I came across something last night that I wanted to put out there for some thoughts. I find it rather disturbing if what I think is happening...is truly happening.
I'm a big fan of Google Earth. Whenever I see a news report or a TV show about a large building or complex that is big enough to be seen from a satellite...I go looking for it in Google Earth. Recently in the news was the Chinese testing of an anti-satellite weapon and they made mention of the launch site in Xichang. As usual...I fire up Google earth and figure to have a looksee at China's launch facility. Now keep in mind...with Google Earth you can actually zoom in on the roof of the White House....as well as numerous Air Force and Army bases.
Anyway.....off to China I go and hope that Google is up-to-date with high resolution images of the area. Well...it had high resolution alright, but guess what...it is censored! I double-checked the area against Microsoft's Virtual Earth (a similar program) and although MS isn't up-to-date with a high resolution image....it isn't censored.
So why does Google feel we shouldn't be seeing the Chinese launch facility.....but it's perfectly fine to show top secret US military bases (yes....you can even see area 51)? In doing some searches to see if anyone else has noticed this, I came across an article describing how Google has just inked a deal with China-Mobile, the largest cellular phone service in China, for a mobile phone based search engine. Hmmmm.....any connection?
Well....here's a couple screen shots to explain this. The first is Microsoft's lower resolution, but uncensored image...and the second is Google's high resolution but censored image.
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