[Geowanking] Google Acquires Keyhole

[Ben Discoe]

> -----
> From: Drew from Zhrodague
> 
> > Anyone care to speculate about the implications?  At least 
> > they'll have a more interesting UI than mapquest.
> 
> 	I'll bet!
> 	Anyone on this list know anything about OpenGL, or VRML? 

Naturally, plenty of us :)

Keyhole's approach, their business model, is to licence (for big $$) a host
of big datasets - commercial aerial data, road data, etc. - and offer it at
a subscription basis to their clients via a proprietary protocol and very
proprietary, tightly closed browser.

I can't really imagine how the Google purchase would change this.  Of
course, i'd love it see it become more open so that we all could geowank
with it.  But of course they're limited in how much they can open up without
threatening their licensed content.

-Ben