TechnoCloud

In a nice piece of publicity for Google Earth, Google responded to speculation that the fabled Atlantis had been found just off the coast of Hawaii.

Update: looks like I lost it too, it’s actually off the west coast of Africa, only it’s not if you see what I mean…

The ordered lines certainly looked man-made and it turned out they were - in a way.

A detailed explanation from the scientists involved with the project confirmed that in fact the lines were ’ship tracks’, showing the limited area covered by the ships echosounding the bottom of the sea - a lengthy and labour intensive job as it turns out.

The denial makes a nice story and will encourage others to explore the new Ocean service looking for further anomalies. Nice story, but even nicer piece of marketing.

As an update to my previous post, Google has announced the details on their blog and provided more details on the Lat Long blog, complete with some rather cloudy stills.

Note to Google: wait for a sunnier day, as it looks like there’s a stage in England after all…

Google’s Street View has crossed the pond and is winding its way down France’s streets.

Although the coverage is far from universal, they have taken the inspired decision to start withthe Tour de France route, including sections of Paris, Saint-Étienne and Brest. It certainly opens up the possibility of some excellent mashups of live Tour data to enhance coverage.

Fortunately, the route allows me to take my own tour down memory lane to re-enact my old walk to work down the Champs-Elysées and to revisit an old holiday destination by taking a tour inside the city walls of Saint-Malo. Picture quality is perfectly adequate. To protect privacy, but not perhaps vanity, faces and number plates are obscured.

You can view it here (make sure the Street View button is selected). It’s also available in Google Earth.