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?"

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Google, Microsoft at 06:00 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |

Comments

Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

No comments

Add Comment

Name
Email
Homepage
In reply to	[ Top level ]
Comment	Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (*word*), underscore are made via _word_. Standard emoticons like :-) and ;-) are converted to images. E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly. Enter the string from the spam-prevention image above:
	Remember Information?   Subscribe to this entry