[LINK] Google's photos of Sydney go all fuzzy

[Eric Scheid]

<http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/fuzzy-photos-over-sydney/2007/08/13/11868573
96182.html>

Much of Sydney's CBD as it appears in the satellite images on Google Maps
Australia has been fuzzed out, just weeks before the APEC summit.

Google says the imagery was downgraded as a result of a "commercial issue"
with a supplier, but the move has aroused speculation it was done at the
request of police in order to minimise the risk of a terrorist attack during
the September summit, where Sydney will play host to 21 world leaders
including U.S. President George W. Bush.

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The fuzzification is quite odd - normally, there are blocks you can zoom
right in close, and blocks which result in "no image at this resolution",
but this fuzzification includes a merging of different resolutions. This is
most obvious when zooming in to the boats on in Farm Cove ... the bay they
are in are at a low resolution, but the boat itself and the water
immediately around it, in a boat shaped area, is at high resolution.
Similarly for a couple of the boats in Circular Quay.

Clumsy.

e.