Cartography has a go at the Spiegel article “How Google Earth Is Changing Science” for its utter lack of understanding of GIS, so I don’t have to, but I can’t resist this little excerpt:

Google Earth wasn’t really intended for scientists. The Google search engine’s extraordinary globe, which is made up of hundreds of thousands of satellite photos and aerial images, was initially meant as a game for virtual hobby pilots. Users discovered that it was fun to fly over their own homes, swing up into space and, within seconds, swoop back down into the depths of the Grand Canyon. But now the scientific community is discovering how useful the software is for their own work.

What twaddle.

And why is it that it is always the least knowledgeable articles that get the widest exposure? Here is the much bastardized UPI writeup.

The Earth is Square is upset that the Google Earth team gets recognition for its efforts in the wake of Hurrican Katrina. World Wind did it better, he argues. I can’t comment on the relative merits of the World Wind community’s efforts, as I wasn’t aware of them. Clearly, most rescue professionals in the field ended up using Google Earth’s solution at the time — maybe TEiS can explain why that is beyond alluding to better marketing on the part of Google — at that time, the popularity of Google Earth was due overwhelmingly to word of mouth. Is it Google Earth’s ease of use? Is it because Google’s servers could handle the extreme load?