This is pretty interesting. I read about this at Ionut Alex. Chitu’s blog. In honor of the celebration of the national holiday Australia Day 2007 on January 26, Google has announced it will be taking new aerial photos of Sydney. The announcement includes a Google Maps mashup where you can drag a placemark around to find out approximately what time the plane is expected to fly over. Google also added a custom URL/sub-domain for Australia last week at maps.google.com.au. See the Sydney Morning Herald story about this which has more details about the aerial photo shoot.
This is a bit of a risky move from a PR perspective. Quality aerial photography is dependent on perfect weather conditions. If its a cloudy day – the day will be a disappointment. Other things can go wrong as well such as airplane maintenance issues, photography equipment failures, air traffic control issues, and imagery processing problems (most aerial photographers still use traditional film systems). But, if its a beautiful day, and all goes well, in a couple of months from now we could see some really interesting photos in Google Maps/Earth where people actually had a chance to know about an aerial photo shoot. I wonder if we’ll see some interesting banner ads laid out on roofs?
[Update 1:35PM ET: I just noticed Google at least put a disclaimer in small print at the bottom of their announcement page about the risks involved.]
About Frank Taylor
Frank Taylor started the Google Earth Blog in July, 2005 shortly after Google Earth was first released. He has worked with 3D computer graphics and VR for many years and was very impressed with this exciting product. Frank completed a 5.5 year circumnavigation of the earth by sailboat in June 2015 which you can read about at Tahina Expedition, and is a licensed pilot, backpacker, diver, and photographer.
Great Idea.
We should do that in Belgium too.
BAD MOVE …
The Google guys are just asking to be MOONED by the Aussies !?!
Can’t wait to see the headlines.
Uhmm … Don’t say I put you up to this 😉
it should be done everytime google knows when they shoot footage over us, so people can get out of the picture, or if they like into the picture… but that way companies can actually put their banners or whatever on top of their roofs or property and get free airtime…
Wow, awesome, I’ll have to make something large enough to be seen for the occaision…
I need to know how to get rid of the Google Screenoverlay advertizement that covers part of the earth image in 4.2. This includes smaller banners that say Static Positioning: Bottom Left etc. These are basically useless and take up otherwise useful space. Help!
I need to know how to temporarily(of course) get
rid of those lovely touristy photos that get in
the way when I’m trying to look at the earth
itself.