A reader tipped us off that Google Maps now showed a clear overhead image of One Observatory Circle (below), the address which has served as the home of the vice president since 1974. It's the first glimpse Google users have gotten of the place. Kate Hurowitz, a Google spokeswoman, explained in an email:

Google Earth and Maps are regularly updated as new imagery becomes available. Our most recent update, which went live last week, included updated imagery of the Washington D.C. area from several providers. The imagery of the Naval Observatory comes from Digital Globe.

The changeover happened on January 18 in Google Earth, the search engine's 3D mapping service, and on Thursday in Google Maps. In other words, the vice president's house was revealed on Google the same week Cheney moved out and Joe Biden moved in.

For the past four years, since Google first began introducing high-resolution satellite imagery into Google Earth and Google Maps, people have noticed that Cheney's house remained obscured (top photo), even as the White House itself could be seen clearly. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote in 2005:

The vice president, who believes in unwarranted, unlimited snooping, is so pathologically secretive that if you use Google Earth's database to see his official residence, the view is scrambled and obscured. You can view satellite photos of the White House, the Pentagon and the Capitol - but not of the Lord of the Underworld's lair.

Questioned about the blurring at the time, Google flacks said that the map images were displayed unaltered from the source — in this case, the U.S. Geological Survey.

The new, detailed images of the Naval Observatory grounds are still not quite as crisp as their surroundings, a difference Google's Hurowitz attributes to the difference in quality between aerial and satellite images, not any deliberate alteration of the map, as was the case when Dowd noted Cheney's willful obscurantism.

Could there be a better visual metaphor for the change of administration? The old one hid behind blurry pixels. The new one welcomes a close look.

now all they need to do is attached the Department of Defense's Advanced Tactical Laser weapon.

The combined geoeye camera and pinpoint laser would be able to pretty much take out anyone or anything from space with accuracy down to a few feet without the target having any clue what happened. go google!

A Google spokesman said Sergey and Larry "look forward to getting some real quality, high-resolution imagery into Google Earth" in three to four months — presumably enabling close-ups in areas not trespassed by Google's Street View trucks. But with Google and the DOD sharing a satellite, the tinfoil-hat theories start now.

Cry censorship all you like, as only government/security powers make you blurworthy; otherwise, we're all fair game for the eye in the sky. Good news for some, as the satellite imagery will provide valuable intel for the upcoming venture capital ballistic war between Los Altos Hills (Steve Jurveston's V2 rocket) and Portola Valley (the SCUD launcher owned by Jacques Littlefield, VC scion and spouse to former conference whorebot Sandy Montenegro). The craters should be nicely visible from space.

Google's opening a Houston office, where it will continue its work with NASA, according to a secondhand source.

Hopefully this will be more substantial than Google Mars (as cool as that is). Think of the possibilities — a Googleplex moonbase, Adsense among the stars, Google-branded von Neumann probes (seeking out strange civilizations and charging 5 cents per click to sell to them)...

Earlier: Google Earth plays with VR at NASA [Valleywag]

Google wants to hide it, but there were indeed layoffs at SketchUp when Google bought it, according to one source. All SORTS of drama going on here, but I'm gonna need some corroboration before I run it. Word is that SketchUp folks are reading this; can we get some witnesses from the congregation?

The general feeling, anyway, is that Google's happier with this deal than SketchUp's staff — and former staff.

Earlier: Google buys SketchUp [Valleywag]

We all should have seen it coming since they got all buddy-buddy at Macworld. Google picked up @Last Software, owners of SketchUp, today. If Google's done buying companies just for the people (notice how much they shuffled the Blogger staff), that could mean Google Earth's about to get even cooler.

The flipped company makes a 3D sketching tool used by designers and architects. There's already a Google Earth plugin for SketchUp; now the integration will presumably go full force and Google will officially BE in the 3D mapping biz. Forget Google-Maps stalking; now we can make 3D models of celebrity mansions!

SketchUpdate 03.14.06 [SketchUp]

A Google contingent is heading over to NASA's Moffitt Field facility today around lunchtime. The airfield is currently playing host to a fellow who's created a virtual reality headset for air traffic controllers, and the Google Earth people are stopping by to see it first hand.

Not sure what they'll be doing with it if they buy the fellow out, but we can all rest assured that the Lawnmower man will soon be flying through cyberspace in some badly lit, poorly realized basement at Google's head offices.

Huzzah to Google for having the testicular fortitude to dig up VR as a possible future realm of research. Will they call it GR? Or is Google Reality that thing that happens when you can finally sell your stock options?