The Google Earth Hype

Although I do not understand why the Indian media is giving Google Earth so much hype, and critisizing the detail at which it has exposed various Indian cities. Well matter of factly, only four Indian cities have actually been shown in good detail.

• New Delhi and NCR (Near Capital Region) i.e. Noida, Gurgaon etc
• Mumbai and nearby areas
• Hyderabad
• Banglore

As such there is nothing that serious about these cities being exposed in the said detail. First of all, most photographs are quite old and hence do not hold much threat to the military areas exposed.
In any case, we are not the only ones exposed by Google, many important cities in the world have been clearly shown in Earth.

Who should be concerned the most are people in United States. Common! we have all major US cities in 3D details. Maybe Osama's troops can now actually sit back, relax and estimate the tallest building in New York and then target it for some terrorist attack.
As far as military intelligence is concerned, most Air bases in the US have been exposed. Rather even the Area 51 has been clearly exposed.

Well I don't overlook the danger that our own country faces from such attack plannings. Now the terrorists can probably plan which routes to take to reach Rashtrapati bhawan, and which routes to use for the exit. Even the doors and entrances can be seen. A well equipped group could even decide upon snipping locations and assault positions.

But then what is it? Just another commodity in the belts of the bad guys. Who made a fuss when email was invented, practically one of the best ways for terrorists to communicate? Oh yeah I hear some computer guys groaning... although the email was invented in the US a lot of time before 9/11 and hence during a time when US didn't know what terrorism was. But even today e-mail is the most secure method of communication between any two people. The men in white but with heart of titanium use it for some of the best killing spree's even today.

Even today when we have learnt so much from past experiences, we continue to have cyber cafe's which have no user information logging howsoever. Hence virtually anyone can use the email with encrypted messages for conveying the most disasterous messages to their head quarters.

To conclude this, the media should take things little sensibily and realise that every new invention has two faces, the good and the bad... and may be the ugly too. With every new invention, we invent a new way for a person to die. Lets just try and get the official No-Fly-Zones removed from the maps. That is the best that can be done, and that should be done.