3 ms·

You know that google Earth, before being bought by Google, was made just because it provided a good intro to talks when he worked in Silicon Graphics? People l

You know that google Earth, before being bought by Google, was made just because it provided a good intro to talks when he worked in Silicon Graphics? People loved it so much that he realized he had "something". Google just bought it when the product was complete.

nostrademons 15y ago
Earth != Maps. Earth was a desktop application, and except for some very geeky tech enthusiasts, nobody used it. The innovativeness of Maps came from fusing some of the satellite imagery of Earth (done by Keyhole technologies) with the innovative UI (done by Where2 technologies, another acquisition, but one that used a C++-based browser plugin) with existing internal work on Google Local and Google's expertise with browser-based applications. Very few innovations have a single parent, and very few products are ever "complete".