MacInTouched again
Thursday, June 30, 2005
MacInTouch's home page today includes a note from a reader about the lack of Mac OS compatibility for Google Earth, Google's new whole-globe mapping application that allows some nifty zooming and flyover effects.
When I checked out the download page for Google Earth yesterday, I found that it's Windows-only at this point, with a statement that Mac OS support was in development. No timeline given, but the statement that a Mac OS version was coming was all I wanted to see. So I was annoyed when I read MacInTouch and saw the reader's disingenuous statement flatly claiming that Google Earth "doesn't support Mac operating systems" with no mention of the support under development.
Fired off a quick email and didn't copy-edit it very well, as you'll see from the quotation below the cut....
12:35 EDT Readers discuss Mac support for a high-profile, new Google system:
[John Frandsen] The new, and very fascinating and powerful, Google Earth doesn't support Mac operating systems.
[Google Earth is sort of like Terraserver, but you can zoom in and out and zip around the world. -MacInTouch]
[Don Nunn] The Google Earth info and download pages note that Mac OS isn't supported but they are working on it. Right now they've stopped offering downloads, something about "building our ability to take on new users" during the beta period, but I recall seeing Mac OS support specifically mentioned as unsupported but work was ongoing.
This same thing that happened with Google Maps' initial rollout. It didn't work on Safari for at least several days after its introduction, and everyone screeched about that, despite Google's plainly stated intent to make it work on Safari from the start. But it was more newsworthy, or at least more complaint-worthy, to say only that Google Maps wasn't supported on Macs.
It does a disservice to companies who are working on Mac versions of their products to point out that such support doesn't exist now without also pointing out their statement that the support is coming.
[Brian Estes] Google has promised Mac support in the past and come through: Google itself, the special Mac version, Maps and gmail. Rallying the Mac troops around Google Earth seems premature.