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First there was 3D Earth. Now there’s the acquisition of @Last. What’s Google up to?

I’ve used @Last Software’s SketchUp once before. It was a relatively simple CAD tool, used to easily design 3D houses and landscapes, and has uses that range from game design to construction. Although relatively easy to use, it still could produce some neat looking products, and had a lot of cool features like quick rendering and instant shadow placement. The slogan that SketchUp still has on its website, “3D for Everyone”, certainly rings true.

But the most peculiar thing happened not two weeks ago: the search engine Google bought @Last Software, acquiring with them the only tool they make: SketchUp.

Why the search engine would want a 3D design tool like SketchUp is still unclear. SketchUp was used as a plug-in for Google’s 3D Earth program, the program that lets you visually fly through a 3D representation of a city (now just a bunch of gray boxes that represent buildings), which is supposed to help you better understand driving directions (and just look cool). One could assume that the addition of SketchUp to Google could help develop the 3D Earth technology. They did definitely hint in that direction: “We do not have any announced plans regarding the integration of this technology with current Google products and services, but we can say that we're tired of all those grey boxes in Google Earth.”

The shape of things to come? What buildings could look like in future Google Earth

Of course, the two companies only met in the first place in order to develop the plug-in. Says SketchUp CEO: “We got to know a bunch of Googlers while we were building the Google Earth Plug-in for SketchUp … One thing led to another, and here we are.”

Why would Google care to add better looking buildings to Google Earth? One reason could be that they could get patrons to pay for it. For example, if you want to find your way to Canter’s Deli in Los Angeles, it may help to know what it looks like. And for a small price, Canter may be able to pay developers at Google to make a 3D model of their store and place it on their 3D Earth. For even less, Canter’s could have an inventive and creative employee make their own model of the restaurant in SketchUp and submit it to Google. This could definitely make Google a buck or two.

(From an economics standpoint, this is certainly and interesting business model, because the more people that use it, the better it will get. Finding your way to Canter’s gets easier if more of Canter’s neighbors also create a 3D representation of their building. Only behemoths like Google have the resources to successfully start a project with these “external economies of scale”.)

One wonders whether this deal goes beyond a simple plug-in for an obscure mapping program. Messages from SketchUp seem to hint in that direction, making statements like: “‘3D for Everyone’ is becoming a reality; we're bringing the '3D' part; Google's contributing the 'Everyone.'”. Of course, they could be meaning “3D for Everyone”, in just a mapping program. But then again, maybe not.

Google’s other recent acquisition, just about a week or two before buying @Last was an online company called Writely. Writely’s tool was used for online word editing; its functionality was a lot like Microsoft’s Word, only it happens in your web browser. Most analysts read this move as a step in the direction of competing with Microsoft, which intends on making its entire Office available for online use. Google might be making its own online word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation maker itself, if only to compete with Microsoft in such a hot market.

If acquiring @Last was part of the same corporate strategy as the Writely acquisition, it would appear Google is one-upping Microsoft by working to make an online 3D modeler for widespread use. This would truly be exciting, not necessarily for all of us already involved in 3D modeling, but for all those who will be able to after Google works its magic yet again.


Last Week’s DCC News in Brief

Graphics Cards

NVIDIA Corporation, the worldwide leader in programmable graphics processor technologies, announced a new line of NVIDIA Quadro FX graphics solutions. [ Read more...]

ATI Technologies Inc. announced financial results for the second quarter of fiscal 2006 ended February 28, 2006. [ Read more...]


3D Prototyping

3D Systems Corporation, a leading provider of rapid 3-D Printing, Prototyping and Manufacturing solutions, announced that it will present at the SouthEast Invest Conference that will be held from April 5 through April 7, 2006 at the Washington Duke Inn in Durham, North Carolina. Abe Reichental, 3D Systems' president and chief executive officer, will present an overview of the Company as well as its growth strategies at the conference. The Company will broadcast the presentation live over the Internet on Thursday, April 6, at 2:40 pm Eastern Time (11:40 am Pacific Time). [ Read more...]


Plug-ins

Vertus, the leader in image cut-out technology, announced the release of Fluid Mask 2.0 for Windows, a major upgrade to its Adobe Photoshop plug-in. Fluid Mask 2.0 boasts a set of new features designed to improve usability and results. A key feature is the new Edge Overlay that shows for the first time clean object edges within an image before masking commences. Suddenly masking's become a whole lot easier - it's now possible using Fluid Mask 2.0 to select, group and mask objects in images to make great cut-outs. [ Read more...]

Blackmagic Design announced true 2K resolution support with Version 5.5 software for the highly popular Multibridge Extreme all-in-one bi-directional converter with PCI-Express. [ Read more...]


Studio News

DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. announced that Lew Coleman, president, and Kris Leslie, chief financial officer, will participate in a general discussion at the Bank of America Media, Telecommunications and Entertainment Conference being held March 29-30, 2006 at the New York Palace Hotel in New York, NY. Both Mr. Coleman and Ms. Leslie are scheduled to speak on Wednesday, March 29, 2006 at 2:00 p.m. ET. [ Read more...]


Awards

Autodesk, Inc. congratulates all nominees and winners of the 2006 Game Developers Choice Awards. A majority of the winners and nominees used Autodesk's 3D solutions to realize their award-winning game ideas, including Game Innovation winner Guitar Hero from Harmonix Music Systems/Red Octane. Winners were announced last week during the Game Developers Conference (GDC) at the San Jose Convention Center. [ Read more...]


Partnerships

VRCO and its affiliate Fakespace Systems, together the world's leading providers of real-time immersive visualization systems and software, announced the availability of Conduit™ software for AliasStudio™ 13, formerly known as Alias StudioTools. As a member of the Autodesk Conductor Program, VRCO integrated Conduit as a plug-in to AliasStudio, thereby allowing designers to view and interact with native, three dimensional (3D) AliasStudio models in large-scale, interactive stereoscopic environments such as the Fakespace Power Wall™, walk-in immersive rooms or high-resolution tiled displays driven by Windows® PC clusters. [ Read more...]

PROSTEP AG and Right Hemisphere announced that the companies are bringing Product Graphics Management (PGM) technology to Europe. PROSTEP -- a leading Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) integration specialist -- will provide full sales, implementation, and customer support for Right Hemisphere PGM software in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. [ Read more...]

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-- Jacob Heller, DCCCafe.com Contributing Editor.

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