Earth firsters

A German design firm is claiming that Google and Google Earth have infringed its patent (USRE44550 E1) and is seeking triple damages under the notion that the infringement was intentional or willful. The firm, ART+COM (“ACI”), makes the following claims: The development history of Google Earth indicates knowledge and infringement by key Google employees Google Earth “bears remarkable similarities to ART+COM’s commercial system, which was developed nearly a decade prior to Google’s introduction of Google Earth” The claimed patent and method for rendering geographical objects (Terravision) was reportedly developed in the mid-1990s by individuals who assigned the patent to ACI, which is not a “patent troll.” The US patent was published late last year. The following is how the complaint describes Terravision: Terravision is a networked virtual representation of the earth based on satellite images, aerial shots, and altitude and … [Read more...] about German Design Firm Claims Willful Patent Infringement Over Google Earth

During its “next dimension” event this morning Google sought to convey to an audience of tech journalists and others how much effort, expense and care it has invested in Google Maps. Indeed, the platform is roughly eight years old and has seen enormous growth and evolution. The rumored and much discussed potential launch of an Apple mapping product was the “elephant in the room” though competitors were never mentioned by name. The following is my live blog of the press event. It begins with a video showcasing all the uses of Google Maps. Brian McClendon is on stage introducing the event. He’s giving us a brief history of rich and dynamic mapping on the web and at Google. He doesn’t mention Mapquest as the pioneer. McClendon came from Keyhole, which was the acquisition that provided the basis of Google Earth and some of the advanced mapping capabilities that were incorporated into Google Maps. He said that Keyhole sold to Google for “resources … [Read more...] about Google Introduces Offline Maps For Mobile, Claims A Billion Users Globally For Maps, Earth

It’s Christmas Eve, and you know what that means. Santa Claus is busy delivering toys to boys and girls around the world. Where is Santa Claus right now? Below, our annual round up of ways to find Father Christmas, from tracking Santa on Google Earth to monitoring him from your iPhone. NOTE: If you’re looking for the latest information on Santa tracking for the current year, see our Your Guide To Santa Trackers page. NORAD’s Santa Tracking Monopoly I’ve been writing about Santa tracking for five years now. Back in 2005, there were a variety of Santa tracking services out there. Since then, most of them have given up and simply point to NORAD Tracks Santa. That’s fine — NORAD does a great job. NORAD is the joint US-Canadian missile tracking organization. But for more than 50 years, NORAD has also been tracking Kris Kringle due to a misprinted phone number. Since 2007, NORAD partnered formally with Google to produce an entire suite of Jolly St. Nick … [Read more...] about The 2010 Santa Tracker Review, From NORAD To Google Earth

Google is having a special event today featuring former US vice president Al Gore to announce its new Google Earth 5.0 software that features new underwater views of the world’s oceans (Google Ocean) and 3D views, as well as “historic imagery” that allows people to see the earth back in time through archived satellite views and aerial imagery, along with a new Google Mars 3D feature, which has additional hi-resolution photography and images of the planet. Google also blogs about it here and here. Greg Sterling and I are at the event. I’ll be live blogging as the announcements unfold, and we’ll have a more comprehensive look at the new Google Earth that will be linked to from this post. 10:00am: People are still flowing into the auditorium at the California Academy Of Sciences here in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. Deafening whale noises are, well, deafening. 10:05am: Greg Farrington, Executive Director of California Academy Of Sciences welcomes. “I … [Read more...] about Live Blogging The Google Earth 5.0 / Google Ocean Event

Microsoft has announced three new enhancements to their mapping solutions with Virtual Earth. The first are new features in Live Search Maps. The second is a new Virtual Earth Web Service and Virtual Earth Map Control 6.2. The third is a new version of Microsoft Virtual Earth 3D and 3DVia. (1) New Feature Release of Live Search Maps includes: “Community collections” contributions are now included almost immediately after submission. Plus they are now using this information to “augment search results in the “business” scope.” More local verticals including search refinement, related searches and more ads “YPC Phase 1.5.” Improved detailed page that “has moved to an inline layout,” and adds a “scorecard” reviews layout, which gives users a new way to look at reviews. Multipoint Driving Directions extends the historical point to point driving directions metaphor to allow multiple waypoints, or “stops”, … [Read more...] about New Virtual Earth Features, APIs & 3D Tools