But the resolution....arrgggh.
Good resolution means one should be able discern the license plate of a car when one images from a roughly 30 degree off-center angle.
Google bought out Keyhole, which was a company which provided low-res satellite imagery to business paying customers. It seems that they are providing the same imagery Keyhole was at an even lower resolution.
Most of that imagery is also about three years old.
Laws exist from keeping the real high resolution imagery from being sold to non-governmental agencies.
On the plus side, perhaps it will get more folks interested in our space based intelligence infrastructure. On the downside, Al Qaeda and other folks with bad intentions now have a new easily accessible data tool.