Where 2.0: iPhone seen! Google purchases Panoramio

Which is the bigger headline?

Michael T. Jones, CTO of Google Earth, just spoke at the Where 2.0 Conference. During his excellent & fun talk he spoke about the tri-corder of Star Trek origin. It was able to record and sense almost anything that the writers needed it to. The tri-corder was part of the original inspiration for Google Earth.

To add to the data that Google Earth has they have purchased the small Spain-based company of Panoramio. I first heard of the company when Google included images from the photo-sharing site as layers. I wonder if the geo-centric photo-sharing site will bridge Google Earth and Picasa Photo Pages. It could be a nice way to add some needed community to supplement Picasa.

Michael stated that the iPhone, complete with Google Maps, may be the tri-corder of our time. He then showed it -- to more than a couple of gasps. Google Maps was very nice looking. I tried to get a close-up picture of it next to the OpenMoko phone, but couldn't. We should have some pics online later. Needless to say it was sleek and slim looking.

Updated with Photo of Michael and the iPhone: Photo by Duncan