Widescreen
4/3/2007, 09:16 AM
I get a daily email regarding issues in the satellite industry. This was the lead story today:
Lawmakers Eye Google Satellite Images
Pre-Katrina Hurricane satellite photos of New Orleans have replaced current images of the weather-battered region on Google Earth - and now Congress is asking why.
According to reports, sometime in the recent past, Google replaced its satellite map of a post-Katrina New Orleans with older, pre-hurricane images. The move, say some members of the House Committee on Science and Technology subcommittee, does a "great injustice" to the storm's victims. Last week the committee asked Google Chair/CEO Eric Schmidt to explain why his company made the switch.
"Google's use of old imagery appears to be doing the victims of Hurricane Katrina a great injustice by airbrushing history," subcommittee chair Brad Miller (D-N.C.) said in a letter to Schmidt.
After the historic storm, Google's satellite images were in high demand among exiles and family members anxious to obtain any information about their weather-torn neighborhoods. But attempts now to view the region on Google Earth show inaccurate portraits of unscathed landscapes, full parking lots and healthy, boat-stocked marinas.
John Hanke, Google's director for maps and satellite imagery, told the Associated Press that "a combination of factors including imagery date, resolution, and clarity" factor into the images shown. "The latest update from one of our information providers substantially improved the imagery detail of the New Orleans area."
Miller asked Google to brief his staff by April 6 on who made the decision to replace the imagery with pre-Katrina images, and to disclose if Google was contacted by the city, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Geological Survey or any other government entity about changing the photos.
So what is the real motivation of the change? And is it the government's business to make an issue of this?
Lawmakers Eye Google Satellite Images
Pre-Katrina Hurricane satellite photos of New Orleans have replaced current images of the weather-battered region on Google Earth - and now Congress is asking why.
According to reports, sometime in the recent past, Google replaced its satellite map of a post-Katrina New Orleans with older, pre-hurricane images. The move, say some members of the House Committee on Science and Technology subcommittee, does a "great injustice" to the storm's victims. Last week the committee asked Google Chair/CEO Eric Schmidt to explain why his company made the switch.
"Google's use of old imagery appears to be doing the victims of Hurricane Katrina a great injustice by airbrushing history," subcommittee chair Brad Miller (D-N.C.) said in a letter to Schmidt.
After the historic storm, Google's satellite images were in high demand among exiles and family members anxious to obtain any information about their weather-torn neighborhoods. But attempts now to view the region on Google Earth show inaccurate portraits of unscathed landscapes, full parking lots and healthy, boat-stocked marinas.
John Hanke, Google's director for maps and satellite imagery, told the Associated Press that "a combination of factors including imagery date, resolution, and clarity" factor into the images shown. "The latest update from one of our information providers substantially improved the imagery detail of the New Orleans area."
Miller asked Google to brief his staff by April 6 on who made the decision to replace the imagery with pre-Katrina images, and to disclose if Google was contacted by the city, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Geological Survey or any other government entity about changing the photos.
So what is the real motivation of the change? And is it the government's business to make an issue of this?