People would be constantly popping up on HN repeating a different mantra about how bloated and unfocused they were (although arguably Google manages to be bloated and unfocused despite the shutdowns - but that's another debates)
Most of the Google shutdown's were understandable whether you like them or not.
In any case - it's getting tedious to hear the same comment on every Google related post. They shut things down. We get it.
All the services on AWS fulfill a need. Google often starts projects without direct profitability in their mind. Note that I'm talking about Google as a whole and not Google Cloud.
I'd say Google is a lot more liberal in starting new projects than any other company of its size. Look around in the news and you'll see how analysts comment about how Google has no 'direction' and is burning money.
I mean the second they decide to license their Google Earth data including the cleanups they do on it, their offering will be unparalleled. There's no other org who has gone through this expensive process other than google.
Even if they decide to shut it down soon, the value companies and scientists get out of it will be worth it.
Presumably you are talking about the vector dataset? I think most of the raster imagery comes from commercial aerial imagery sources (certainly they have no monopoly whatsoever on that). I think there are other global vector datasets that are broadly comparable, no? Streetview excepted.
Maybe also worth pointing out that Google's record in geo isn't without its failures.
You mean like spend a billion dollars buying and building a satellite imagery company and then liquidate it to a competitor for equity in their company?
