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08.11.05
Ask.com
Presents Virtual Neptune
 By
David Utter
Being a site where the purveyors of the Ask Jeeves search engine offer an in-depth
look at the solar system's eighth planet.
Not everyone at IAC's new search engine acquisition made the trip from Oakland
to SES 2005 in San Jose. It looks like some of the programmers (Michiel Frishert
and Scott Grieder, according to the site's source code) stayed behind to deliver
Virtual Neptune.
Going
to Neptune anytime soon? What is next for virtual travel? Talk about it at WebproWorld.
We've seen lots of posts and blogs about Google
Earth and MSN Virtual Earth. The
Ask crew has planted their tongues firmly in cheek and delivered a look at a more
distant and challenging planet, Neptune.
The programmers obviously had to overcome serious challenges involved with rendering
the remote world. And seem to have found those challenges a bit too insurmountable,
as they have settled for a pleasant shade of blue with hints of clouds in the
image.
However, they manage to bring forth some facts about Neptune that might be considered
at best currently unverifiable, at worst completely made up over pizza and beer.
Virtual Neptune includes hints at the final resting place of the monolith
from 2001 as well as the presence of Martian
pyramids on Neptune.
Virtual Neptune is all in good fun, and it demonstrates that Ask can pull off
some of the technology tricks used by Google and Microsoft. Please remember this
warning appearing in the source code for the site: "Do not try to use
this for educational or travel purposes." Well done.
About the Author:
David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.
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