Mostly blue

April 30, 2008 2:20 PM

Google to map the oceans.
posted by Artw (18 comments total)

I like to think that this project might give ordinary folks more of a sense of how big the oceans really are and how little we know about them. I know that I suffer from a land bias myself. Hopefully this project will correct that to some extent.

And, really, its just nifty.
posted by afflatus at 2:42 PM on April 30, 2008

Now I can finally drive to the UK....
posted by HuronBob at 2:46 PM on April 30, 2008 [1 favorite]

Google Announces Plan To Destroy All Information It Can't Index
posted by killdevil at 2:49 PM on April 30, 2008 [4 favorites]

Aquaman's days are numbered.
posted by DU at 2:49 PM on April 30, 2008 [1 favorite]

I trust all involved parties will respect the Dresden Protocols' restrictions on what parts of the ocean floor may and may not be mapped.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 2:54 PM on April 30, 2008

It's easy to get around the Dresden Protocols, just map the thin layer of water floating just above the ocean floor.
posted by nomad at 3:11 PM on April 30, 2008

I'm looking forward to "Google X-Ray". It would rock to see the inside of buildings, especially private homes and buildings or parts of buildings that are closed off to the public. It will never happen though.
posted by sixcolors at 3:38 PM on April 30, 2008

Mmm, maps.
posted by desjardins at 4:01 PM on April 30, 2008

Now I can finally drive to the UK....

*cough*
posted by Johnny Assay at 4:26 PM on April 30, 2008

I keep losing track of all these different parts of Google, so I'm announcing a startup called Gglr, which will be a Google search engine. So far I'm thinking of a checkbox to select between 1000 and 10,000 results per page.
posted by dhartung at 4:54 PM on April 30, 2008

Perfect! Now I can find that undersea apartment I've always wanted!
posted by wanderingmind at 5:14 PM on April 30, 2008

This will only be cool if there's a Street View function.
posted by Eekacat at 5:36 PM on April 30, 2008 [1 favorite]

I just don't see how this is relevant for anyone. The usefulness of Google Earth is that it helps me get somewhere. Since I don't have a submarine, what the hell is the use for this? To look at a shitty 3D rendering with an even shittier texture-map overlaid on top?

It seems a bluechart would be infinitely more useful than an underwater 3-D model, for those who could use something like this. I would imagine that real oceanographers have some complicated GIS software for their work, and that the half-assed Google Earth WOW! factor wont mean anything to them.

This sounds like one of those stupid After Dark fish tank screensavers.
posted by jstef at 5:48 PM on April 30, 2008

Since I don't have a submarine, what the hell is the use for this?

To promote the purchase of submarines.
posted by Sticherbeast at 6:23 PM on April 30, 2008

I spend most of my time on Google Earth looking at interesting places I'll never be able to physically visit, and I can't think of many places that would match that description better than the bottom of the ocean.

So... yay!
posted by patrick rhett at 6:47 PM on April 30, 2008

I'd like to see a high-res mapping of the plastic gyre.
posted by owhydididoit at 7:26 PM on April 30, 2008

I don't have a submarine

Then what are you doing in the blue?
posted by lukemeister at 8:19 PM on May 3, 2008

Google is endless. Great.
posted by pallaoro at 8:35 AM on May 30, 2008