The Wall Street Journal has just confirmed that Google will be purchasing Titan Aerospace, the same high-altitude drone startup that Facebook had been in talks with earlier this year. While we can’t be sure yet what Google plans to do with its new high-flying toys, it’s hard not to worry that, in addition to connecting the world over, this means a lot more potential information at Google’s fingertips.
Google has said that their new drone team will get to business with the already established Project Loon, which plans to shoot high-altitude balloons off into the stratosphere to cover the world in a blanket of Wi-Fi. According to the Wall Street Journal, there’s also potential for Titan to work with “another early-stage Google project that is developing an airborne wind turbine that it hopes will generate energy more efficiently.”
But then comes the creepy part; Titan’s drones will run around collecting “real-time, high-resolution images of the Earth” in addition to supporting voice and data services. Which means major boons to its Google Maps division’s already staggering wealth of information. [Wall Street Journal]