Google buys digital map maker
28 October 2004
Google has announced that it has acquired Keyhole Corp, a digital mapping company.
Keyhole supplies online satellite maps that allow users to zoom down to street level to specific locations and its system is built on a database with trillions of bits of mapping data collected from satellites and airplanes.
"With Keyhole, you can fly like a superhero from your computer at home to a street corner somewhere else in the world -- or find a local hospital, map a road trip or measure the distance between two points," Jonathan Rosenberg, Google's vice president of product management, said.
"This acquisition gives Google users a powerful new search tool, enabling users to view 3D images of any place on earth as well as tap a rich database of roads, businesses and many other points of interest. Keyhole is a valuable addition to Google's efforts to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."
Google said it was immediately cutting the price of Keyhole's mapping service from $69.95 to just $29.95 a year.
Google and Keyhole are both based in Mountain View, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley. The search giant refused to disclose financial terms of the deal.
Both Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN offer online mapping services of their own, using detailed drawings that allow users to zoom down to street-level scale.
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