[TriLUG] OT: maps.google.com satellite maps

[Jim Wright]

Beyond just what things you can see at what resolution, I found this
line in the HTML interesting:
"ActiveX is not enabled in your browser. If your browser is Internet
Explorer, you must have ActiveX enabled to use Google Maps",
so apparently they are not able to make this cross-platform with just
the iframe/js model that is used in Firefox, et. al. (not really a
surprise).  But I am just amazed at what google has in the way of user
interface just using the built in capabilities of the browser(or at
least most standards compliant browsers)...I think that gmail and maps
are truly "revolutionary" applications, and the beauty of it is that
they were just built on existing technologies, not by reinventing the
wheel and introducing a new, slow "rapid development" environment...I
could see someone thinking that flash would be the only way to have an
interface as "interactive" as this one...luckily google (through their
own development and acquisition) wasn't thinking that way.