Googling the Future

For a great example of the benefits of 3d and virtual environments, take a look at the new addition to Google Earth recently reported in an article by a Bay Area ABC affiliate.

Google Earth has become a great tool for interactively viewing existing structures and topology, but the truly novel step comes in integrating future structures with the existing world. Google has done just that by adding models (provided by Caltrans) of the yet-to-be-completed Bay Bridge over the existing virtual San Francisco Bay.

From the article:

Until now, Google Earth had a policy of showing only completed structures, for an accurate picture of the earth. But along with adding 3D images, Google has decided to go into the fourth dimension -- time. The bridge is the future, Ancient Rome is in the past.

"I would like to do more of the past, more of the future, to make Google Earth not just everywhere, but every when. A time travel machine for people to understand their heritage, and their future," said [Google CTO Michael] Jones.

I hope this is not just an idle PR statement. Google Earth over time (Google History?) would be an amazing and unprecedented educational tool. The amount of data that could be incorporated is almost unfathomable. The movement of land masses, industrialization, perhaps even battle re-enactments. If anybody can do it, I believe it will be these guys. Fingers crossed!