Here’s a quick summary of Michael Jones’ presentation at Where 2.0 today. As usual Michael, gave a very entertaining and stylistic presentation:
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He started off by asking us to listen to a strange whistling noise and asking the audience what it was – “A Tricorder” shouted several. Sure enough, he revealed he was holding a “real” Star Trek tricorder. Michael said this device served as part of his inspiration for helping create Google Earth.
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Next he showed an autographed photograph of one of the aliens in Star Trek who Michael spoke to that is now a big fan of Google Earth.
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Next he showed photographs of the current and “retiring” leaders of the world: Chirac, Tony Blair, Bill Gates, and George Bush – once again all quoted as being fans of Google Earth. He also showed the “Leader of the other world” – Jack Dangermond (CEO of ESRI – GIS leading software maker).
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Next he suggested we should name Angelina Jolie the Where 2.0 Honorary Celebrity of the year for tattooing lat/long coordinates on her arm showing the birth locations of her 4 kids.
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He revealed Google Maps now has little markers indicating metro subways and other information in major metropolitan areas are now clickable with more information.
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He showed Hyderabad, India’s Google Map has user-contributed information showing the locations of things like water tanks.
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He next mentioned the new Google Maps StreetView and Google Maps Mapplets technology and showed how Mapplets can do some really cool things. He made sure to show that you can easily convert your Google Maps Mashup into a Mapplet and add it to the list of available applets through a simple form. (URL later). He showed how Barry Hunter of Nearby.org.uk actually implemented a Mapplet yesterday.
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He next announced the acquisition of Panoramio (see my story)
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Finally – he demonstrated a real live iPhone with Google Maps on it showing both maps and aerial photos. You could hear the sound of drool falling from the mouths of the audience.
A very cool presentation! I wish I had video of it – hopefully Where 2.0 will post a video of it soon.
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.
The one thing that I was hoping for at Where 2.0 was the announcement of detailed aerial maps of the entire US. The metro areas are covered great, but for those of us who live more than 1 hour outside of a major city, we still seem to have the same aerial images as we had 5 years ago!