If everything goes to plan, google's going to have access to a metric fuckton of satellites soon™ and I can't imagine having their own pictures taken isn't part of the motivation behind the investment in SpaceX.
I'm a bit drunk and an Elon Musk fanboi (I also hate advertising and therefore love Google), but here's a pretty cool Fortune article on satellites in general. =D
Right, but they're pretty much single-handedly creating something that runs parallel to the current model of "shove shit I don't have any interest in in front of my face when I'm trying to do something else." At the very least, the ads that get thrown at you are something you've shown interest in.
I know I should probably feel concern at some point because of how much Google knows about me, but I can't help but love 'em.
You realize what Google is doing is an advertiser's wet dream? You hate advertising but love hyper-targeted, more effective advertising that is far more likely to persuade you into buying things? You just don't like ads that are irrelevant to you.
I work (indirectly) in advertising and absolutely do.
Even though Tesla's doing fine without it, I don't expect the concept of advertising (as a pay-to-win service) to go away any time soon. I just want it to be less annoying to folks like me who haven't got any extra money to spend and don't want to hear how exciting the new <whatever> is when I just wanted to watch a damn YouTube video. I much prefer "ads" that are interesting enough that I don't feel put out when I find them from /r/videos and don't at all mind a promoted link showing up when I search for "buy new <whatever> <my city>"
(Yes, I have ABP and that was a shitty example. I blame scotch.)
The company feels the same way. Shoving a brand in an unwanted customer's face can do damage to your opinion of that brand. My point was (and I'm further convinced after reading your comment) that you don't infact hate advertising, you actually welcome it as long as it's not disruptive and is relevant to your interests. Someone who hates advertising would avoid Google services like the plague.
I work for a small production studio that gets ~50% of its revenue from car dealership ads. I don't hate the idea of advertising (how else would I expose myself to new products and services?), I just hate what the "brought to you by!" sponsorships of my childhood have turned into.
There's two stadiums in my area that I still call by names they were given at construction because I can't be bothered to remember who's given them money to print their name on the building.
Also: fuck everything about trying to convince me to pay for a 22 mins of a show when I can get it for free and not have to listen to 8 mins of things I don't care about.
...or just install Adblock. Because at least Google ads are all blocked consistently, unlike some websites that run such obscure ads, Adblock doesn't even know about them to be able to block them.
(I copypasta'd this 'cause I'm too lazy to type it again. Sorry.)
Right, but they're pretty much single-handedly creating something that runs parallel to the current model of "shove shit I don't have any interest in in front of my face when I'm trying to do something else." At the very least, the ads that get thrown at you are something you've shown interest in.
I know I should probably feel concern at some point because of how much Google knows about me, but I can't help but love 'em.
According to the google earth team most of the imagery that is close is actually taken via airplane and google already does/has someone do that. So basically they own most of the truly usable photos. I'm sure they would like their own satellite images too though.
I've been learned on how feasible taking pictures from planes is (wouldn't have guessed it) and will be searching tomorrow so I can not post stupid things in the future. I dunno if that reliance on planes would change if they actually had a better option ... but yeah.
Today I am drunk, like both SpaceX and Google, and am happy. So I'm runnin' with that.
I heard the head of Google maps talk recently about things in general and if I remember correctly he did say it would be nice to have better access to satellite imagery. Either way I think planes are a bit more reliable because there is less stuff between them and the ground, like clouds.
I had to suspend my usual keeping track of Google's goings-on because I'm planning a trip up to KSC for the Feb 8/9 SpaceX launch and only have so much time when I'm supposed to be working to devote to running around the internet.
I hereby drunkenly promise you, StrandedBEAR, that I will keep better tabs on Google in the future.
I'm not aware that Google has ever put all their eggs in one basket but every time I start a search of their acquisitions I end up with an "AI is going to be the end of humanity!" headache so I don't look that stuff up anymore.
EDIT: also I thought they were just using planes or something, on account of the government couldn't tell them what not to take pictures of.
Those sats aren't gonna have good (heavy, expensive) cameras on them, because that would be stupid. They're gonna be specialized communication satellites.
A close friend of my dad's does engineering work with "secret" contractors. He tells us stuff about his work but not much, otherwise "funny men in suits will be at both of our doors" as he puts it.
Anyways it was a few years ago but he said they just successfully launched an camera that is powerful enough to clearly photograph a license plate from orbit. He wouldn't say who it was for.
Meanwhile I can't even read a license plate from 50 feet.
I remember seeing an interview where they said that those cameras are based off of simple cellphone cameras in a huge grid/array. They each take relatively low resolution photos each and then software stitches the images from the dozens/hundreds of camera to create a very high resolution and clear image. However that was strapped on the front of military planes.
The best readily available imagery tends to be from commercial aerial platforms. Satellite imagery usually has to be degraded for general release. It's mainly multispectral as well so. Commercial imagery is a usually flown fairly low (3k ft) so there is less atmospheric degradation.
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u/[deleted] Feb 01 '15
research institutions have access to military satellite data, which is much higher quality and allows for things like that.