France has unveiled a new website offering high-resolution aerial imagery of its entire territory, in a bid to mirror the planetary success of the US pioneer in the field, Google Earth.
President Jacques Chirac chaired the official launch of the Geoportal — found on the website www.geoportail.fr– a free service which allows users to zoom in to within 50 centimetres (20 inches) of the ground, a first in Europe.
“This is a step forward for all citizens, which places France at the forefront of new technologies,” Chirac said at a ceremony in Paris.
Unlike the US service Google Earth, which offers views of the entire planet but high resolution only for certain areas, the Geoportal covers the whole of France’s territory, on the mainland and overseas.
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You know offering HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGARY of your ENTIRE COUNTRY cant be a good thing.
Google sat pictures are at least 8 years old.. I know for a fact since our area was first to be built and houses came a couple years later.. and they still show vacancies behind our neighborhood. So if this is current. Like to snoop on north korea missile silo they have out.
Apparently its only of French Territories. I think maybe they knew theyd cause an uproar if they posted CURRENT HIGH RES images of eveybodys country and not just their own. Again it begs the question why? Why would would you put that out there in such a crazy world right now?