Monday, November 24. 2008

Where On Google Earth Will You Be On Waitangi Day?

Waitangi Day is New Zealand's national day and New Zealand's national indigenous broadcaster, Maori Television, is running a campaign to have nationals post message on Google Earth noting where they'll be on that day. This news, and the headline in the title, comes from a "publicity release" on the event.

Now, I have no problem with the idea or the use of Google Earth for collecting the data. I have to admit use of "Google Earth" instead of just "Earth" gives me pause. The real question is where on Earth will people be? They'll be using Google Earth to represent that location. They could use another software solution, of course. Somehow this use of Google Earth implying that Google "owns" the Earth goes just a bit too far for me. I'm ok with "google" as a verb and I applaud Google for naming Google Earth as it did. (Compare Virtual Earth/Live Maps/Live Search Maps and you can see the lost branding opportunity.) Can we just leave the "real earth" as "earth?"

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