Google Acquires Keyhole Corp

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - October 27, 2004 - Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) today announced it acquired Keyhole Corp., a Mountain View, Calif.-based digital mapping company.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

"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," said Jonathan Rosenberg, vice president, Product Management. "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."

With an Internet connection, users enter an address or other location information and Keyhole's software accesses the database and takes them to a digital image of that location on their computer screen. The interactive software then gives users many options, including the ability to zoom in from space-level to street-level, tilt and rotate the view or search for other information such as hotels, parks, ATMs or subways. Unlike traditional mapping technologies, Keyhole creates a dynamic 3D interface for geographic information.

Keyhole's technology combines a multi-terabyte database of mapping information and images collected from satellites and airplanes with easy-to-use software.

Google also announced, effective immediately, a price reduction for Keyhole 2 LT from $69.95 to $29.95.

Keyhole was founded in 2001. Keyhole customers include consumers, large and small businesses and public agencies. Current Keyhole users will benefit from the expanded resources and operational scale made possible by the integration into Google. Their service will continue uninterrupted.

For a free, seven-day trial of Keyhole, please go to www.keyhole.com.

About Google Inc.
Google's innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google's targeted advertising program, which is the largest and fastest growing in the industry, provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com.

Keyhole employees are all smiles, Google employees are all open arms, and the sun is shining brightly in Mountain View, California. Attached Placemark indicates Keyhole's new home and a modest proposal to change the Keyhole logo.

Accolades to the people at for convincing the people at to make an offer that could not be refused! Here's hoping that, even if the quarters change, the people do not!


Kudos to all!!

I just hope the money that is exchanged is better than the obviously counterfeit stuff that Jumble displayed.

Here are several steps you can take to protect yourself against counterfeit money:

* Be suspicious; take time to look at and feel the money you receive.
* Check for obvious things like duplicate serial numbers.
* Be especially suspicious of older bills (those bearing old pre-1996 designs) and bills of larger denominations.
* Simply refuse to accept older bills. Nearly all the pre-1996 money that is actually legitimate has been taken out of circulation and destroyed already.
* Look at bills in the light. The color shift ink is very hard to fake. The security stripe and watermark are impossible to duplicate with an inkjet printer.
* If you believe you are receiving a counterfeit bill, call the police.

This really puts a new complexion on things. I was an early adopter of Google and I've always had a warm feeling for it. I feel the same way about Keyhole. Both of these great tools have illuminated my senses and my heart.

I'm just guessing, but I'll bet that this BBS was a good part of the reason for Google's interest. I'd say congratulations are in order all around.

-
Brad

After the first few sleepless, high-flying nights when I first downloaded Keyhole NV, I thought here was an application that would eventually compete with Google: there was nothing to stop Keyhole from becoming just as important a front-end interface to the internet (zoom into your local Savons, click on the floor plan layout, click on the toothpaste aisle and see what's on sale today...) When Google Local arrived, I thought, hmmm, seems we're getting close to some kind of convergence.

I suspect Google finally realized the Keyhole Community was swamping its servers trying to answer Seer's homework questions, and just caved in. Here's Seer's post of the Google Campus from last August. When will Keyholers start commuting to Mountain View for work?

With their comfortable cash position, I wonder if the folks at Keyhole might treat us to an upgrade of the global background image? I'm thinking of EarthSat's new 15m resolution GeoCover NaturalVue 2000 imagery. They supplied those great looking tiles of the Western Himalayas, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Christmas is coming, and I've been a good boy....

What a natural fit!

That's good news! I was gonna renew my Keyhole NV subcription on the 31th, but now I'll go for LT! It's great that Google acquired Keyhole - not some monopolistic company like Microsoft. I use Google for searching, Google groups for Usenet , GMail for e-mail...wait a sec, that's a monopoly right? OK anyway I hope Mars doesn't get lost in the process, and that +8tb by the end of the year either Congratulations Keyhole! Now you guys will be able to buy that BMW convertible and send your kids to college! You deserve it

I assume that this is good news for the Keyhole staff? Did the 401Ks convert to Google stock?

Thanks for this news Seer!

Good news for all the regulars, and the new subs will get a real good deal now. As has been said, nothing like a few billion in your pocket to expand those servers

BTW: I did get a parsing error on line 13 of the posted KML (the "open" statement), but found I had not upgraded to the latest 2.2.990, but was still at 2.2.973(or 9?)... Fixed it all up with the latest version, so if the question gets posted again, the problem is cleared and the answer is just update to the latest... Silly me.

Cheers again and stellar work on those Chicago posts! Damn fine photography sir.

Best to all,

Phred