Backpacker Magazine (Hearts) Google

Today’s press release highlights yet another organization snuggling up to Google for “its” maps. The cover of Backpacker, at one time my favorite print pub, is adorned with a Google Earth image near Going to the Sun Mountain in Glacier National Park. (Yep, been there. Awesome park.) The image helps introduce a whole “package” (the publication’s term) on using technology for planning, executing and documenting trips electronically. That package is called “iHike.”

I was disappointed:

(1) You can’t see the cover image online.
(2) The release suggests Google is behind the images/data rather than the providers:

“The quality of Google’s images—from the topography contours to the rich colors to the fine detail in the rock and snow—made our June cover an amazingly realistic representation of the mountain we selected.”