Google is
in the ground,
on the roads and
floating through the skies, and now it's looking beyond, by
agreeing to the half-billion dollar cash purchase of a company that
says it's "built and launched the world's smallest high-resolution imaging satellite, which collects beautiful and useful images and video every day." Skybox Imaging (already signed up as a
Virgin Galactic customer) says it started with a goal of tracking changes happening across the surface of the earth, while recent rumors from
The Information suggest tech giants like Google and Facebook are
in a space race as they try to connect the world to the internet and their various services. The satellite company's tech can immediately assist Google Maps / Earth, but Google says it could have other purposes too, like acting as a relay to spread wireless internet to places currently without service or where connections have been knocked out by disasters.
