Google Focusing on Online Video Future

As you should remember, Goggle has purchased On2, the video codec company, not so long ago. This made many open source proponents hope that Google is going to release On2’s technology to the public as patent-free and open source. That was determined by the fact that On2 had earlier donated the code from another codec to Ogg Theora, which is a video open source project, and possibly could do that again.

Another thing is that On2 purchase was made exactly in time of the discussion of switching from Flash to HTML5 in the web. There are many proponents of free online standards which would be happy to see web video being delivered via the simple

So when Google leaked its decision to launch VP8 free of charge and YouTube made more moves to HTML5, it looked quite like a revolution in digital video. However, the reason for it remains unclear – why would Google go to such costs and effort to change the present situation with online video? H.264 is now a good choice for many, and YouTube has seemed happy with Flash even in its earlier days. Probably, the real incentive for the search giant’s HTML5 and VP8 is simply about advertising. That’s not a surprise for those who understand where Google earns its revenue. By stealing the control over video delivery from H.264 and Flash, Google would be able to reinforce its own role in video ads on YouTube, and therefore hinder Microsoft to interfere with IE and Silverlight (or whatever Apple was planning when built video advertising upon Safari). When Mozilla decided to choose H.264 support, Microsoft and Apple have got an opportunity to push their browsers and probably advertising schemes on compelling video material. So when Google will do the same, switching YouTube to VP8/HTML5, the other browsers will give it a commanding position.

It turns out that decisions on browser plug-ins and codecs can have a great affect on the very shape of the web. Google, having already spent millions of dollars on this front, should clearly understand the importance of video strategy.

ISRO’s Bhuvan vs Google Earth

The India Space Research Organisation has done a lot for the advancements of Space Research & Administration in India. ISRO created history by the launch of Chandrayaan. And it has established two main Space Systems: INSAT & IRS & has developed two satellite launch vehicles PSLV & GSLV to place INSAT and the IRS satellites in the required orbits.

Now, ISRO is up with Bhuvan to compete with Google Earth. “Bhuvan” is a sanskrit word meaning “Earth”. Bhuvan will provide services similiar to Google Earth & Wikimapia, but it will be confined only within India.

Bhuvan has some special features which sets it aside from Google Earth & Wikimapia. It will have a better zooming efficiency, multilayer viewing technology, and it will update its data yearly unlike Google Earth & Wikimapia which update their data in 4 years. Using the multilayer technology, we can see data from the past dates also!

According to a article at TOI:

Bhuvan allows you to zoom far closer than the aerial view from a chopper. If Google Earth shows details upto 200 meters distance and Wikimapia upto 50 meters, Bhuvan will show images upto 10 meters, which means you can easily see details upto a three floor high building and also add information.

And the last fact, ISRO’s Bhuvan will be using indian satellites.

Here’s a table of comparison of Google Earth & Bhuvan from Wikipedia:

Feature	Google Earth	Bhuvan
Max Zoom	200m	10m
Layer	Single	Multi
Update Frequency	4 yrs	1 yr
View	Viewing from only one date.	Options for viewing from different dates.
Source (Satellite)	Commercial/International	Indian
Imagery	World	World

I hope to see this ISRO’s new innovation go live soon.

ISRO Bhuvan: To be Google Earth’s competitor

Recently, news paper articles were flooded with the term "ISRO Bhuvan" and it was quite annoying for me to see the same term everywhere in my feed reader as well. Finally I too wanted to know, what exactly ISRO’s Bhuvan is? The answer to this question was quite interesting.. I came to know that Bhuvan is a competitor for Google Earth and would provide services similar to Google Earth and Wikimapia but it will be confined only within India.

But there is something special in Bhuvan that keeps Google Earth and Wikimapia aside. Bhuvan will have a greater zooming efficiency that will help you recognize details upto a 3 storey building and all its data will be updated every year, unlike Google and Wikimapia which updates in every 4 years.

As per an article in TOI:

Bhuvan allows you to zoom far closer than the aerial view from a chopper. If Google Earth shows details upto 200 meters distance and Wikimapia upto 50 meters, Bhuvan will show images upto 10 meters, which means you can easily see details upto a three floor high building and also add information.

It has also came to light that, unlike others, Bhuvan will support multi layer viewing with a option to view on past dates. Finally I would feel proud to say that Bhuvan is going to use Indian satellites.

Also, at the Indian National Cartographic Association (INCA) International Congress it was said that:

The prototype of Bhuvan will be ready by the end of November and ISRO is hoping to officially launch the service by March next.

So, we will have to wait for another couple of months to see it live.