Google has bought digital mapmaker Keyhole, extending the search engine leader's bid to fend off rivals with a toolbox that can catalog almost anything in the world.
Keyhole uses 3-D technology to provide faraway or close-up views of a region, neighborhood or specific address. The images, which will be available through Google (GOOG), rely on shots taken from satellites and airplanes and can be tilted into different positions.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Although the company isn't well-known, Keyhole's technology received widespread attention during the early days of the Iraq war when CNN used the 3-D maps to zero in on battlefronts.
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What a Sharp image: Three-dimensional movies at home, without the silly glasses, have been a science-fiction dream for at least as long as Dick Tracy's wristwatch cell phone and the household robot.
Well, the wrist-phones and the robots have already arrived and, lo and behold, the 3-D monitor is knocking at the door. It's a flat-panel monitor from Sharp that looks like any other LCD screen until you hit a button and watch the image deepen into the screen.
The monitor isn't cheap and it isn't very practical, but engineers, architects and other professionals who work with 3-D imaging may be able to justify its $1,500 price tag. And its "wow factor" will tempt computer and movie enthusiasts.
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PayPal's apology: PayPal said it will essentially waive transaction fees for some customers to make amends for the inconvenience caused by about five days of intermittent service disruptions earlier this month.
An untold number of PayPal's 57 million users were affected when online access was disrupted between Oct. 8 and Oct. 13 due to problems stemming from a sweeping upgrade of the PayPal system.
PayPal is a common method of payment for eBay (EBAY) auction purchases and is gaining in popularity among customers of other online retailers, as well as in other transactions between individuals.
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AOL promises free antivirus service: America Online plans to offer its 23 million U.S. subscribers a premium antivirus software service, McAfee VirusScan Online, for free starting next month.
The online unit of Time Warner (TWX) had previously charged about 2 million of its dialup and high-speed internet subscribers an additional $3 a month to be able to scan incoming e-mail, downloads and desktop PC files.
Non-AOL members would have to pay $40 a year for McAfee's subscription package. The software will be available when subscribers download a new version of AOL's client software, AOL 9.0 Security Edition, in November.
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Compiled by David Cohn. AP and Reuters contributed to this report.
