The folks at Google are evidently in the mood to flood the Web with news today. There came word of enhancements made to the iGoogle platform. The company also spoke of ambitions related to its newly-secured DoubleClick acquisition, saying that the graphic ad giant is busy working to turn into sprawling financial success in the mobile ad market. And then there came mention of a tool dubbed Google Ocean, which, according to Elinor Mills of CNET News, is expected to be “similar to other 3D online mapping applications [released by Google]." Such a product would follow past launches of mapping utilities for all above-ground terrain, Google Earth, and Google Sky, a research and educational creation purposed for exploration of the cosmos.
Now Google seems to be getting into aquatics. This is apparently what the company’s employees deliver when given 20% free time to dabble in personal projects independent of their objective to, in the words of temporarily nameless friends and foes of Mountain View’s star child, take over the world.
Mind you, this new effort by Google to dip 20,000+ leagues beneath the sea, all around the globe, isn’t necessarily just for entertainment. Unless you’re one to think bathymetry is really damn cool. The company has brought together “an advisory group of oceanography experts” to consult for the project and even invited some specialist researchers to the Googleplex late last year to discuss plans for the service. Sound like serious business? Perhaps.