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posted by on Sunday February 05 2017, @06:05PM   Printer-friendly
from the eye-in-the-sky dept.

Google is offloading its satellite imaging business, including several satellites:

Google will sell its Terra Bella business, which includes a group of SkySat Earth imaging satellites, to Planet Labs, the companies confirmed on Friday after TechCrunch's Ingrid Lunden first reported that a deal was going down on January 25. Google's space-high view of the world in its mapping software isn't going anywhere, however – Google will continue to license Earth imaging for its use from Planet in a multi-year contract that's part of the sale arrangement.

In a blog post announcing the news, Planet Labs' Will Marshall notes that the seven high-res SkySat satellites it's acquiring as part of the deal will be "highly complimentary" to its existing fleet of medium res satellites, which includes 60 units in total. Planet's existing network can only get three to five meter resolution, while Google's satellites can manage "sub-meter," which is why images on Google Earth and Google Maps tend to be so crisp and clear, like the one you see above.

Bonus: Google listed what it considers its enemies in the company's annual report to investors:

  • "Providers of digital video services, such as Facebook, Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu."
  • "Digital assistant providers, such as Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft."
  • "Providers of enterprise cloud services, including Amazon and Microsoft."
  • "Companies that design, manufacture, and market consumer electronics products."

It looks like Amazon, particularly AWS and Alexa, is the greatest competitive concern.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 05 2017, @08:45PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 05 2017, @08:45PM (#463178)

    My man on the inside says that Google (read: Alphabet) is retooling itself entirely towards "AI". They no longer care about organizing the world's data, or providing maps, unless it directly feeds their push for AI.