It's always dangerous to say that a business has limitless boundaries, but when it comes to Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), not even the Earth is big enough.
Early Wednesday, DoubleGoo added space maps to its popular Google Earth software. Dubbed Google Sky, the feature allows you to roam space as freely as you can terra firma. (If, that is, you consider exploring the heavens by computer to be roaming.)
Using Google Sky requires you to first identify where on Earth you want to be. Once there, you press the "Google Sky" icon, which turns your view towards the heavens. Constellations, stars, and galaxies instantly fly into view. More than 1 million digitized photos have been stitched together to create this heavenly crazy quilt.
I'll not bore you with tales of wide-eyed amazement. But Google Sky is cool and should be an excellent teaching tool for my kids. They're used to Google. They're used to Gootube, too. My oldest son and I were checking out tornado videos yesterday during a major thunderstorm along the southern ridge of the Rockies.
That should thrill investors. If kids grow up on Google, they'll be more likely to stick with the portal in later years. In that sense, Google Sky is one more way to make Big Goo bigger and more important than Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), or any of its other wannabe digital rivals.
Put simply: Google Sky is smart altruism. But it's also very smart business.
Do you agree? Disagree? Let me know.
Microsoft is an Inside Value recommendation. Yahoo! is a Stock Advisor recommendation.
Fool contributor Tim Beyers can't remember the last time he was caught stargazing. Tim didn't own shares in any of the companies mentioned in this article at the time of publication. The Motley Fool's disclosure policy turned to the heavens and sighed in awe.
