Google In The Sky (with Diamonds?)

For those of you who get jazzed up over some of our space-related posts, Google just made your (and my) day. Last August, the G-spot updated their Earth application with a new feature called Google Sky. Sky allows you to discover the universe in much the same way we’ve been able to discover our own planet using Earth. I’ve toyed with it off and on, and it’s pretty awesome. But since I unfortunately can’t download Earth at work, I am unable to browse the galaxy while I sit on my keister doing jack diddly enthusiastically seek assignments from my superiors.

The Giant of Mountain View must have heard my soul’s death rattle for, behold, here comes “Google Sky Maps.” (That’s my name for it anyway. I think they just call it “the web version of Google Sky,” but that’s lame. C’mon Google! Use some of that 20% time to dream up something creative. Google SkyNet? No? Too creepy?).

It still has room to improve, though. I get a little disoriented; as Garett Rogers suggests, it could use some sort of ground reference so we are reminded that we’re always observing from the Earth’s surface. And the service is still a little laggy, likely due to an overwhelming response from the geekosphere to Google’s conch shell call (I was lucky enough to have a tape recorder with me when the sweet sound came echoing down the streets of Washington. See below.)

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Anyway, for better or worse you can now waste spend your billable free hours frolicking across the universe. Enjoy.