Google Street View and Google Earth

Describing all the services that nowadays Google is successfully offering is even too much for a thesis...however, this is not a thesis although this post aspires to give some useful ideas and research about what Google Earth, Google Street View and Google Chrome (actually my preferred applications and my preferred browser).

Google Earth:

Google Earth is a Google program based on a idea of Michael Jones and produced by Keyhole Inc, company specialized in geospatial data visualization applications, but developed by Google and launched in 2005, which consists in a virtual earth globe where one can navigate throughout its surface. Google Earth provides with satellite images which are constantly updated offering a aerial view of the earth with different levels of definition depending on the importance the area.

Although it is in principle a program oriented to provide visual information, there are also derived educational uses, information about places, and a outstanding way to "travel" offering a view that only astronauts or a vivid imagination could provide us, with the Flight Simulator application

But Google Earth is also a business, and as described in the Google Earth Blog:

"There are already some businesses forming around the Google Earth application. Some are focusing on providing online resources to find unique places in the Google Earth data - for example: gearthhacks.com has an extensive online gallery of GoogleEarthPlaces. They are getting thousands of visits per day to their site. So far, their primary source of revenue is advertising space on their pages. Others are offering services to sell to businesses to provide Google Earth reference data to help customers find their products and services. A real Estate broker is offering information on homes through a large database through the Google Earth interface. Another company, called GlobeAssistant.com, is offering services to help businesses in the travel industry, real estate, and news services to use Google Earth to enhance their businesses. For example, they are selling a service to take recent news stories and present the location of the story through an RSS feed in Google Earth format".

Particularly interesting is the case of EarthPlot, a data analysis and visualization tool for Google Earth which allows you to draw and input data on Google Earth images, becoming a essential tool to implement the images for research purposes.

Conceptually, the launching of Google Earth was one of the most fascinating things that the digital era has offered to us, because it deals directly with the ancient (and modern) dream of the space travel flying along the continents of the human kind...as a dream, let's then dream about, why not! a Google Earth in real time with thousand of satellites sending us trillions of Gigabytes with videos of what's going on around the world...a real Big Brother where our perspective becomes literally global and concern about our planet, the Earth...a Google's Earth...?

Google Street view:

Google Street view is a technology featured by Google Maps and Google Earth, consisting in offering panoramic views of the streets of a number of cities worldwide. Currently mayor cities in Europe, North America, Australia, Japan and also some cities in the South of Asia have this feature available.

Google offers a very detail explanation about how the system works and it is probably best understood by saying that GSV is "the last zoom layer on the map" actually this is true, and it shows a citizen's scale view that really tells you where you are and what's around, dealing effectively with the usual misunderstanding of the aerial views for those who are not good at reading maps.

Google Street view is a powerful and useful tool to locate places by visual recognition, whether for business or personal purposes...however the debate about the lack of privacy (for instance, England's streets are covered by GSV in a 95%!) is also very vivid these days...however this is not the purpose of this post! However, allow me to post an interesting set of curious pics posted in Mashable regarding the potential intrusion of the cameras into our lives.

Regarding the business model, Google Street views improves the way customers can reach a place, for instance, Orbitz has recently reached an agreement with google to use google street view as an option to gather more information about the hotel selected and the area.

To finish today's blog, the following video shows in a funny way how Google Street View is done:




Today's songs, by Cocteau Twins (it was about time to post them!)

Microsoft or the Dark Side of the Force

I find quite peculiar the new campaign to promote Internet Explorer 8, using Yoda to introduce us the new version or the Microsoft navigator: "ayudarte podría" (to help you I could) he says...

It's not that I am a Star Wars superfan, but when I saw the 4x3m ad in the metro with Yoda making a campaign pro Mr. Bill Gates company latest's product, I really lost my faith in the Rebel Alliance! If Yoda also has a price and he has no problem to sign with the Dark Side of the Force...what's next?

Actually what bothers me the most is that campaigning for Internet Explorer 8 is like purchasing shares in the Death Star 1.0, the one that miserably exploded in the 1977 Star Wars movie...you know there's going to be another Death Star! There's no glamour at all in promoting the 8th version of a quite debatable navigator...!

As you may know by now, I don't like Microsoft (I don't even link to MSFT's page...see how BAD I am?) very much, but as many like me, i still use windows, which, to keep on track with Star Wars references, is like pretending to be a Jedi and having the robotized hand of Luke Skywalker...

And up to this point I wonder: why there are so many people somehow against Microsoft if Microsoft is not our boss who doesn't understand us, or the annoying professor who is always doing surprise-exams, or the mediocre politician trying to convince us that the economy is getting better...then, why so many people don't like Microsoft??

My humble opinion is that we actually apply the same criteria to Microsoft as to a government, probably realizing about how powerful it can be...this feeling of rejection is probably shared in what regards other big fishes of the business world...I have heard some crazy stories about Bill Gates, one of them as lunatic as saying that he is actually the Antichrist as you can see in this carefully detailed explanation. On the contrary, Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple Inc. appears nowadays as a reference and a guru whether for geeks or, for instance, MBA students.

So, why we don't like Bill/Microsoft and we like Steve/Apple? I think the open source software has to do a lot in all this...and Mr. Bill doesn't want to let us know how Microsoft is run from inside...To put it in another words: I am ordering a steak with sauce but the chef wouldn't let me know what is the sauce made of...would you eat it? It seems that we actually eat it, but until when?

To corolate this post with Star Wars again, it seems that the Empire will not give us the code to switch off the Death Star's shield...but the Rebel Alliance may soon destroy the base and there will no longer exist any protection...unless Bill Gates hires Hans Solo for the future Internet Explorer 9...!

Today's songs...well, things go better with a little bit of razzamatazz...and a little bit of ELO too.

CK - leather belts

This afternoon i was on my way home and i passed by a retail business called CK (not, Calvin Klein but Cinturones de "Kuero" -leather belts-). Usually it is closed in the morning when i am on my way to the underground, and also closed upon my return, let's say they have a very relaxed timetable -or that i don't have too much free time-. But this time it was open, so i came in, in part because i have never seen a shop selling ONLY leather belts in such a weird location -actually the area is full of tapas bars, restaurants and cafes, but there's no much more rather than that-.

The first impression is that really those belts were made with real leather as per the undoubted smell of leather all over the place. The second one was that it was difficult to not to find a belt that you like in there. Whether due to my consumerist nature or a real need, i did buy also one, 14€, good cow leather and...made in Spain!!

The owner really seemed the person who knows the most about belts on Earth, and really seemed to like his job very much...

No doubt, if you need any kind of belt...your place is CK - Cinturones de Kuero!

Today I'd like to post a song that used to be the opening for one of my favourite radio programs ever "Viaje a los Sueños Polares" the second song gives name to the program, from a spanish band called Family who lasted just a few years and released only one album that some have considered as the most relevant of the last 20 years in Spain (Un soplo en el Corazón, 1993).

Speed of life and zooms out

It happened entering metro La Latina, line 5, Madrid's metro, a couple of weeks ago, 8.35am, slightly late for class, someone with not a very good aspect at the turnstiles is asking something to the people going down the mechanical stairs, as I am approaching the mechanical stairs too, this man also says something to me, an unclear sentence which i basically ignore (another homeless or mentally disrupted, I cannot be late, gotta be on-time, and so on).

But as soon as i go down and head the second mechanical stairs and take them, my brain starts compiling and arranging the information received a few seconds ago: The man upstairs was actually asking for help to go down the stairs, he had motor skills problems therefore his voice articulation wasn't clear, and he had difficulties to go down the stairs reason why he was try to ask for help.

I don't want to preach here -actually i never went up to help him, my rush prioritized my actions- but it just made me feel how selfish we -I- can be and how limited we are sometimes in our ability to zoom out and see what's going on around-

Of course I never saw again that man in the coming days, i just hope someone could give him a hand and the man could get to his destination on time, as i did that day.

The coming two videos were constantly played in Spotify at my last job -which i left just a couple of weeks ago- they are dedicated to my colleagues with whom i have spent great times and made the hours, the days and the weeks and months of intense work much more pleasant with their constant sense of humor, intelligent irony and generosity. Dedicado a mis compañeros de Proyeco:

Foursquare, what is it? How is its business model?

Foursquare is a(nother) social network based on the location of the user which allows you to register in different places such as museums, restaurants, bars, etc...so your friends, acquaintances or followers can know where you are and which are your preferred places. Using Foursquare in your Blackberry or i-Phone allows you know at any time a large number of entertainment options near your location, and be able to know about these options through other's tips. It is not the first one, actually Brightkite has this honor, combining location sharing and friends' connection.

For a more accurate definition, this is what the webpage of Foursquare says: Foursquare is a cross between a friend-finder, a social city-guide and a game that rewards you for doing interesting things. We aim to build things to not only help you keep up with the places your friends go, but that encourage you to discover new places and challenge you to explore your neighborhood in new ways"

As every social network, you only start benefiting from its features once you dive deeper into it and become a relatively frequent user.

When this application become really useful -and potentially addictive- is when it's downloaded to your Blackberry or i-phone and the updates of your preferred places can be done in real time. Features like the "mayor" (you get points according to the number of times you visit a certain place, becoming a "mayor" of the place) are definitely useful tools to make it more and more essential for the night-lovers, gourmets, music, theater and cinema fans...and in general everyone who likes to enjoy the amazing entertainment offer that a city like Madrid (in this case) has everyday.

The business model

Foursquare is conceived, from the business point of view, to understand and recognize the customers' preferences in what regards to their entertainment. This information is provided to the managers of the business (restaurants, cafes, etc) so they can understand the needs of the end-user and keep their attention based on offers, discounts through coupons or special promotions, in order to gain loyalty from their clients or reach to new clients. As you can see in Mashable, there are several ways where Foursquare can benefit retailers, Hoteliers, Tourist offices and of course their users. The idea is to make the client feel special by using these tool, accesing to extra features: Wynn and Encore hotels in Las Vegas offers to Foursquare clients enjoy a glass of champagne at the luxurious Blush Boutique nightclub.

Rodolfo Carpintier Santana describes it in his blog the new social networks business' models such as Foursquare as the business of geolocalization, and Enrique Dans in his blog is foreseeing the exponential increasing levels of acceptance this tool is achieving based on a game-like component in order to complement its social and funtional features.

The use of Foursquare in Spain - other alternatives.

For the spanish readers, most of you probably don't know about Foursquare (i actually did only two weeks ago, although i have to admit that i have become a frequent user nowadays!) but you may have heard about Tooio, (pronounced "tuyo" which means "yours" in English) an alternative to Foursquare for spanish users, run in association with Idealista, one of the most respected webs in Real Estate searching in Spain. You can know more about Tooio here.

As this blog is about music although it will be used from time to time to submit my Information Systems' assignments, I am not going to disappoint my readers and here are today's selected songs (let's go Japanese today...) one of them is protected by BMG - Ariola so I can't get the embed code, however here's the link: Mecano - Japón (1984)

the Madrid's East - West axe

It's kind of curious my relationship with one the most important communication axes of Madrid: a street that crosses the city from East to West, which, as many of the streets in Madrid, changes the name unexpectedly even though they are all actually the same street, starting as Cea Bermudez and changing to José Abascal, María de Molina and Avenida de América, exiting the city as A2 (the road to Barcelona which actually is c/Alcalá too, although most of people even born here don't even know.

I was saying that this E-W axe is important for me and this is why: I spent almost 10 years of my life living with my parents in Cea Bermudez, 3´5 years working in km. 16 of Avenida de América and since last month being student again at IE business school in María de Molina for the coming year...and before all this i remember i attended to an English course the summer of 90 or so also in Cea Bermudez (is that 20 years ago already?)

My obvious question is: is there a next stop in my life along this axe? Probably not, but life is sometimes ironic and playful, so who knows...

Happily someone uploaded a very convenient for the occasion home made video, it's a song of The Radio Dept , which i love by the way, recording from the car all the way from María de Molina to the airport, all taking place from West to East, where the sun rises, in Madrid too. Here it goes.

My second song (for some reason i am uloading two instead of one in every post, must be my Catholic-Roman-Apostolic feeling of guiltyness for not writing in this blog everyday :P) is by The Divine Comedy. Enjoy them if you can

Madrid me mata (Madrid kills me)

I'm about to go out for dinner. For some reason, one of the two following songs came to my mind this morning, probably because near my place there are plenty of gift shops with all kind of touristic merchandising.

The following video is actually containing all this s"typical spanish" souvenirs in one of the most bizarre videoclips of the spanish "movida madrileña" song that i discovered just a few weeks ago when i couldn't imagine this could happen, considering myself a "master" of this music time frame.

The second video is absolutely random but i simply love the song...