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How Do SkyWatch Products Compare to Google Maps and Earth?
How Do SkyWatch Products Compare to Google Maps and Earth?
Updated over 3 months ago

Google Maps and Google Earth are free consumer products, which can provide imagery as high as 0.10m resolution in some locations.

While this imagery can be high resolution and free, as a free consumer product, there are some considerations:

1. Quantity of Images - Often has very few results, typically months or years in the past. Depending on your specific search location, the quality of the imagery can vary and is not always high resolution.

2. Variety of Output Types - Only offers the image on the screen, and does not offer files to download, metadata, or analysis-ready data.

3. Variety of Image Sources - The number of satellite sources available is less, and does not offer as large a number as SkyWatch.

4. Taskings - Taskings are not available. If the imagery you need is not available, there is no way to request it.

5. Support - Support is limited for specific needs, help, or issues that may arise.

On EXPLORE:

1. Quantity of Images - The quantity of images available for a specific area is significantly higher, with daily results sometimes being available to order.

2. Variety of Output Types - The large quantity of output types, metadata, indexes, and raw data that are available, make analyzing your data significantly easier, right out of the box.

3. Variety of Image Sources - EXPLORE offers a much larger variety of image sources, including many providers that are not available through Google.

4. Taskings - If an image is not available, there is the option to specifically task a satellite to capture it, to ensure you get the data you need.

5. Support - Support is available to help with technical issues, our Sales staff are available to help identify use-cases of paid imagery, and our Success and Solutions teams are available to help with complex/enterprise solutions.

If Google Maps or Google Earth has results which satisfy your needs, this is the recommended tool to use, however, if you are looking for a larger quantity, variety, and functionality with your satellite data, EXPLORE is here to help you obtain the data you need.

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