Much to the dismay of governments, nations and military leaders, the next generation of commercial imagery satellites will be even faster and more powerful than before, making public mapping sites like Google Maps and Google Earth even better for the general “spying” public.

From a March 17, 2006 article on Wired.com –

Critics of overhead imagery services like Google Earth and Microsoft Virtual Earth generally fall into two categories: government agencies who say the services show too much, and users who lament they can’t see more.

As the next generation of commercial imaging satellites moves closer to launch, the first camp may be out of luck.

Forthcoming features such as enhanced zoom capabilities, higher-resolution views and faster updates of stock imagery will reveal far more detail of Earth’s surface than anything visible on a computer screen today. While satellite imagery won’t be real-time, or capable of distinguishing individuals, it will be good enough to pinpoint ground-level details too blurry to identify using today’s technology.

“We’re just starting,” said Matthew M. O’Connell, CEO of GeoEye (formerly Orbimage), which plans to launch a satellite in early 2007 that can show images of objects as small as 1.3 feet across. “At that resolution, we can literally count the manhole covers in Manhattan.”

Just a few years ago, the idea of zooming in from a PC screen to any point on Earth would have seemed like the stuff of fantasy. Now that it’s reality, satellite and aerial mapping applications are drawing millions of addicted users. Hardly a week goes by without news of some strange or scandalous finding: Last week amateur astronomer Emilio González of Spain used Google Earth to find what might be a previously unknown impact crater in Chad.

You can read the entire article on Wired News @ Satellites Will See More, Faster.

This registered sex offender map search, provided by Orbizon Inc., is a great example of how the Google Map software is being customized by individuals and private companies for all sorts of unique and useful purposes.

The registered sex offender map can be used to map and locate sex offenders by address, city or zip code in 42 U.S. states. You can also register to have sex offender alerts and updates for your zip code sent to you by email.

You can use the registered sex offender map for free @ Map Sex Offender Registry.

A9 Maps is an amazing street-mapping site that allows you to search maps in over 20 major U.S. cities and view street-level pictures of the addresses. A9 is owned by the popular online retailer Amazon.

An interesting article in Business 2.0 by Eric Schonfeld discusses the way that A9 goes about creating these maps as well as their plans to do this for the entire U.S.

From the article –

A9 also powers its own stand-alone search engine (www.a9.com), where Dorfman and his colleagues are trying out all sorts of ideas for improving search. One of these ideas — the one that has us prowling Manhattan, block by block — is to drive around the country and take a street-level picture of every building, geo-code each picture by latitude and longitude, and marry the images with an address database to create the ultimate local search engine.

You can read the entire article by Eric Schonfeld on Business 2.0 @ Where the Web Meets the World.

Here is a freely browsable database of crimes reported in the city of Chicago and plotted by location on a customized Google Map.

You can search the Chicago crime database by crime type; street; date; police beat; zip code; ward; location; city map or route.

You can search the Chicago crime database at Chicago Crime

Google Maps are now available as downloads for your web-enabled cell phones.  Although the map service is free, your cell phone must have web access, which is typically an additional charge on your cellular phone service.  The Google mobile phone map features include:

1. Detailed Directions
2. Integrated Local Search Results
3. Movable and Interactive Map Displays
4. Google’s Famous Satellite Imagery

You can read the specifications and access the Google Mobile Maps at Google Local For Mobile .