Online search engine leader Google Inc. has unveiled a new feature that will enable its users to zoom in on homes and businesses using satellite images, an advance that may raise privacy concerns as well as intensify the competitive pressures on its rivals.
The satellite technology, which Google began offering late Monday at http://maps.google.com/, is part of the package that the Mountain View-based company acquired when it bought digital map maker Keyhole Corp. for an undisclosed amount nearly six months ago....
The satellite maps could unnerve some people, even as the technology impresses others. That's because the Keyhole technology is designed to provide close-up perspective of specific addresses.
Of course there are the usual paranoid mouthings from the extremes of left and right, especially since Keyhole used to have government ties, but I see no way in which this compromises individual liberties to a greater extent than they already have been eroded by the existence of the internet.
I think its cool.
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