• SAS hq… – Google Earth Community
  Mail Online lies: Base has "never before appeared on maps for security reasons." Except on Google Earth since 2005
• Google Maps
  The location of the Hereford SAS base in Google Street View.
• Google Street View shows 'secret' SAS base in major security breach | Mail Online
  Once more unto the breach: If it is visible from the street, it is not a secret. And security through obscurity does not work, especially if you have the Daily Mail helpfully pointing out where the Secret SAS base is. I'd never gone looking for it before in Street View, but have now.

Back in 2007, aid workers in Sudan reported that they were unable to download Google Earth from Sudanese IP addresses. The same was soon confirmed for Cuban and Syrian IPs — these locations instead were getting a vague rejection message from Google. The culprit was soon outed — US export restrictions made such downloads illegal, and Google was making sure it was complying with US law.

The self-defeating nature of US export control laws that most handicapped those fighting for transparency and justice in countries like Sudan, Syria, Iran and Zimbabwe was not lost on sane observers. Such views were also made loud and clear to the US Congress by internet governance specialists such as Rebecca MacKinnon, who as recently as March 2 this year reiterated the obvious in her testimony to the US Senate on internet freedom.

In an encouraging sign that the US government does respond to rational arguments, on March 8, 2010 it lifted such controls on Iran, Cuba and Sudan. Google immediately welcomed the news.

Eager to check whether this meant Google Earth is now once again available in Sudan, I asked a local to try to download Google Earth last week. The result was unexpected:

Still no Google Earth available in Sudan? I asked Google what’s up, and the response by someone familiar with the situation (as the WSJ would put it) was “we’re working on the changes since the day of the US pronouncement. There is much to do, actually, but we are very excited about it!”

So look out for Google Earth being available in Sudan, Iran and Cuba in the very near future. As for why or if Syrian and Zimbabwean netizens are still in the doghouse, I don’t know, but at least small progressive victories are better than no victories at all.

[Update 2010-03-25: Export Law Blog read through the announcement and concluded that the new US export permissions do not cover Google Earth. So I went back to my sources at Google, and they again confirmed that in their view, there is now nothing preventing Google Earth availability in these previously restricted countries. The only thing holding back immediate availability is work being done internally to localize the application for the best possible user experience.]

• Google Maps of Omeonga crater suspect in DR Congo
  Here is the location of the DR Congo crater suspect identified by the Italian scientists. Interestingly, the Google Earth Community has had this location in its sights since Aug 2006, and it has been in the database of Suspected Earth Impact Sites (SEIS) since at least then. I assume the latest news regards the increased probability of this site actually being a crater.
• BBC News – DR Congo ring may be giant 'impact crater'
  Deforestation has revealed what may be a giant impact crater in the DR Congo. Apparently, the feature has only become visible on satellite imagery over the past 10 years.

• Using Google Earth and GPS to Track Afghanistan Cash | Danger Room | Wired.com
  To avoid fraud, Afghanistan cash-for-work projects are documented locally using GPS-enabled cameras. (This will work as long as nobody decides to hack the EXIF data:-)
• Google warned by EU over Street View map photos – Yahoo! Finance
  EU privacy regulators tell Google it must first warn people when and where it will be taking Street View photos. Also, they want Google to keep the original unblurred images for just 6 months, vs. the current 1 year.

• Iran threatens airline ban over Arabian Gulf tag | Reuters
  "Iran has threatened to ban airlines from using its airspace if they refer to the waterway between Iran and Arab states as the "Arabian" instead of "Persian" Gulf." Admittedly a very creative way to censor. Let's hope India and China don't catch on. Most likely, the upshot would be no more in-flight mapping for affected flights.

• Google LatLong: Google Earth now available for Android
  Google Earth for Android: Faster than iPhone, with bigger screen, voice commands and a road layer.

• Bing To Use Flickr Photos, Live Video, But Google’s Got Goods, Too | Gizmodo Australia
  Remarkable what a difference a week makes: Before, uploading photos to my favorite photo site Flickr meant foregoing their publication on Google Maps and Bing Maps. Now, suddenly, they are popping up on both. Upload once, and see them published on multiple platforms, That's how it should be, of course.