Google Earth...Circa 1657

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Ah the early days of the World Wide Web. WebCrawler was the #1 search engine. McDonalds, Pepsi and Coke were all early adopters, with sites that went nowhere and did nothing. Blog was a monster in a low-budget movie.

No wait. Apparently those were all late-comers.

Above you see Google's earliest experiment with providing a business guide superimposed on a realistic view of the region being searched. It's just as well that modems were slower back then. Each "hilltop view" had to be hand etched with quill on parchment when the request hit the Google servers.

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Google Street View Reveals LOTR Battle Location

 Who knew? Looks like the location of the Battle of Helms Deep has been captured by the roving Google Street View cameras. (Click pic for full-size view.) Turns out it was at 8 Sampsonia Way, Pittsburgh, PA. Now we know the secret behind the Steelers awesome defensive line back in the day: Orcs.

(HT for link to @WhatChrisLikes)

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FUN INTERACTIVE ACTIVITIES to REINFORCE this LESSON!!!

1. Click Share This button below and send this post to your friends!
2. Go to the Fan Box in the sidebar and follow PublicLens on Facebook, Twitter, or Friendfeed
3. Right below the Fan Box, subscribe to PublicLens in your favorite Feed Reader.
4. Leave a comment with a better caption than ours. Then go get your own humor blog and never come here again.
4. Enter your address in Google Maps and select Street View. Go outside, run around your front yard, then run back inside and see if you're still in the view.