Once upon a time, the study of the Earth’s surface, its features, inhabitants and phenomena was nothing more than a tiresome school subject for the average person on the street. Google has changed all that with its interactive map of the world. Stitched together from aerial and satellite footage, it has been downloaded more than 400 million times, with people and organisations putting it to all sorts of interesting uses, from spying on celebrities to locating the nearest hotel in a foreign city. We spoke to Ed Parsons, Google’s geospatial technologist, to find out more about what lies ahead for...
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