Google Deep Blue Sea

[Skybird]

I was waiting for this. we have land maps, land satellite images, land bird's-view images, virtual planetariums, nightly sky maps - but no popular tool to explore the most dominant habitat on our home planet, about which we nevertheless know less than we know about the moon...?!

Unacceptable!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7865407.stm

[FIREWALL]

What ya gonna do ? no emoticon for shrugging your shoulders and holding your palms up.

[longam]

It wasn't that long ago that they perfected the satellite mapping system for consumer use. :-) <--old school

[Letum]

I thought you didn't like google SB?

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Letum

I thought you didn't like google SB?

That is true, I avoid using Google Search as best as possible and warn everybody of using Google's Chrome (which has earned the strongest security warning of the German police any software ever has received, with the exception of virusses, trojans and worms, but in a way Google is more dangerous than the usual malware trying to rob your banking account or to terrorise your hardware). I only use completely uncritical terms for searching via Google, that could never compromise me at any imaginable opportunity or allow conclusions about my behavior, interests, etc (I avoid repeated searches on same issues as well, not to form a pattern they could conclude on). However, having repeatedly read about Google Earth, the smart guys say that Earth is one of the few programs by Google that does not spy and report about each and everything, but are relatively safe and uncritical to use.

Let's stick to the user's perspective here and leave out implications like the controversy about Street View or Google Health.

If there ever will be a total social surveillance being installed by Orwellian hardware, then becasue people did not care, and rated blinking lights and jingles as more important than their civil rights and their freedom.

[Letum]

Hmmmm.....some one should write a tool for you that makes a few thousand
intelligently random google searches each day to ensure google knows nothing about
you.

[Aramike]

I've used Google for years. Never had a major problem...

[August]

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Letum

Hmmmm.....some one should write a tool for you that makes a few thousand
intelligently random google searches each day to ensure google knows nothing about
you.

Once you get refused a job because your intended employer bought data about your internet habits he did not welcome, or once an insurance company rejects you a contract becasue of data patterns sold to them by Google, you will not make jokes anymore, promised. Once their database got hacked and your data ends in hands of people in the twilight zone of laws, you are a victim. Or better: you have made yourself a victim.

Data is knoweldge. Knowledge is a trade item, as well as power. Google'S datapool is monitored or counter-checked by - nobody. That will make them more powerful then law enforcement agencies, sooner or later, and in a way they already are. The police is regulated and has limits regarding what it may do with their (limited) data on you, so are governmental offices and services. Google has not, and can gain, use and sell data without anybody looking over their shoulder. It is a yelling violation to the principle of checks-and-balances that even governments are expected to submit to.

[Letum]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Once you get refused a job because your intended employer bought data about your internet habits he did not welcome, or once an insurance company rejects you a contract becasue of data patterns sold to them by Google, you will not make jokes anymore, promised.

No joke.

Lets say I search for:

A x1
B x3
and C x4

The the random search function searches for:
D x2
E x7
F x1
G x1
and H x2

Google's data about me is now worthless because they have no idea what I searched for and what my automated process searched for.

[McBeck]

I have updated my Google Earth, but HOW do I get to see the seabed?