Two OUTinPerth journalists sat down one day to explore the world (from the comfort of OiP’s headquarters). And while Scott-Patrick Mitchell went gaa-gaa for Google Earth, Megan Smith found it Google-too-down-to-Earth. What do you think? Read on and then have your say in our forum at the end of the page!

Google-too-down-to-Earth

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I wonder what Julia’s house looks like. A former college roommate and close friend in Boston, Julia lives as far away from me (approximately 18,723km give or take) as possible without venturing to a different planet. She has described her house to me countless times, but with Google Earth open on my computer screen at work (as per this assignment), I find myself wondering what it would be like to be on her block. I type in the address and within seconds my screen has zoomed around the globe and I am hovering a dozen or so metres above her driveway.

Fantastic, I think, as I swivel around and check out the cute New England house in a charming old Boston neighbourhood. I zoom in for a closer look. I swap Google Earth over to Street View and manage to get right down on to street level.

Her Volvo wagon sits out the front of the house, the blinds on the house are almost entirely closed. I try to zoom in further, I centre my screen on her front window. And then I reach the limits of Google Earth. Damn, I think, wanting to get closer. I try again to zoom in, but again my computer screen goes no further. I want more. I want to be closer, I want to be able to swivel my computer mouse and point and click and get into the nook and cranny of any life I desire.

Had I been able to, I may very well have zoomed right into Julia’s front window, stepped into her lounge room. This realization makes me I sit back from my computer and warily eye the Google Earth controls on my screen, wondering, if the technology had not stopped me, at what point would my sense of decency and respect for her privacy have overpowered my curiosity?

Google Earth is a powerful and useful tool for mapping and exploring our world. But it is also a temptation that can all too easily feed the worst of human nature. Technology will only improve, and as it does Google Earth’s capabilities to get us closer, to zoom in further and to render images more and more accurately will only increase. In all my research of Google Earth the most disturbing function was one that didn’t exist. I could find no way, short of an appeal directly to Google, to block out a personal residence, business or prospective terrorist target.

In addition to security concerns, Google Earth raises issues of personal privacy and consent. If you don’t believe me, try googling ‘naked people Google Earth.’ Your search will turn up a link to a googlesightseeing.com article entitled ‘Top 10 Naked People on Google Earth’. I’d continue to argue about how this is an invasion of someone’s property, but more likely than not you are now rushing to your nearest computer to look up the article, which I suppose is evidence enough that if there are naked people to be found, people will drop everything to seek them out.

As I did with Julia’s house, it is human nature to want to zoom in closer and clearer, and it is only a matter of time before the pixilated topless sunbather in the Netherlands becomes as racy an image as a Playboy centerfold. Of course, the Dutch woman trying to ditch her tanlines never consented to the whole world (g)oogling her.

No other company in history has gone so quickly from ambitious start-up to ubiquitous verb (to google v. most often meaning to stalk a former lover or current love interest using the Internet). As a search engine Google has revolutionized the way our society consumes and compiles information. Now, Google Earth both promises and threatens to do the same for the way we map ourselves, the way we identify with a place and the way we conceive of distances. In the age of terrorism, instant access and Google Earth, the stakes have never been higher to ensure that privacy and security are not the price we pay for advancement.

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Gaa-Gaa over Google Earth

I went sightseeing today. In the matter of an hour I had traveled from Perth to New York City, then Tokyo, the Eiffel Tower all before swinging through to London via Iceland. And while sightseeing I took in some very odd home videos, some more conventional tourist shots plus a whole heap of site specific information including where to eat, where to party… and even where to bank. Oh, and that was before I switched perspectives and discovered what the weather was like in Central Park and took in some satellite shots of the Icelandic coastline. Yes, Google Earth has arrived and the world has suddenly become a very amazing – and somewhat smaller – place.

The beauty of Google Earth not only lies in the smooth flying effect which carries you from location to location, but the seeming treasure trove of information you find once at your destination. National Geographic, satellite imagery, Wikipedia entries, Panoramio photographs, YouTube videos, New York Times entries, historical maps, earthquake fault lines, global awareness features and even book searches – to name merely a few – all come together to present the world as the rich – albeit systematic – tapestry of information it is. What makes this entire process even more beautiful is the fact that it’s all interactive and that you, as a user, can add to the experience with your own experiences.

The advances this application now presents not only to education, but industry and recreation, are phenomenal. My favourite part of Google Earth is the fact that it allows the individual to add to the overall map with their own trails and videos. On my world tour mentioned earlier I took in footage of a Japanese couple eating out with their four month old son in New York before watching Independence Day fireworks from Roosevelt Island. I witnessed the Perth Time Freeze which took place in May this year and then enjoyed Samurai Dave’s Roving Ronin Report as he presented ‘Invasion of the Rockabilly Dancers of Tokyo!!!’ over in Harajuku Park. That’s all before I marveled at the incredible congestion that takes place on Takeshita Street and the amazing skateboarding skill of 11 year old Freyr who lives in Akureyri, Iceland.

Naturally, there are a number of concerns which have been raised in regards to Google Earth, which move from privacy issues to the way in which Google as a whole is changing the very fundamental way we think. One of the more entertaining – and chilling – concerns raised about Google Earth is that it is creating an even greater super bank of information, one which can now map where we wish to travel in the world, how we travel and what we aim to do once there. Slowly we are revealing all our secrets. Is Google Earth the new Skynet, the global computer from The Terminator movies? Yes, it most probably is, which means we at least still have the Apocalypse of Humankind to look forward to. And it’s good to have something to look forward to… right?

Concerns aside though, Google Earth is a revolutionary new application which will change the way we learn about our home planet. Yes, we may have to rethink privacy issues, but then we need to rethink a lot of issues surrounding humanity, such as discrimination and war. All up though, Google Earth now presents the entire world in a new way: one which is instantly accessible and interactive. From this we as a species can garner a greater understanding of ourselves by exploring with greater ease our surrounds and the way in which are fellow people influence, effect and mark said surrounds. The result is a magnificent intermesh of information, one which adds even more cohesive layers of understanding to the wide and daunting world in which we live.