Google is
planning to use trucks equipped with lasers and cameras to build a 3D construct of San Francisco and various other cities. The implications to the newsroom could be vast and very cool.
The nice thing about Google properties is that they often allow developers to create applications that use their resources. For instance,
FloridaSexualPredator.com uses
Google Maps along with the
Florida Department of Law Enforcement database to graphically show where sexual predators reside. The result is a system that is much more intuitive and informative than the straight database.
That map could easily be on a newspaper website graphically showing where news is happening, each story a pinpoint on a map, allowing the user to browse news by location. Again, I'll
beat the drum by restating just how important it is that newspapers start tagging their news content with
GPS coordinates.
Eventually, clicking an article in a news/Google Map hybrid might zoom in to a 3D model of the area where an automatic pop-up starts playing a slideshow with pictures of the scene or streaming video along with the text news content. Imagine integrating Google Maps into your classifieds so readers could search for jobs based on what is close to their house. The possibilities are endless.
I can't over-stress how important it is for news organizations to start thinking about this today rather than waiting for bloggers to do it and then playing catch-up. Buying a $50 GPS unit for reporters is starting to look more like an insurance investment than a capital expense.
