Wed
Sep 12 2007
11:07 am
Help search for Steve Fossett
By: R. Neal

This is certainly new and different. Google has purchased up to date, high resolution satellite imagery of the area where aviator and adventurer Steve Fossett went missing.

They have partnered with Amazon to ask the public to view them, section by section, and report any suspected hits for further investigation.

The idea is to get thousands (millions?) of eyeballs on the photos to aid in the search. There are also instructions for accessing the imagery using Google Earth.

Both servers appear to be under extreme load at the moment.

Here's an interesting NPR report on the effort.

(By way of NWT)

Topics:
Left Of The Dial's picture

Osama?

Submitted by Left Of The Dial on Wed, 2007/09/12 - 11:35am.

Maybe we should be looking for bin Laden with that thing.

jah's picture

What a cool use of the

Submitted by jah on Wed, 2007/09/12 - 11:44am.

What a cool use of the internet!

Somebody's picture

I was put off by the

Submitted by Somebody on Wed, 2007/09/12 - 5:15pm.

I was put off by the requirement to sign up for some sort of amazon.com barter/trade service (which seems to be hosting the endeavor) with a long and detailed user agreement. I wouldn't mid taking a few minutes to have a look-see and help out, but not if I have to sign over my first-born just to do it.

R. Neal's picture

Hmm, I didn't see that.

Submitted by R. Neal on Wed, 2007/09/12 - 5:24pm.

Hmm, I didn't see that. Maybe if you already have an Amazon ID/account you're all set?

Somebody's picture

Already had one; there's an

Submitted by Somebody on Wed, 2007/09/12 - 6:00pm.

Already had one; there's an additional user agreement that could be o.k., but I didn't have time to lawyer up to be sure. It's not written for someone who's just volunteering to help look at pictures, it's written for someone who's going to be doing some sort of online trading/vending/whatever. It was more involved than what should be there for this sort of thing.

Pam Strickland's picture

On NPR yesterday afternoon

Submitted by Pam Strickland on Wed, 2007/09/12 - 8:12pm.

On NPR yesterday afternoon they said that google was approached, but they don't make the maps and the map makers didn't have the ability. Amazon was brought in because of the huge numbers of people that they already had signed up. The people don't actually get paid, and normally satellite searches are very expensive.

Also, was an interesting story about a Florida (don't remember exactly which university), whose father had disappeared on a plan flying from LA to Reno 43 years ago, and they think that one of the old crash sites that have been found while looking for Fossett might be this guy's dad's plan. No money for that search now, but it's on the list for as soon as possible. The guy said he had waited this long -- he was 4 at the time -- and that his academic research had taught him to be patient so he could wait a while longer to find out.

Pam

Pam Strickland

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." ~Kurt Vonnegut

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