11–20 of 34 posts
2012 Google seemed hungrier and more ambitious than 2022 Google.
There's just not a huge demand for higher quality imagery by the general public, and those industries who do need higher quality/georeferenced imagery are willing to pay for it.
The article doesn't mention their "Bird’s Eye view" (airplane pics from 4 angles, not satellite), but I think I remember using it for some cities, before Google had it. Although I think it was short-lived. Google was focused on StreetView, iirc. After Keyhole.
Around 2009? https://www.computerworld.com/article/2468196/bing-maps--mic...
Edit: I would love to read about the history of this space, if anyone knows of a good article/blog/book.
The article and the rest of the comments here act like Apple didn't do this 5 years ago. This is how Apple creates their 3D flyover feature. Microsoft also tried their hand at this as well.
2012 Google seemed hungrier and more ambitious than 2022 Google.
This is done at a satellite level nowadays rather than fixed-wing aircraft. Microsoft/Bing did this as well and ended up spinning off their aerial collection division for that same reason, not too long after this article was published. There's just not a huge demand for higher quality imagery by the general public, and those industries who do need higher quality/georeferenced imagery are willing to pay for it.
Wasn't Bing Maps the first big player to offer 45-degree angle aerial imagery? The article doesn't mention their "Bird’s Eye view" (airplane pics from 4 angles, not satellite), but I think I remember using it for some cities, before Google had it. Although I think it was short-lived. Google was focused on StreetView, iirc. After Keyhole. Around 2009? https://www.computerworld.com/article/2468196/bing-maps--mic... Edi…
2012 Google seemed hungrier and more ambitious than 2022 Google.
This is done at a satellite level nowadays rather than fixed-wing aircraft. Microsoft/Bing did this as well and ended up spinning off their aerial collection division for that same reason, not too long after this article was published. There's just not a huge demand for higher quality imagery by the general public, and those industries who do need higher quality/georeferenced imagery are willing to pay for it.
The article and the rest of the comments here act like Apple didn't do this 5 years ago. This is how Apple creates their 3D flyover feature. Microsoft also tried their hand at this as well.
2012 Google seemed hungrier and more ambitious than 2022 Google.
Wasn't Bing Maps the first big player to offer 45-degree angle aerial imagery? The article doesn't mention their "Bird’s Eye view" (airplane pics from 4 angles, not satellite), but I think I remember using it for some cities, before Google had it. Although I think it was short-lived. Google was focused on StreetView, iirc. After Keyhole. Around 2009? https://www.computerworld.com/article/2468196/bing-maps--mic... Edi…
I remember using the Microsoft aerial imagery in 2004 (that year corresponds to a certain year in high school when I used it for a class project). It wasn't "Bing" back then, but I remember it predating -- or at least having better-quality photos than -- Google Maps' aerial imagery.
For a while, Terraserver was the biggest database on the web
With 5 terabytes of uncompressed image data, Microsoft TerraServer is bigger than all the HTML pages combined already on the Internet. [1998]
https://news.microsoft.com/1998/06/24/microsoft-partners-ann...