Google Earth

NEW YORK -- Google Inc. launched an initiative yesterday to help non profit groups use maps and satellite images to raise awareness, recruit volunteers, and encourage donations. The Google Earth Outreach program represents a formalization of ad-hoc partnerships with organizations using the free software to publicize their works. Already, the U S Holocaust Memorial Museum has been using Google Earth to call attention to atrocities in the Darfur, Sudan. By turning individual efforts into a formal program, the Mountain View, Calif.-based search company hopes to make its tools...

GOOGLE'S RECENT release of Google Play — a new package of movies, music, ebooks, games, and smartphone applications — was met with fanfare around the world, with one exception: Iran. The package, which includes software that helps people blog, chat, and otherwise communicate with each other and the outside world is not accessible in the Islamic Republic, even though the US treasury loosened restrictions on exporting such software to Iran two years ago. Now, Iranians are circulating a petition entitled "Google, don't be evil" which prevails upon the company to make its software available in Iran.

The handsome map of Burgundy's Cotes de Nuits you see at right is hung on the wall behind my desk. It's not that I have frequent need to refer to it - I just enjoy  looking at it. Though nearly five feet long and two wide, I occasionally hover over it with a magnifying glass. Up close it looks as you see it below.  Vineyards have whimsical names here - some in indecipherable local patois, others readily translatable as The Steps of the Cat, Behind the Oven, The High Walls.

The handsome map of Burgundy's Cotes de Nuits you see at right is hung on the wall behind my desk. It's not that I have frequent need to refer to it - I just enjoy  looking at it. Though nearly five feet long and two wide, I occasionally hover over it with a magnifying glass. Up close it looks as you see it below.  Vineyards have whimsical names here - some in indecipherable local patois, others readily translatable as The Steps of the Cat, Behind the Oven, The High Walls.

It can be frustrating trying to remember just where you were when you photographed that beach, that building, or that exotic bird. GiSTEQ's PhotoTrackr Lite, a tiny global positioning system, records your location as you travel. When you get home, upload your digital photos and GPS data, and the PhotoTrackr mapping software syncs the information and tells you exactly where and when your pictures were taken. You can even upload this information and view your travel route on Google Earth.

TOKYO - When Google Earth added historical maps of Japan to its online collection last year, the search giant didn't expect a backlash. The finely detailed woodblock prints have been around for centuries, they were already posted on another website, and a historical map of Tokyo put up in 2006 hadn't caused any problems. But Google failed to judge how its offering would be received, as it has often done in Japan. The company is now facing inquiries from the Justice Ministry and angry accusations of prejudice because its maps detailed the locations of former low-caste communities.

DENVER -- Initially, the great thing about Internet mapping programs was their swiftness and the ease of obtaining directions, then printing them. Now those Web maps can travel with you, too. And be updated on the road. And, on some wireless hand-helds, show you exactly where you are and if, say, an Ethiopian restaurant is nearby. MapQuest Inc. was the first mover and remains tops in Internet cartography. "As Google is to search, MapQuest has been to mapping and driving directions," said Greg Sterling of The Kelsey Group, which researches...

NEW YORK -- A quiet revolution is transforming life on the Internet: New, agile software now lets people quickly check flight options, see stock prices fluctuate, and better manage their online photos and e-mail. Such tools make computing less of a chore because they sit on distant Web servers and run over standard browsers. Users thus don't have to worry about installing software or moving data when they switch computers. And that could bode ill for Microsoft Corp. and its flagship Office suite, which packs together word processing, spreadsheets, and other applications.

GOOGLE'S RECENT release of Google Play — a new package of movies, music, ebooks, games, and smartphone applications — was met with fanfare around the world, with one exception: Iran. The package, which includes software that helps people blog, chat, and otherwise communicate with each other and the outside world is not accessible in the Islamic Republic, even though the US treasury loosened restrictions on exporting such software to Iran two years ago. Now, Iranians are circulating a petition entitled "Google, don't be evil" which prevails upon the company to make its software available in...

LONDON - You're never far from a camera in Britain, a country that has accepted the presence of millions of surveillance cameras on its streets, shopping centers and public spaces. But for the villagers of Broughton in southern England, the roving eye of Google was one camera too many. A gaggle of residents in the affluent hamlet formed a human chain to turn away a car shooting images for Google Street View, the popular service that allows Internet users to see high-quality photos of houses and streets around the world.

It wasn’t so long ago that all of Google fit into a two-car garage and a couple of spare rooms, with space enough for a few forlorn appliances and an unused ping-pong table. How did this tiny company with a quirky name become not only a verb but perhaps the most influential company on the planet in just a decade? Can it possibly achieve both its ambitious goals and its lofty ideals? These two questions frame “Googled: The End of the World as We Know It’’ by longtime New Yorker writer Ken Auletta.

TOKYO - When Google Earth added historical maps of Japan to its online collection last year, the search giant didn't expect a backlash. The finely detailed woodblock prints have been around for centuries, they were already posted on another website, and a historical map of Tokyo put up in 2006 hadn't caused any problems. But Google failed to judge how its offering would be received, as it has often done in Japan. The company is now facing inquiries from the Justice Ministry and angry accusations of prejudice because its maps detailed the locations of former low-caste...

LONDON - You're never far from a camera in Britain, a country that has accepted the presence of millions of surveillance cameras on its streets, shopping centers and public spaces. But for the villagers of Broughton in southern England, the roving eye of Google was one camera too many. A gaggle of residents in the affluent hamlet formed a human chain to turn away a car shooting images for Google Street View, the popular service that allows Internet users to see high-quality photos of houses and streets around the world.

It can be frustrating trying to remember just where you were when you photographed that beach, that building, or that exotic bird. GiSTEQ's PhotoTrackr Lite, a tiny global positioning system, records your location as you travel. When you get home, upload your digital photos and GPS data, and the PhotoTrackr mapping software syncs the information and tells you exactly where and when your pictures were taken. You can even upload this information and view your travel route on Google Earth.

NEW YORK -- Google Inc. launched an initiative yesterday to help non profit groups use maps and satellite images to raise awareness, recruit volunteers, and encourage donations. The Google Earth Outreach program represents a formalization of ad-hoc partnerships with organizations using the free software to publicize their works. Already, the U S Holocaust Memorial Museum has been using Google Earth to call attention to atrocities in the Darfur, Sudan. By turning individual efforts into a formal program, the Mountain View, Calif.-based search company hopes to make...

DENVER -- Initially, the great thing about Internet mapping programs was their swiftness and the ease of obtaining directions, then printing them. Now those Web maps can travel with you, too. And be updated on the road. And, on some wireless hand-helds, show you exactly where you are and if, say, an Ethiopian restaurant is nearby. MapQuest Inc. was the first mover and remains tops in Internet cartography. "As Google is to search, MapQuest has been to mapping and driving directions," said Greg Sterling of The Kelsey Group, which researches electronic...

LEND A HAND Randolph, New Hampshire Members of the venerable Randolph Mountain Club ( randolphmountainclub.org ), founded in 1910 in northern New Hampshire, care for more than 100 miles of trails on three majestic Presidential peaks — Adams, Madison, and Jefferson — as well as Randolph's town trails located in the Crescent Range. Volunteer Trail Days on Saturdays in July and the beginning of August invite the public to give a little back with their backs.

NEW YORK -- A quiet revolution is transforming life on the Internet: New, agile software now lets people quickly check flight options, see stock prices fluctuate, and better manage their online photos and e-mail. Such tools make computing less of a chore because they sit on distant Web servers and run over standard browsers. Users thus don't have to worry about installing software or moving data when they switch computers. And that could bode ill for Microsoft Corp. and its flagship Office suite, which packs together word processing, spreadsheets, and other applications.