Monday, October 9. 2006

Newsweek on Mapping Portals Driving Aerial Imagery Firms

Newsweek covers how the interest in mapping portals is driving aerial imagery.

The flights over L.A., for example, were conducted for a major Internet firm like Google, Yahoo! or Microsoft (Potter declines to specify), which are all spending millions rolling out mapping services based on satellite and aerial photographs.

That's the first I heard of a player like this paying directly for new imagery, but I could have missed similiar statements. The article goes on to say that this interest, and future interest is good for business!

The Internet firms believe these overhead photos will become the building blocks for a new wave of virtual services that will let users navigate 3-D simulations of cities and shop in exact replicas of stores. As a result, scores of decades-old mom-and-pop aerial-mapping firms are suddenly thriving, along with the nation's two major commercial satellite imagery companies. "The geospatial-imaging industry seems to be at the epicenter of a war between Google, Microsoft and Yahoo," says Edward Jurkevics of Chesapeake Analytics Group. "It's a good place to be."

Alas, we are relatively obscure...

Google, Microsoft and newer players like Yahoo, AOL's Mapquest and real-estate research site Zillow.com have brought attention to the relatively obscure geospatial-imaging field.

Antoher tidbit - MapQuest is getting ready to role out images (just after Amazon pulled back its images...)

"Imagine looking up a driving route online and seeing in 3-D the actual landmarks you will pass along the way," says Jim Greiner, general manager of AOL's Mapquest, which is preparing to unveil its own aerial-imaging service later this fall.