On the same day that Google offered street view for Google Moon and $30 million for the Lunar X Prize, Microsoft has announced the signing of the US Environmental Protection Agency as a Microsoft Virtual Earth Partner.
The EPA has licensed the Microsoft Virtual Earth platform to develop mission-critical geospatial and mapping applications and will also integrate Virtual Earth into existing line-of-business applications, including Web-based mapping applications and environmental monitoring systems.
The deal will see Virtual Earth benefit via data sharing and analysis and insight for partner agencies, citizens and nongovernmental NGOs “on topics ranging from superfund sites and oil spills to waterways and the quality of beach water.”
Although Google remains the dominate player in the space, the deal continues Microsoft’s efforts to drive awareness and business through its competitor product. Having said all of that though, Google now offers neighborhood shots from the moon, pretty cool if perhaps without any serious business use; Microsoft might have gotten the contract but Google continues to win the hearts and minds of tech users.
Google has been purchasing lots of web companies lately, hopefully one day it be no. 1 taking over yahoo
Google Earth still just rocks.
Rob Walters
Editor
BunkerShot.com Golf Online
Interesting read. Yeh, Google seems to win the hearts and minds of tech users…at least for now..
Somehow this reminds me of the EPA mention in the recent “Simpsons movie”….
http://productmanagement1.blog.....rated.html
@1: It makes a lot more money than Yahoo, it is only a matter of time I believe.
The EPA is finally coming arround, together, through regulations, fines, monitoring and strict enforcement we will clean up the earth.
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
The EPA is a US Government agency. Therefore I presume that this decision went thru a due diligence process including competitive submissions?
Of course it would not be appropriate that Microsoft bought its way into the decision as it has recently tried to do for its OOXML format in a plethora of countries around the world!
And of course, we presume that the EPA has chosen a solution that is platform independent and doesn’t mandate usage of a Microsoft Windows PC? This is of special importance for the many NGOs who will want to access such a service.
Not sure who to root for in that race.
Interesting. My spidey sense tingles a bit at the thought of those two behemoths joining so overtly, but a smart use of technology.
You have a minor typo though, here: “…citizens and nongovernmental NGOs “…”
I hate when I have on the fly composing typos.
Interesting read. I believe that EPA has also purchased both Google Earth and the Google Maps API for use in mapping applications. Given that it may not be as large a win as touted.
There is no Mac Virtual Earth client… or anything else non-Windows. Why oh why am I not surprised.