5 ms·

Sure, that's fair. But what / who then are they trying to sell the idea of with the phrase "live"? Is any average person really interested in a "live" view o

Sure, that's fair. But what / who then are they trying to sell the idea of with the phrase "live"? Is any average person really interested in a "live" view of the whole Earth, such that it would be meaningfully different or changed compared to the static blue marble photo we're all familiar with? I think we all know what we're interested in when we think of "live"... things at the <<1km level.

qeternity 6y ago
Large weather patterns are the first thing that jump out to me. But perhaps the knowledge that the blue marble you’re looking at is mere minutes old builds a stronger connection and appreciation for it. Either way I think it’s cool, even if it lacks the Jason Bourne resolution.
neave 6y ago
I'm the developer of Zoom Earth. "Live" is shorthand for "near real-time". But, you're right. Most visitors simply want to see their house from space. Which is understandable, but also kinda depressing. They could look at _anywhere in the world in near realtime_, but they wanna see what their roof or garden looks like. Meteorologists love it though.
- neave 6y ago
  Also, it's good for monitoring wildfires. For example, here are fires currently raging in the Arctic: https://zoom.earth/#view=67.86,151.46,6z/date=2020-07-20,am/layers=fires https://zoom.earth/#view=67.86,151.46,6z/date=2020-07-20,am/...
- jerkstate 6y ago
  Why not just say how old each image is, like with a color overlay? “Zoom past this level and you will be looking at 400 days ago” etc
  - neave 6y ago
    It does - imagery is dated to the nearest month from level ~12 and higher. (See top left on desktop, bottom on mobile)
    - raphman 6y ago
      From which year are the cloudless images shown when deselecting the live/daily layers? There seems to be one per month but all from the same year, right? It's interesting to see how winter is taking hold of the planet - but a little bit disappointing that I cannot compare snowy areas between different years.
      - neave 6y ago
        So live/daily is for zoom levels 0-9, and the archive goes back 20 years to 2000. Zoom in, and older imagery dates will vary based on the location.
- anigbrowl 6y ago
  I guess it's pretty normal to check your own place because you know it well enough to rate the quality of the imagery. In this case, whatever you're using offers better and more recent resolution than Google Earth at greater speed so it's my New Favorite Thing. Do you have a WMS interface?
- guenthert 6y ago
  > They could look at _anywhere in the world in near realtime_, but they wanna see what their roof or garden looks like. I'm sure, they are interested in more. They might pick their home first, as they are familiar with it and can compare the pictures you provide with their mental image. You have to gain their trust first.
jjulius 6y ago
Sure, we can't zoom in, but I thought that this was pretty cool. Yeah we've seen photos of the planet from a distance, but printed maps and Google/Apple/et. al.'s map software condition us to forget about how widespread cloud cover is. So, to me, an "average person", it's interesting to see the world "as-is" right now - the various storms around the world, the fact that the cloud cover near my house is something I only ever think about locally but, upon viewing this, is so obviously part of a much, much bigger system that extends thousands of miles beyond my locale, the neat kind of horizontal "line" of clouds stretching around the planet along the equator, etc. Yeah, I'm not going to spend a lot of time checking this out, but it's still really neat for a few minutes. Edit: User qeternity responded to your post as well, and I'll also echo their comment about how seeing this whole planet as something that's minutes old building a strong connection/appreciation is another great point.
- supernova87a 6y ago
  I mean, at this level, it's not that different from Google Maps satellite view, right? I can see years/months-old imagery there too.
pj_mukh 6y ago
I for one would love to get a live view of the lineup at my nearest grocery store.
- _-___________-_ 6y ago
  Back when drones were a relatively new thing and I lived in a country where people don't get upset about this kind of thing, we sent a drone down to see how busy our local pub was.
AYBABTME 6y ago
I'm super happy to see this website personally, seeing the weather patterns and being able to timestep through them historically is really awesome. I'm a sailor, so that's my angle.
antihero 6y ago
I mean if I could look at myself sitting in my own garden it would be unimaginably awesome.

qeternity 6y ago

Large weather patterns are the first thing that jump out to me. But perhaps the knowledge that the blue marble you’re looking at is mere minutes old builds a stronger connection and appreciation for it. Either way I think it’s cool, even if it lacks the Jason Bourne resolution.

neave 6y ago

I'm the developer of Zoom Earth. "Live" is shorthand for "near real-time". But, you're right. Most visitors simply want to see their house from space. Which is understandable, but also kinda depressing. They could look at _anywhere in the world in near realtime_, but they wanna see what their roof or garden looks like. Meteorologists love it though.

neave 6y ago
Also, it's good for monitoring wildfires. For example, here are fires currently raging in the Arctic: https://zoom.earth/#view=67.86,151.46,6z/date=2020-07-20,am/layers=fires https://zoom.earth/#view=67.86,151.46,6z/date=2020-07-20,am/...
jerkstate 6y ago
Why not just say how old each image is, like with a color overlay? “Zoom past this level and you will be looking at 400 days ago” etc
- neave 6y ago
  It does - imagery is dated to the nearest month from level ~12 and higher. (See top left on desktop, bottom on mobile)
  - raphman 6y ago
    From which year are the cloudless images shown when deselecting the live/daily layers? There seems to be one per month but all from the same year, right? It's interesting to see how winter is taking hold of the planet - but a little bit disappointing that I cannot compare snowy areas between different years.
    - neave 6y ago
      So live/daily is for zoom levels 0-9, and the archive goes back 20 years to 2000. Zoom in, and older imagery dates will vary based on the location.
anigbrowl 6y ago
I guess it's pretty normal to check your own place because you know it well enough to rate the quality of the imagery. In this case, whatever you're using offers better and more recent resolution than Google Earth at greater speed so it's my New Favorite Thing. Do you have a WMS interface?
guenthert 6y ago
> They could look at _anywhere in the world in near realtime_, but they wanna see what their roof or garden looks like. I'm sure, they are interested in more. They might pick their home first, as they are familiar with it and can compare the pictures you provide with their mental image. You have to gain their trust first.

jjulius 6y ago

Sure, we can't zoom in, but I thought that this was pretty cool. Yeah we've seen photos of the planet from a distance, but printed maps and Google/Apple/et. al.'s map software condition us to forget about how widespread cloud cover is. So, to me, an "average person", it's interesting to see the world "as-is" right now - the various storms around the world, the fact that the cloud cover near my house is something I only ever think about locally but, upon viewing this, is so obviously part of a much, much bigger system that extends thousands of miles beyond my locale, the neat kind of horizontal "line" of clouds stretching around the planet along the equator, etc. Yeah, I'm not going to spend a lot of time checking this out, but it's still really neat for a few minutes. Edit: User qeternity responded to your post as well, and I'll also echo their comment about how seeing this whole planet as something that's minutes old building a strong connection/appreciation is another great point.

supernova87a 6y ago
I mean, at this level, it's not that different from Google Maps satellite view, right? I can see years/months-old imagery there too.

pj_mukh 6y ago

I for one would love to get a live view of the lineup at my nearest grocery store.

_-___________-_ 6y ago
Back when drones were a relatively new thing and I lived in a country where people don't get upset about this kind of thing, we sent a drone down to see how busy our local pub was.

AYBABTME 6y ago

I'm super happy to see this website personally, seeing the weather patterns and being able to timestep through them historically is really awesome. I'm a sailor, so that's my angle.

antihero 6y ago

I mean if I could look at myself sitting in my own garden it would be unimaginably awesome.