from Wired: Google has bought digital mapmaker Keyhole, extending the search engine leader’s bid to fend off rivals with a toolbox that can catalog almost anything in the world.
Keyhole uses 3-D technology to provide faraway or close-up views of a region, neighborhood or specific address. The images, which will be available through Google (GOOG), rely on shots taken from satellites and airplanes and can be tilted into different positions.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Although the company isn’t well-known, Keyhole’s technology received widespread attention during the early days of the Iraq war when CNN used the 3-D maps to zero in on battlefronts.
