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Come Fly With Me On 'Air Google'

Naseem Javed - 2/1/2006

Air Google makes it possible to inspect vacation destinations, conduct market research, spy, carry out competitive surveillance, hunt for a job, trade property, study ecologies, jog trails and fish streams, among at least a million other things - virtually.

Silicon Valley's current enfants terrible – Google’s brilliant duo -- have given the global populace wings to soar over towns and cities, and the flights include everything except peanuts. Fasten your seat belts.

Consider these two observations:

First, every half century or so, advertisers accidentally tumble onto a new idea that makes the entire industry go bonkers for a decade or so -- like neon lights, gigantic high-resolution billboards or Web sites.

Second, every half century or so, consumers get a break that revolutionizes their daily lives -- like the light bulb, the credit card, the Internet -- and now, Air Google. Aha! Bring your seat to an upright position.

From Flat-Screen Surfing to Three-Dimensional-Flying
Giving consumers the tools for aerial scanning and three-dimensional mapping of the world -- allowing them to fly by their neighborhoods or make a detailed inspection of far away places -- is radical. That's what Google Local and similar services -- which I'm referring to collectively as "Air Google" -- do through satellite image maps that provide a bird's-eye view of just about anyplace.

Air Google makes it possible to inspect vacation destinations, conduct market research, spy, carry out competitive surveillance, hunt for a job, trade property, study ecologies, jog trails and fish streams, among at least a million other things -- virtually.

Of course, much of this has been possible for some time via the Internet, but in a far more limited way than permitted by the latest technologies. Now, consumers sud