Clearing Up Google's Take on New Orleans

Google now has recent, high resolution, and most importantly, Post-Katrina imagery loaded to Google Maps and Google Earth. This is in response to a recent storm of criticism over the loading of pre-Katrina imagery last fall.

Google took this seriously. John Hanke, the Director for Google Maps/Local/Earth, posted about it this morning on the Official Google Blog (About the New Orleans imagery in Google Maps and Earth).

...we recognize the increasingly important role that imagery is coming to play in the public discourse, and so we're happy to say that we have been able to expedite the processing of recent (2006) aerial photography for the Gulf Coast area (already in process for an upcoming release) that is equal in resolution to the data it is replacing.

Hanke did note that the change to pre-Katrina imagery took place back in the fall of 2006. He expressed some surprise at the very recent storm of controversy.

The folks at Google should recognize the speed that ideas can move on-line, and the momentum they can generate, even when they are very late in getting started.

Update: Adena and her folks over at All Points Blog make a very good point (Will the Google/Katrina Affair Finally Push Metadata on GM/GE?) about the helpful role that metadata might have played in this situation. had there been any metadata.