The latest issue of Wired magazine rates Google Earth as tired, in their popular Wired,Tired, Expired series. It rates MapQuest as expired, and WorldWide Telescope as wired.
Suddenly, I feel like all the promise of the geospatial industry is gone. Just kidding. Online mapping in whatever flavor, is here to stay and Google Earth is far from a fad. I take the announcement really as a bit of validation on where we’ve come — from the majority not knowing what geospatial means, to declaring what is now mainstream as passé. That’s an incredible arc in a very short space of time. Technically, Google Earth is less than three years old (Google bought Keyhole in October 2004 and launched Google Earth in June 2005).
I viewed the TED video of WWTelescope when it was first released, and have to say that I was impressed and excited. I can’t wait to see this, and hope that it incorporates Virtual Earth data and interfaces. It could be very compelling, particularly if seamless data sets for Earth were included in this interface.
Release date is promised in Spring 2008, so it could be any time now. What better day than today, Earth Day , to put our little blue marble in perspective. But alas, I haven’t seen any word about it.
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I hear the date is set at the end of May. =0)