The Map Room reports that Google has removed the “Province of China” suffix to Taiwan in Google Maps. They’ve done the right thing.

It will be interesting to see if this is the end of the matter. The reason most other countries do not recognize Taiwan is that the People’s Republic of China otherwise snubs them when it comes to business and trade. This tends to be too high a cost for the sake of “supporting” Taiwan through legal recognition when most of the benefits can already be had through informal channels and trade links.

Might China start conducting a similar policy when it comes to companies? Many companies wanting to do business in China, most recently Yahoo, have willingly cut deals that we in the west would never stand for. It would not be inconceivable that the ease of doing business in China for Google might depend on it falling into line when it comes to its cartographic labelling (not that I want to give anyone any ideas). Which the “no evil” option might be for Google in such a case is clear to me, however.

Taiwan isn’t complaining about the resolution of Google Earth; It’s complaining about the labeling in Google Maps. It is not “Taiwan, Province of China” it says, but a fully fledged country.

No doubt Google uses a standard-issue name database published by the US or the UN. And in neither would Taiwan show up as a country — The US has not recognized Taiwan since 1979, at the cajoling of China, and Taiwan does not have a seat at the UN, courtesy of the Chinese veto.

Still, if you look at the facts on the ground, Taiwan has all the trappings of a country. And if you believe in accuracy, then the “province of China” label does amount to a bit of wishful political thinking.

Luckily, Google seems to have inadvertently solved this dilemma: While Google Maps indeed does have Taiwan as a part of China, Google Earth dispenses with the formalities and just calls Taiwan Taiwan.

Who said being popular would be easy?

(via The Register.)

GPS device maker Garmin is acquiring MotionBased technologies, says this press release.

MotionBased is a web app that lets you store and visualize outdoor activities that you record using GPS devices. In other words, it provides a great excuse to buy a Garmin device.

At another level, however, this hints at strategic change of direction by Garmin, I think. Motionbased’s application lets you view your efforts in Google Earth. Garmin’s own Mapsource software now also supports Google Earth as of a week ago. I think Garmin is getting ready to hitch its fortunes to the expected mass popularization of all things GPS, and integrating deeply with Google Earth is the best way to do this.

I guess this is something of an obligatory post, so, for the record, here is what’s coming:

Google will also gain access to NASA’s space data and imagery. Google already uses satellite imagery in its Google Maps service and for its Google Earth software. Google could enhance the imagery with data about temperatures or crop patterns, said Peter Norvig, director of search quality at Google.

The company is also interested in extending its mapping prowess to outer space, he said.

“We already have Google Earth,” Norvig said. “We’d like to have Google Mars and Google Moon.”

“I didn’t realize how much content and information was trapped in the accumulated history of these organizations,” Schmidt said. “Imagine if our supercomputing power can be applied to the problem.”

What more could I want? All of it, all of NASA’s spatial data — from the missions to Mercury, to Mars, to Jupiter and Saturn’s moons, with different instruments’ readings existing as different layers. And above all I want a comprehensive zoomable atlas of the stars containing Hubble telescope close-ups, much like how National Geographic does Africa in Google Earth now. And a pony.

Over at Spatially Adjusted, essential reading if you belong to the select group of people who are actually trying to use Google Earth as a productivity enhancement tool. (As opposed to the rest of us, for whom Google Earth is a productivity destruction tool without equal.)

I think I’ll contribute with a question that betrays my GIS ignorance: Could the location discrepancies exist because Earth is not perfectly round, whereas Google Earth might be?

From a thread on Bharat Rakshak, an Indian military site and forum, it would appear that:

[Times of India] today has published another article quoting IAF [Indian Air Force]/ DRDO [Defence Research & Development Organisation]/ ISRO [Indian Space Research Organisation] saying that google earth is not viewed as a security threat and they have long been aware of satellite surveillance and taken appropriate measures. moreover the forces say its a static old imagery and has no operational value at present time. when asked about the Viraat, a officer said “ship is mobile, here that day, gone today”

A wonderful reaction.

But this hasn’t stopped Indian blogger Hakuna Matata from posting that the “Government of India announced inquiry, as result of this google earth site may be get blocked if order by government.”

Sure. That would be quite ironic — the only people in the world who would not be able to see Indian military bases would then be the Indian people themselves. Hakuna Matata is yet another Indian blogger that maintains you can’t see the White House in Google Earth in order to make some point about double standards. So, if I may,

This kind of posting is what gives blogging a bad name.

Here is another reaction from an Indian blogger, on What Harsh want to say, and here is a rather sensationalist Times of India follow-up story (at the bottom of the post).

An article in Times of India today begins thus: “Legally, you aren’t supposed to come within arm’s length of India’s military bases…” You already know what it’s about. (Article reposted here.)

Did Indian bloggers revel in the fact that they finally had free access to military secrets previously privy only to Pakistan and other nations with military satellites? Not at all. Race for Perfection has no Finish Line is the most sanguine, mentioning in passing that this news has meanwhile made it to Indian TV. Google Earth is “in trouble” according to this blogger, and “this kind of tool can be a boon to the people involved in anti social activities.”

Vasanth Dharmaraj’s Blogs writes “I read in the local newspaper that Google Earth reveals all the vital defense units located in Bangalore. Hopefully the authorities contact Google to blur them.”

Why? Why hopefully? And finally, Shwetanshu’s Blog writes:

Google Earth creates tension as Indian sensitive areas such as INS Viraat docked at Mumbai, IAF Bases and Rashtrapati Bhawan to name a few are clearly shown, whereas the White House is missing from the map.

Sigh. Doesn’t anyone factcheck anymore, or is it true if you’ve read it in a blog?

The problem is that India and Pakistan are still emprisoned in a kind of cold war thinking that previously gripped the US and USSR. Snap out of it already — there is nothing in Google Earth that Pakistan doesn’t already know. if Google Earth makes you feel vulnerable, that’s because everybody is when two nuclear powers antagonize one another.

Watch this space for the reaction by politicians, tomorrow.