Google-- "To organize the [world]... and make it universally accessible and useful."

Google Earth, Google Ocean

The Guardian breaks the news that Google will add the ocean surface and seabed to Google Earth.

"It's a really useful tool for scientists, to [be able to] share data on the oceans," said David Sandwell, professor of geophysics at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, at the University of San Diego.. "For me, it's the detailed global tectonic structure of the sea floor … if you're a physical oceanographer, the important thing is that the currents and tides are affected by things that stick up from the sea floor."

I'm just hoping they'll integrate Google Earth with handheld GPS and cellphones.  Distributed geographic information gathering seems like it could be incredibly powerful.