MapJack is Street View with better pictures

I love Google’s Street View. Its an awesome application that allows you to virtually roam city streets and get snapshots of neighborhoods, sometimes even your neighbors. However the images are often blurry and the interface isnt the most intuitive. There are lots of weird effects in the pictures, which have become a form of entertainment in their own right.

Enter MapJack. A new site with provides all the voyeristic goodness of Google’s Street View except with much clearer images and superior interface. Although the site currently only has 3 city’s mapped, the clarity and depth of their mapping won me over. They have mapped more of San Fran then Google. Acccording to the site, they map cities “on foot, by car, and by boat.” They say thier mapping doesnt simply stop curbside they also “include walking areas such as Parks, Universities and famous walking streets.” And as everyone who’s traveled knowns, the most interesting sites rarely occur on main street.

Google Backdoors the Telco’s

That damned Google! No matter how much I try to avoid getting sucked into the Googleplex by their absurdly useful and free services, I cant seem to avoid it. Today I was compelled to give Google two permanent slots in my mobile phonebook. The first for the infinity useful Google SMS, which I use all the time but hadnt given its own place on my phone. The second slot was allocated to the new Goog 411 service, which I havent played with as long or used as much but seems worthy of a spot based solely on the voice commands and being able to connect with the businesses for free. If you havent tried Google SMS or Goog 411 yet give them a shot and you too will soon be sucked into world of convenience and utility.

Googleplex: If I use it Google Will Buy it.

So I find out today, via voicemail from Craig and Vincent, that Google is buying my universal mail box, Grandcentral, for $45 million. Despite Grandcentral’s oh so very evil habit of promising 212 area codes and not actually having any, the Grandcentral service is one of the most useful free telephony services out there. Now it joins the ranks of Blogger, Writely, Feedburner and several other applications I’ve used on and off that Google has subsequently purchased. Thus proving once and for all, that if I use your product Google will buy it.

Using this same logic, here are 3 other companies likely to be purchased by Google in the next 12 – 18 months. GMail, EditGrid, Onlywire, a service that saves bookmarks to all the social bookmarking sites your a member of, with one click. GeoBeats, an amazing content site featuring video tours of cities around the globe. Splashcast, geek fanboy favorite and uber media tool to the stars (and star wanna-bes).

Spying on Friends and Neighbors with Google Streetview

 

Beware, if you have even the slightest voyeuristic tendencies the following service/site from Google is going to be addictive. Google Streetview launched back in May and has made the privacy wonks apoplectic. With good reason, theres lots of negative privacy implications to Google Streetview, there’s already been an incident involving a not so secret coffee break and an overzealous HR manager. However, the sheer voyeuristic goodness of Google’s Streetview more then offsets the obvious assault on our privacy. Besides, Google promises to do no evil and they are the only search engine that said no to the US government when it tried to get their search records. Of course, if the folks in Washington werent such Luddites they would know that they could get the same information by simply doing a Google search.

To check out hte funniest links found on Google Streetview you should check out Streetview Gallery, Streetviewr.com and Map Mole.

No more Colbert on GooTube?

The good folks at Viacom have sent our friends at GooTube a cease and desist letter, demanding that the service remove 100,000 video clips of the company’s shows. As of this posting Google has desisted from ceasing.

Olbermann’s Beats O’reilly: Its all over for Fox News

<Cavuto>
Bill O’Reilly and FNC, officially Irrelevant?
Reflecting America’s revulsion with the shrill propaganda peddled by the neo-con zealots, the Fox News Channel (FNC) has been suffering a ratings slide that is only matched in intensity by the plunging credibility of the network. In desperation FNC is doing everything it can to sap the limited intelligence of ordinary Americans and dupe them back into watching the drivel on FNC. However according to many independent sources its not working, viewership continues to plummet, ratings continue to drop, people are turning away in droves and management has begun to panic.
</Cavuto>