Google launches Google Earth Outreach initiative

Google launches Google Earth Outreach initiative

Search engine giant Google has launched a new program named Google Earth Outreach. This program has been designed to help nonprofit organizations use its Google Earth satellite mapping program to build Web-based applications.

These applications can then be used by these organizations to illustrate their mission and advocate their work.

The company said that the initiative provides a combination of resources that will help nonprofits use Google Earth. They would be able to use video tutorials for developers and online forums to enable non-profit organizations to connect and interact with each other.

Google further said that they would make available their Google Earth Pro edition available for free to nonprofits that fill out a grant application.

Access to this application costs around $400 per user, per year.

The program is a result of an earlier initiative where relief workers used Google Earth during the Hurricane Katrina to locate stranded New Orleans residents. Google employees raised this idea of helping the groups to use the Google Earth and Maps service for humanitarian purposes.

Director of Google Earth and Maps John Hanke added on this new initiative: “That opened our minds to something we never really considered — that it might be something significantly meaningful in our product, not just [for] day-to-day utility and interesting and fun kind of things.”

Checkout: Google Earth Outreach Program