Google mars: this is what happens when you have too much money...

Google just released mars.google.com. When my colleague told me so i thought it was a joke. But i checked further and i indeed find it.

Doing Google earth was a smart idea. Copied by everyone since then. But Mars? What the hell are they going to do there? Locate the nearest pizzeria?

Come on guys. Make us a better down to earth search engine and invest your money in something that makes sense!

Comments

[Net]

Perhaps to locate the nearest Mars-bars?

[dreamer]

Tsk. The usual cynic. I almost cried when I read the news of mars.google.com

"Fatti non foste per viver come bruti,
ma per seguir virtute e canoscienza"

Dante Alighieri, from the Divine Comedy. Freely translated, "we were not made to waste our life on bar talk."

A little closer to the heavens, this is almost like another little silly flag on a deserted rock wasteland. Not all taxes go for stupid things.

[Ryan]

Don't you see the importance of things like Google Mars? These folks are building a data rich library of our knowledge, the things we've done and the places we'd like to go. This is a rich oral history--why do you blog? Seems like a waste of time and money to me? Right? No, it's important...it's a story...it tells a story. That's the point.

[ouriel]

Ryan, i believe you re right. Enlarging human knowledge base is important. But 2 question come to my mind. Is it Google role to do that? How big a priority is that for them? Let's remember Google is a corporation with economical objectives. They have targets, if they don t keep them their stock will suffer and the whole internet industry with them to. This kind of initiative if a nice-to-have but that's it. I can't even begin to imagine a haze of business model around it. Ok it is true Google shoots in as many direction as possible to diversify their risks and get out of the ALL ADVERTISING revenue. But come one their are priorities. Here on earth they have already a lot to do. Even to organise better the knowledge we have here. Starting by Google Earth/Maps which works well for the US but out of there, nothing...yet

It is all a question of legitimacy and priority and here i think Google is going way beyond the line

[LaTisha LaQueen]

"Is it Google role to do that?" What a stupid thing to ask. Is it their role to provide advertising? Is it their role to provide email? Is it their role to create a social networking application? All of these things do not help Google to be a better search engine company, so why stop the buck here with Google Mars? With this application I can now get detailed information about the planet that I may not have been able to get before. Why do you hate that people now have improved access to information about Mars? Did aliens from Mars abduct you and give you an anal probe or something? Is that the cause of all your ridiculous animosity?

[Ouriel Ohayon]

my question is not so "stupid". I have nothing against innovation and improvement. But unless i am wrong Google role should be provide ALSO services that make sense from a business point of view, unless they want to become a philantropic non profit organisation. Now unless someone can prove me the contrary, i don t even see how they will make a dime out of Google mars.