Google users have been able to take advantage of GeoEye’s high-resolution satellite imagery to gain unique insight into our world. GeoEye is investing in Google Earth Builder because it provides a simple way to address the needs of many government and commercial customers who want access to GeoEye’s broader archive and recent new collections. With over one billion downloads of Google Earth to date, this provides GeoEye a simple way to make its imagery accessible to a broader audience. Tarun Bhatnagar, Google’s head of Enterprise Geo Americas, said, “We’re excited that GeoEye will be the first geospatial data provider to use Google Earth Builder. Google Earth Builder is designed to let organizations upload, process and store their geospatial data in Google’s cloud. Employees can use familiar tools, Google Maps and Google Earth, to easily and securely share and publish mapping data. Enterprise customers will benefit from the quick, cloud-based access to GeoEye’s high quality and most current satellite imagery. Tony Frazier, GeoEye’s senior vice president of Marketing, said, “We are committed to investing in initiatives that put GeoEye’s high-resolution imagery into the hands of users as quickly as possible. This new offering will augment the imagery that we currently make available via Google Earth and Google Maps with premium access to our most recent collections and our broader archive that contains over 500 million square kilometers of imagery.” GeoEye is launching a new publicly available Google Earth Builder layer to highlight examples of the ways GeoEye imagery is making a difference in the lives of individuals around the world. Recently, GeoEye’s imagery, in partnership with the company’s Foundation, helped researchers in Mali determine spatial measurements between bodies of water and health centers in areas plagued by malaria. The insight gained from the maps developed via this initiative will be shared with public health officials in Mali to help combat the disease.
