaps you've heard of Google's new "Street Level View". In concept, the idea is quite cool. Google has sent specially equipped trucks to drive through the streets of a few pilot cities, collecting 360 degree images as they drove. Google then, somehow seamlessly, blended these "street level" images with it's Google Earth satellite images. Through Google Maps, you can type in an address on one of the streets so filmed for the pilot launch, zoom out to see the entire city or region or zoom in on a particular address and then open a window to show the "street level view".

One webizen was able to see his cat perched in the window of his 2nd floor apartment. Other's are quite dismayed by the "ickiness" of "spying" on unsuspecting folks just living their normal lives. But everyone admits that having instant, integrated access to this odd assortment of average folks, living average lives is truly spectacular. Imagine the muscle-flexing bragging rights this level of pervasive coverage of the world, "at your finger tips", Google has earned? If they can do this, what else are they working on?

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Now, for that dragon killing flaw in Google's armor. For Google, it's dominance is just that, its dominance. Through Google Search, it seemed to have virtually captured every piece of online data, categorized it and made it amazingly available when relevant to your needs or whims. Through Google Earth and Google Maps, the media giant seemed to have acquired mind-numbing quantities of data on the entire world and, again, made them available for productive use - and relevant advertising. Now, through Street Level View, Google seems to be flexing its muscle to show that it can capture and maintain images of every major address in every city and integrate it with Search and Maps such that any location on Earth can be searched, seen and integrated with limitless depths of relevant information (oh yeah, and advertising). Total dominance. And dominance means coolness, "buzz", street creds (oh yeah, and advertising $'s). Without total dominance and presumed relevance, Google Street Level View is just an odd peep show.

With this in mind, I "Googled" my house. Disclaimer: I live in a fairly new neighborhood in a fairly new house. By "fairly new" I mean 2 years and 1 year old, respectively. Remember when I included that Google must "capture and maintain" images. It seems this is a harder task than even Google would have us believe. I live in Smog's missing scale, the chink in Google's armor. If their technology is just a reactive response to natural disaster or war, who cares. Time, CNN and Fox News give us that. With commentary to boot! If it is to be "in Google we trust", then we want total coverage of the subject with updated relevance. Not native pasture land where developers and we greedy consumers have long ago (2 years is a long time on line) scraped the land, laid concrete and generally made things better.

On Principle,
Christian