The disappearance of renowned computer scientist Jim Gray has launched a high-tech search over the web using massive satellite imagery databases and distributed task processing by volunteers who are searching through these images to find his boat.
Users of Google's new massive database of satellite imagery are finding some surprises in the images such as street parades in California and bombs in Iraq. This development points to the growing relevance and power of satellite imagery but it also shows the promise of posting massive databases online and letting thousands of users sift through to find what they are interested in.