MetaCarta, a provider of software tools that makes unstructured data “location aware,” has joined the Google Enterprise Professional program. According to Google, the alliance means that MetaCarta will integrate its technology with Google Earth Enterprise. The result will be software that searches, adds location context, and displays vast amounts of data, using Google Earth.
MetaCarta has technology that can comb through gigabytes of data looking for geospatial context. It can discern, for example, the difference between “Paris Hilton” and “Paris, Texas”—and then put the right one on a map it generates. This is pure speculation, but for all we know, MetaCarta could be some of the software at work behind the current outcry regarding the US government’s analysis of telephone calling patterns. MetaCarta could pinpoint landline telephone numbers on a map, allowing the display of specific “interesting” calling patterns.
MetaCarta was started by a team of MIT researchers in 1999. It is privately held. One of its venture capital investors is In-Q-Tel, the investment arm of the US CIA. The last time Google announced a working relationship with a company on the In-Q-Tel investment list, it was soon acquired. The company was AtLast Software, the product was SketchUp.
The Google Enterprise Professional program includes developers, consultants and independent software vendors that provide value-added services for Google enterprise products.
“At MetaCarta, we will integrate our technology with Google Earth Enterprise for use in the government, energy, and enterprise sectors,” said Claudine Bianchi, vice president of marketing for MetaCarta. “Companies and government agencies who use Google Earth can now extend the power of their searches using MetaCarta to view unstructured content such as content found in HTML pages, MS-Word, and email as search results on the Google Earth map interface.”
--RSN
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