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.

A Google spokesperson disputes those numbers.

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.”