Thanks to Mr Murphy for telling me about this software.  For those
that haven’t tried it, Keyhole
is a global mapping application, with an outstanding interface and amazing
imaging (using satellite photographs) of major cities around the world.
 Users can "fly" from one point on the Globe to another
and zoom into and view buildings around the world.  The images for
the locations are streamed and then cached on your pc.    Recently
acquired by Google, the annual
subscription of this software has been slashed from $70 to $30 per annum.
 The 30 trial version is perfect to see what you will be getting,
and there are many assurances that other areas around the world will be
mapped in such detail as, for example 5th Avenue in NYC.  The education
perspective alone to this product is great, and I really envy kids studying
Geography in school at the moment with access the resources like this.
 We have already tied in a mapping product with Lotus Notes applications
for a customer, calling an imaged map of an area based on data entered
in an accident report.  The difference in Keyhole is that real images
are used, not just mapflow images.  I would imagine that Google could
resell services based on the Keyhole mapping engine to application platforms
in the future.

The images of Ireland are very basic, as obviously they have concentrated
on major cities to gain maximum subscriptions at the moment.  What
I found morbidly amusing though is the fact that although a massive part
of the planet is not covered in detail,  detailed imaged maps for
Iraq, Afghanistan, and North Korea are in the application.  I wonder
why so many detailed maps of these areas are available ;-)