what Lars Rasmussen, a key Google staffer who famously crated Google Maps (and Google Wave) decided to leave the company recently. Understandable, because they killed his Google Wave baby.
why He’s going to Facebook! He revealed the news to the Sydney Morning Herald, saying: “It feels to me that Facebook may be a sort of once-in-a-decade type of company.” We can see that. source
Park City, Utah resident Lauren Rosenberg is an idiot. Rosenberg was trying to walk from one side of town to the other and ended up on a highway without a sidewalk. She kept following Google’s instructions on her BlackBerry and (surprise) got hit by a car. Now she’s suing for $100,000. OK, we understand that Google’s walking directions may perhaps be a little off sometimes, but when does common sense step in? (Groan.) source
What if you could take the oil spill and put it, well, anywhere? Well, you’d completely cover the D.C. metro area, most of Maryland, and part of Delaware. source
Google’s updated their satellite images for Port-au-Prince, Haiti, post-earthquake, and some of the new views are devastating and terrible. The images are also being given to relief organizations, who may be able to use it to assist others. source
You know, usually we’d think something like this was kinda cute in its primitive nature. But it’s made by Google, so the fact that it looks cheesy only makes us want to make fun of it more. In other news, click this link to read an intriguing story about how NORAD has wasted its resources to track “Santa” (i.e. the Russians) on Christmas Eve since 1955. source
And people thought the McDonald’s game was good. Hasbro and Google have decided to team up and turn Monopoly into a game that remains true to the nature of the original, but with an all-too-real twist: The properties you’re monopolizing are real, and the board is based on Google Maps AND massively multiplayer. This idea is just too brilliant for Hasbro to have come up with on their own. We’re guessing Google had the idea, THEN suggested it to Hasbro. It launches Wednesday, just in time for our Catstravaganza.source