6/28/2005: Google makes another questionable announcement
As of this morning, Google Earth is free, lack of fancy graphics notwithstanding.
This isn't the most welcome news for those of us who spent $25-30 for a Keyhole annual subscription.. nor for those who spent far more in previous years for the previous incarnation called Earthviewer.
Google Earth is still in beta, which isn't announced very loudly on their site, and it sounds like the free version gives you most of what Keyhole previously provided for a fee. Possibly the ever-growing ad threat is a factor ("find nearby pizza joints" etc. is more in-your-face than before) and competition from other aerial/satellite photo viewing programs is increasing also. For $20 a year you can get Google Earth Plus which includes drawing tools, GPS and spreadsheet importing. The Pro version is still pricey at $400.. see a comparison chart - note it is misleading: the imagery data for all three versions is the same.
I'm all for free stuff on the web, and even Sun Microsystems announced yesterday that they are going to open source their Java system application server along with Solaris 10, but this Google news has me a little peeved.. possibly because I've been peeved at the way they've been rolling out beta testing for Google Earth the past month.
Today one of the user forum mods posted: "When Google Earth Plus was in closed beta, we restricted KMZ posting to this forum, but as of this morning (June 28th), Google Earth is now available to a (much) wider audience and is in open beta. Feel free to post kmz files in all forums." KMZ refers to the Google Earth file format which isn't readable by Keyhole. What irks me about this announcement is that they never had any posting restrictions in place - non-Keyhole-legible KML and KMZ files have been growing on the forum boards all month, several posted by the mods themselves! Few complained about it - it appears most regular users jumped on the beta download - but those who did were told, in essence, "you should download the beta program" or worse, "tough luck, maybe you'll get a beta invite sometime." Is it just me, or is this a crappy way to do business? Beta programs are by definition unfinished and potentially unstable - company reps telling paying customers they should dump the official product and switch to a beta version is just unfathomable to me, even if those reps are bulletin board denizens who may or may not be speaking officially for the company (they imply that they are.)
The irony is compounded with GE sales pitches like "View exotic locales like Maui and Paris" - Maui has very little detail to boast in GE or Keyhole. Unfortunately Hawaii lost most of the higher resolution it used to have on May 11.. Honolulu even lost terrain data, leaving Diamond Head looking like a squashed pancake.
All in all it's not a huge deal, but it is indicative of how things are done these days. I have to wonder if the Google Board and shareholders realize that the user forums for this product are essentially a select and closed club, a small circle of long-time posters who enjoy posting cryptic "I know something you don't know" flavored posts and are only welcoming to newcomers who suck up to their attitudes of being all-knowing and all-powerful.. or if the Board and shareholders would care unless the stock price were dropping. There are also a few very non-official people providing "official" answers on the forums.. some of which are clearly mistaken and carry some potential liability issues but eh, ask if I care.
I still enjoy Keyhole and use it a lot for research and for fun, but I've never been big on infiltrating old boys' clubs just because I could.. there are still some generous and thoughtful posters on the Keyhole forums (yes, the BBS is still called Keyhole) whom I'll continue to enjoy, but for the most part the magic I felt when discovering this incredible tool and its intelligent community of users sharing information has been tarnished a little bit more today.
It's just weird.. Google didn't even send out an email to registered users that anyone can get Google Earth now. Those who have been anxious to try it and didn't get a beta invite - and there are many - are still going to be wishing they were "special" enough if they don't happen to check in on the forums. And those that paid for something that's now free are just outta luck.. and $30.
The forums are incredibly slow today, as a note.. I guess they didn't factor in the additional bandwidth needed for the inevitable influx of new users either.
Update So at 5pm the email comes from Google with a download link, and the news that my current subscription has been applied to Google Earth Plus and extended for an extra year. That's a fair bone - I'm not particularly interested in the "extras" it's got over the free version, but I know that many are.
The forums have an additional bit from a mod that's worded a bit strangely, to say the least: "Yes, we plan to refund those few who are angry even in this situation, but more because it seems dangerous to have such volatile people angry than because there is any rational basis for a refund."
Call me loony, but I think giving something away that people have paid for can be considered a "rational basis" to refund.. but dangerous? Volatile? I'm not interested in GPS importing, but I'm not about to go blow up something because of it..
