Map Quest (1/2)

地图搜索

Map Quest (1/2)

Web users blend data with maps to create a new way to communicate

(4'00"-5'20") From 15,000 feet above, the $2.5 million house at 123 Highland Drive in the Queen Ann district Seattle doesn't look like much. The roof is nondescript gray square; the yard, a tiny patch of fuzzy space. This doesn't bother Matt Bell, a 33-year-old sales executive in the market for a new home. He's     1      on the numbers     2      at the bottom of the web browser two feet in front of him: constantly refreshed     3      such as average property     4     , county tax records, local schools and      5      selling prices. "Eh," he sighs, "It's $538 per square foot, but the neighborhood average is only &420." Opting not to leave a comment on the house open blog, Bell abandoned 123 Highland and zoomed back out of the city, the neighborhood numbers blurring to keep up with him.

The power of Internet maps

(19'00''-20'00'') Traditionally, in real estate, you'd have to go the county records office or the police station and pore through dusty file cabinets to get the information that a website such as Redfin.com can display in a couple of clicks. Today's Internet-powered maps are richly layered landscapes of living, breathing information. Popular map sites let users blend vast amounts of previously disparate data and display them however they please. Users can even add their own images, videos, comments or other content. Google, Yahoo and Microsoft all see this as huge; they are spending millions to add both high-res satellite photography and street-level images to maps. But all the frantic activities leaves one nagging question: Can these developers and corporations chart a path to profit?

Specialized Terms

disparate (adj)---- 全然不同的 different in every way

high-res [high resolution] (adj phr)---- 高解析度的 capable of producing sharp and finely detailed imagines rather than blurry and inexact ones

Vocabulary Focus

quest (n)---- a long search for something that is difficult to find

nondescript (adj)---- very ordinary; having no interesting features

in the market for something (exp)---- interesting in buying something

pore (v)---- to look at or study something, usually a book or a document carefully

Exercises for today:

1. Discussion :

Undoubtedly, Internet is greatly impacting on our life. Would you please talk about your feeling about it?

 2. Dictation & Translation:

a) He's      1   on the numbers      2    at the bottom of the web browser two feet in front of him: constantly refreshed      3    such as average property      4    , county tax records, local schools and      5   selling prices.