Web search leader Google Inc. has acquired Keyhole Corp., a supplier of online satellite maps that allow users to zoom down to street level to specific locations, Google said Wednesday.
Terms were not disclosed. Both Google and Keyhole are based in Mountain View, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley.
Keyhole's system is built on a database with trillions of bits of mapping data collected from satellites and airplanes.
"With Keyhole, you can fly like a superhero from your computer at home to a street corner somewhere else in the world -- or find a local hospital, map a road trip or measure the distance between two points," Jonathan Rosenberg, Google's vice president of product management, said in a statement.
Google said it cut the price of Keyhole's mapping service to $29.95 a year from $69.95, effective immediately.
Google is flush with cash from its $1.67 billion initial public offering in mid-August. Since then, its shares have more than doubled from their $85 debut price on the Nasdaq.
With an Internet connection, a user can enter an address or other location information and Keyhole's software hooks up to a database and takes the user to a digital image of that location.
The three-dimensional, interactive software gives users the option to zoom in from space-level to street-level, tilt and rotate the view or search for other information such as hotels, parks, automated-teller bank machines or subways.
Google rivals Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN offer online mapping services of their own using detailed drawings that allow users to zoom down to street-level scale.
Yahoo has incorporated maps in its local search service, which is available to select mobile telephones. Google offers a test local search offering that also incorporates maps.
Each of the Web search providers has its eye on the multibillion dollar local advertising market dominated by Yellow Pages publishers.