Been doing some reading today and wondering.  First off we have Digital Globe buying GlobeXplorer and then we have Google and Digital Globe in an “exclusive” imagery deal.  Now we find out that Microsoft has inked a deal with GlobeXplorer for for then 400,000 square miles of high res US Imagery.

And off in the corner we have the Virtual Earth plug-in residing in World Wind and displaying the VE (GlobeXplorer) imagery in World Wind.  Now, I am just wondering if this is going to have any affect on World Wind users viewing VE imagery.  Will Digital Globe honor the deals that Microsoft has made or will the same line that Google pulls be suddenly used by Microsoft?

There is also still the Yahoo! imagery to wonder about. They also use the GlobeXplorer imagery, just of different areas.  And World Wind is working to have that imagery also available via a plug-in (Not finalized yet, but they are considering it still).

I think it is a “Wait and See” game for now to see how this Love Triangle will play out.