Friday, March 14. 2008

Google Uses Google Earth to Look for Fed $

Marketwatch reviews the history of Google, mostly Google Earth, and its relationship with the U.S. government. Among the tidbits:

According to the Office of Management and Budget's USAspending.gov database, Google's government contracting actually fell from 2006 to 2007. While the company had $394,760 in contracts in 2006, according to the database, in 2007 it had only $129,820 in contracts. Google customers listed in the database range from the Peace Corps to the Homeland Security Department.

The NGA spokesman indicated one of the benefits of access to commercial technology and imagery such as Google's is the complementary role it can play: "It's very effective to not have to use our classified satellites that might otherwise be busy." He declined to speculate on Google's future prospects as a contractor.

In the context of a conversation about the company, however, the spokesman acknowledged the agency is going to roll out an initiative later this year "that will in the near term give us the ability to search across all of our databases and storage areas. ... That's a direction we're headed."

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Apparently Google's use of Google Earth to look for Fed dollars isn't working.

Is this a testament to a stunning lack of innovation in the Federal community? Probably.

Is it a reflection of the ingrained use of ESRI products? Likely.

Is this an example of just how hard it is to move the needle in Federal contracting...and a combination of all of the above? Surely.

Or is this a reflection that Google's 'free' tools meet the need for most geospatial users, regardless of where and who they are? Maybe.

Of course, the numbers don't include the licensing fees paid for classified programs. But even those are hardly worth noticing for a company with Google's market cap.

I think these numbers are a stunning indictment of the civil geospatial programs in our Federal government. Here's a geospatial tool that is a transformational, game-changing advance over the old-guard products...and our Federal geospatial community is spending dust on the capability.

#1 Archie Belaney on 2008-03-16 20:48 (Reply)

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