14 DAY TRIAL // Google Earth - the mapping tool that shows satellite imagery straight on your desktop - is about to receive another major update after the parent company Google signed an agreement with the Surui Indian tribe from the Brazilian Amazon. Using the partnership, the Mountain View company plans to include high-resolution photos with the Surui villages and show valuable information such as hunting areas, cultural zones and other details from the region.
"During his visit, Chief Almir proposed that, in collaboration with their partner, the Amazon Conservation Team, we work together to annotate Google Earth with informative markers and photographs that show the Surui villages, hunting grounds, sacred sites, and cultural sites as well as areas where they've found illegal mining and logging incursions onto their land," Rebecca Moore, Google Earth team, said today.
It seems that the Google goals are different than showing these exciting locations to the entire world because the search giant wants to protect the land and keep the tribes as national treasures. "By doing so, he hopes to raise global awareness of the Surui people's struggle to preserve their land and culture, by reaching the more than 200 million Google Earth users around the world," she added.
Every once in a while, the search giant brings something new to the downloadable tool Google Earth that attracts the fans' attention and keeps the program in the spotlight. Lately, the Mountain View company made a lot of improvements for the solution, including the recently-released Google Earth 4.1 beta that adds interoperability with Google Maps.
The future is exciting for both Google and users because the parent company has some revolutionary plans that might change the virtual world. As you probably heard, Google wants to insert sounds into the downloadable application, being able to take real-world elements straight into the online mode.