Quite often, we’ll write something positive about a company and will get an email from someone about a rival that they feel also deserves the same treatment. That’s normal, and obvious. But what’s really great is when we write something negative about one company, and the same people come out emailing us that a rival deserves coverage too.
Case in point: Last night, we covered Google teaming up with DigitalGlobe to be a part of the just-launched WorldView-2 satellite. We called this “mildly creepy” since Google is now gathering images of all of us from space on quite a few different satellites. But not to be outdone, we got pinged from someone who was upset that we didn’t note that Microsoft is on the same satellite as well. In fact, there was even a Bing logo on rocket that took the thing to space!
So yes, we concede that Bing is trying to be every bit as creepy as Google, though I still think Google has the GeoEye-1 exclusive deal. Microsoft fanboys: If you want your beloved company to up its creepiness, I’m sure there are deals to be struck with private eyes, or maybe peeping toms, that can out-sketch Google. Good luck.
Here’s a bit more about Bing’s deal with DigitalGlobe. It’s worth noting that they also have a contest to inspire students to learn more about rocket design and science. Okay, that’s nice, not creepy.
Eventually even those who prefer to be in denial will realize just how much the few global elite control and then they won’t be at all surprised when more than one of their subsidiaries (pretending to be a competitor) is doing the same thing at the same time. Why wouldn’t they be?
If you ever worked in one of the Corporations involved and knew people in others didn’t you ever wonder why they all rolled out the same bad ideas at the same time? Did you think they just all went to the same Management Training seminar and made the same decisions simultaneously. Common directives from the top is a far more logical cause.
Look past the illusions and see the Truth.
say what???
That would have sounded a lot more convincing if you hadn’t capitalized “Truth”. Still not convincing enough though.
One can only hope this ushers forth programmable large 2D codes on top of buildings and parking decks in an attempt to subvert existing placement and advertising.
Google Adsense for rooftops perhaps?
that’s a great idea.
I’m sure it’s been passed around a few times in those discussions. The same technology used on TV broadcasts now, gaming FPS, and those ideas derived from Looker.
And… I think I repeated myself. Oops.
it is a good idea and especially when you factor in Googles new ‘building’ creation tool. It’s not out of the question that they begin selling the ‘roof space graphic’ as inventory.
Attention Google Hiring team: You cannot afford me.
Ha, I recently tweeted something similar the other day: http://twitter....atus/4722575163
Attention Google Hiring team: Hire Sandeep first. I’ll ask him if he likes it there.
It’s really not all that creepy. They can’t read license plates or do facial recognition. The reasons are pretty obvious. First, to see vertical surfaces, they would need to observe through a very shallow angle, instead of the nearly vertical angle seen on Google or Bing. That introduces significant distance and atmospheric distortion. Secondly, these are not geostationary satellites – you can’t use them to observe a person if that person is not under their path at the correct time. Thirdly, these are visible light satellites that don’t work through cloud cover or at night, so even if the satellite was directly overhead on a cloudy day, nothing on the ground can be observed.
I’m pretty sure I read in a Microsoft press release that, and I quote, “a little bit of Ballmer is in each launch”.
Now, I’m not quite sure what that means, but I am quite sure that it’s an unbeatable creepiness.
MSFT actually has a subsidiary that makes large format (200Mpix) digital cameras for aerial surveying and thus for their Virtual Earth / Bing Maps platform: http://www.micr...am/default.mspx
Teaching kids to build rockets is indeed creepy. It’s a thin line between rocket and missile. If it said bing is trying to inspire more kids to grow up and create missiles that wouldnt be nice, or it shouldnt be, and its not nice when we teach kids to build rockets, or it shouldn’t be
Rockets are to Missiles as One Way is to Roundtrip
Except during testing (otherwise you have some pretty scary missiles there).
mg, seriously… maybe fewer posts per day would help.
Why would the logo for “Ball” jars be on the rocket? I guess they are watching us, too.