I'm happy to see that others are interesting and wondering about the future of GE and GEC.

I thought on this question too (for French reader see my paper) and advanced some ideas in the framework of an archeology of pictures, a "pictarcheology"!

My idea is that GE has to intagrate the 4th dimension: Time. So, in opposition to TheLedge I think that "duplicate places", more accurately replicative placemarks will have a full usefulness and relevance in a time superposed system.

In the video panoramas I am developing (Panoram'Earth), one can find replicative videos of the same place (same latitude and longitude) but not the same time (date and hour). This is an interesting example.

Then the question of several placemarks at the same place or other method is only a question of ergonomy of the system. What will be this ergonomy in the future is maybe hard to imagine. Imagine when we were with DOS in our computers, who could imagine an aero 3D graphic system? Maybe some visionary and dreamer or science fiction author (and a certain Bill )?