E-Media Tidbits

Lots of cool things have appeared recently in the online world, but certainly one of my favorites is Google Maps' satellite-view feature. Find a map you want (say, by searching for an address), then look for the "Satellite" link to turn the default line-drawing map into a satellite view. Hold down your mouse to drag the image and you can look around town or trace an intended route. That's fun and useful.

Another cool thing is Amazon.com's A9 search engine, which includes storefront photos of selected cities (not mine, alas). You can find a store you're looking for, then take a look down the street to see what else is there. (A9 just expanded its street-level photo service to several more U.S. cities.)

Now what I'm wishing for is a combination of those two services. Wouldn't it be great to take one of those Google satellite maps and be able to zoom down to street level to see shop fronts in detail, and then learn about specific businesses? I'm not privy to any such plans, but I bet we'll have this one of these days.

... And on the topic of street-level photo inventories of cities' retail districts, why should Amazon A9 be the only one doing this? I would think that this could be a useful project for any local newspaper. The business model is to create a virtual drive-through-view community and sell premium listings. Imagine people in my town (Boulder, Colorado) "walking" down the Pearl Street Mall on their PCs, checking out menus for restaurants, buying things online, etc.

This isn't exactly a new concept. You may remember many years ago MIT's Aspen Movie Map project, an attempt to create a virtual online town guide using photos of the ski town's streets. That project was far-fetched then (1978); today, it's practical.